We got to the plot on Sunday and found it pretty unchanged despite our neglect of it last week. There is a temptation in the autumn, as the plot calms down to be done with allotment work, I know that for lots of plot owners on our site, the Pumpkin Trail next week, will mark the end of regular visits and our visits will probably start to get shorter as the days do.

But there is lots of work to be getting on with. To make it a bit easier to write about I’m going to break the plot in two. Plot A is the plot we’ve always had and Plot B is the half that we’re getting, it’s still not official (the agreement hasn’t arrived!) but we have had things growing on it for the summer and we have plans I want to talk about.

So on Plot A, we had to clear the Three Sisters bed, by taking down the borlotti beans and the sweetcorn stalks. We also needed to sow broadbeans and cover them (we didn’t have a great broad bean harvest last year and Ma thinks it’s because we didn’t fleece the bed last winter). I also wanted to cut back the tarragon ready for digging it up and we needed to harvest some produce. On Plot B, we had to clear the cucalmelons and courgette plants and cage the cabbages.

Clearing the beds was going took the longest time because we needed to chop it all up to get it in the compost bins. When I’m rich we’ll have a garden shredder on site for this but for right now, it’s a pain. That done we took some time out to be interviewed for a podcast by a fellow allotmenter over a cup of tea. Then we got back to work. First broad beans and a struggle with the fleece. Then netting the cabbages. I know that some people object to netting things but we have voracious pigeons who love all forms of greens, so we net. That I’m aware of, the only time the nets have resulted in bird death was the netting that I laid over the cabbages when I planted them out, it was netting held down by bricks and a pigeon got caught and a fox had dinner. So we needed to net the cabbages properly so the birds can see the structure and avoid it! We managed that, I can’t find a link to it but Wilko do a net, pole and clip set that is amazing we have three of them and we’ll buy more next year because the poles are properly sturdy and will last for ages, when I don’t need them for cages in the summer, they hold up my tomatoes.

Then we assessed the box of Halloween decorations and got a rough idea of how we’re going to decorate the plot next weekend.

Work done, we went home but there is a list of things we need to do, we’ll get to all of that in November