Last Saturday, during an epic watering session of the plot (mostly of the squash!) Ma turned around and said we should put an area to sit in next to the rose garden and pond. That part of the plot gets lots of sun and we’ve done a lot to make the garden pretty so it makes sense.

Most of you will be aware that the weedfinder general is usually the brake on my crazy ideas, not this time…oh no, in the winter, we are planning on moving the two beds that currently have tomatoes in and making a long patio area that will cover that space.

We need to get through summer but the winter work list is growing, right now, we are making a seating area, moving three beds, moving the blackcurrants into two new beds, sorting out the back area to make it more composting friendly, maybe building some other beds, moving the gooseberries and making a frame for the boysenbery! (Place your bets on what we’ll actually get done – I’ve been planning to move those gooseberry bushes for 4 years!)

We made some other decisions this week too. We are getting rid of the summer raspberries. They are old and not very good in comparison to the autumn raspberries. so we are going to have four beds of autumn raspberries, three red and one yellow. Also we had a chat about our winter veg plans.

We have kale, leeks and cauliflowers in. I’ve sown chard. And next week I will sow fennel and pak choi (I really will – honest!) I also ordered 20 cabbages, 10 to go through the winter and 10 to stand and be ready in March. They’ll arrive in August and September when there are free beds. I’m not sure if there will be anymore space but if I can find some, I’ll also sow some swede, turnip and black radish. If I can’t, then I’m not going to worry about it too much. We are hoping for quite a bit of squash and I’m hopeful that we’ll get some sweet potatoes too!

We harvested the last potatoes, the apple (it’s a very early type) and the plums. You’ll also see the first courgettes, finally! and we’re a week away from crooknecks too. We might be a couple of weeks away from cucumbers too.

We’ve had more productive summers in terms of food but I haven’t had a season where I’ve done as much plot structure or weeding to do! We’ll come into our own in August!

I’m just finding it really pretty right now…