So the last couple of weekends on the plot have been busy.

We’ve (mostly Ma) cleared a lot of the summer beds, in the outdoor beds, the cherry tomatoes and summer and winter squash are gone, in the polytunnel, I’ve cleared a bed but left the sweet potatoes for a bit.

We got 22 small winter squash. It’s weird, last year I had to take nine squash home with a wheelbarrow, this lot came home in two buckets.

We found a home for the 70 plug plants that we were given (chard, turnips, swede, winter lettuce and rocket) along with some of the things Ma and I sowed in September. In the poly, the bed is planted up with lettuce, chard, rocket, pak choi and coriander.

I’m also trying to clear out the plant shelves in the poly because I want to put a bunch of other things (sweet peas and flowers) to overwinter but I don’t think I want to have all the herbs that need places in the poly over the winter. So all the pinks are in the bed next to the polytunnel, some herbs have also gone out.

Outside, we have a bed of chard, two beds of turnips, a bed of rocket and a bed of swede.

I’m nervous about their survival but like in spring, it’s plant Sparta!

We planned for three beds of garlic but bought 4 garlic cloves, which wasn’t enough, so we planted two beds with what we had and used some of last year’s bulbs to fill out the gaps, I’ve bought some more bulbs including some elephant garlic too, I’ve chosen Provence Wight and Rhapsody Wight, which are both softnecks and produce pretty early garlic as we won’t really grow enough for both of us for the entire year and this way it doesn’t get too affected by rust.

We also planted the shallots that came with the garlic, and a bed of broad beans. Once the extra garlic has been sown we’ll have nearly every bed annual planted up, 18 out of 22.

What is mostly on my mind at the moment is tidying up. I’ve got to get to the weeding! We’ve done some, one of the winter squash beds, I’ve done some clearing near the paths and planted a thyme to see if it’ll spread and suppress some of the weeds.

As the season slows down, Ma won’t come every week and I’ll try and get to a couple of hours of it each week. Before that, we have more to do but it’s all doing well.