Nic Dempsey

The weekend at the plot was so weird because of the rain. It was warm and wet, like someone turning on the tap when it rained.

Which is another way of saying we didn’t get as much as we hoped done, we waited until the rain stopped, went out, worked through the first time we got rained on but went home on the second, which is fair enough, I think.

So what did we do?

Sorted out all the netting, so the autumn crops are as protected as they are going to be. Every bed on the plot is growing something, some things are growing better than others (alas my poor tomatoes!).

Harvested some things – french beans and plums, we decided to leave the carrots, potatoes and blueberries for next weekend.

Weeded, strimmed and deadheaded, obviously this is a moving target, it’ll need more work but we got some areas clear.

This weekend, we have a bunch to do

Harvest – plums, potatoes, carrots, blueberries, raspberries and french beans. Hopefully we’ll have some cukes or summer squash but who knows!

Weed and Strim – I need to finish strimming the edges and back. The front and back of the plot needs weeding and so do the beds and flower beds – we’ll get to what we can.

Plant or sow – Did I just say that we have no more empty beds, yes I did but I want to take some of the potatoes and replant them in a pot for later new potatoes. I also have some beds with gaps that I want to plant up with salad and maybe fennel.

It’s bizarre that in August thoughts turn to planning for next season, especially this year when I’ve not seen a courgette, crookneck or cucumber. We never totally close down for winter though, right from my first year, I’ve tried to over winter veg and that won’t change this year.

The brassicas and leeks are planted out for autumn/winter harvesting (I expect we’ll go through broccoli, cauliflowers and cabbages this year and hope to have leeks and kale to harvest into February/March.) We’ll also attempt to overwinter garlic, onions, shallots and broad beans for the spring too, in the hope that the broad beans do better next year and the alliums do as well as they did this year!

And although we really hoped that we were done with construction, we have to build a polytunnel and after a year of sorting out the back half of the plot, some of the more rough and ready beds (the ones I build with lawn edging need sorting. Ma thinks we should use the same beds that we bought for the ‘uncultivated’ area on the plot. I reckon we need about 6 so from December, I think we’ll be ordering one or two a month until spring! Then we’ll be starting again on the whirlygig of fun that is compost, woodchip spreading and planting….

My hope is that this is the last year, of moving and building stuff, we’ll have had the plot seven years in May, and that the only decisions we have to make for year seven is where to grow things.

I can always hope!