You just don't know, do you.....?

And so the rain came…an awful lot of it! It’s been warm & wet all week – on Thursday we had 3” rainfall! No moaning about watering for a while then from me!

It was just about dry on Saturday morning, so I went off to the Hill knowing that the weeds would be in full force! I decided on a slightly different tack from last week, though – instead of spending 3 hours doing ALL the weeding, leaving the ‘nice’ bits till the end when I’m whacked & just want to go home, I thought I’d ‘finish’ with each plot as I went.

I was just getting stuck into plot D (potatoes) with some preparation for sowing leeks, when Barry came up & told me the dreadful news that neat neighbour John had passed away suddenly in the week. What a shock for his wife & son – I didn’t know him well, just a few ‘veggie’ conversations, but he wasn’t very old, & we will miss him at the Hill.

So I turned thoughtfully back to the leeks, & put a string line in & measuring board to set out them out neatly – seemed right, somehow.

The spare leek seedlings I offered to Barry & he let me have a heap of spinach & three globe artichoke heads in return.

The roots in plot C didn’t need too much attention after their ‘proper’ weeding last week, so a quick whiz over with the hoe & I sowed a row of CARROT (mixed). Without liking to speak too soon, the onions are perking up & although by no means perfect, they don’t look as disastrously deformed as they did a couple of weeks ago – perhaps there is hope yet!

On to the miscellaneous plot B & I hoed between the rows & thinned out some lettuce & radish (picked some to take home too), but it is still looking a bit crowded with seedlings & weeds in each row. Lesson to be learnt on thin seed sowing, here!

The weeds have gone bananas around the garlic, including nettles, so I spent some time improving matters there – sowing the marigold & nasturtium seed between the rows has not been a great move – now I can’t get the hoe in between properly. The smaller garlic have started to keel over, so I thought I’d better lift them. The bulbs are small, but have divided, & the bigger plants will have bigger bulbs, I’m sure. I now have 19 of them drying on the bench at home for plaiting & storing.

The Prize Pumpkin is looking good, & the Tallest Sunflower is racing up – over 2’ high now, I would think. The beans in plot A both on the run of poles & the wigwam look fine – again I did some weeding, but for both plot A & B I can only say that they look better than they did. One of the sweetcorn has not made the grade but the others clearly like being in the ground & have settled in well.

I picked loads of BROAD BEANS (aguadulce) which I have blanched & frozen, a couple of TURNIP (snowball) & some PEAS (kelvedon wonder) which did not get as far as the pan! Also POTATOES (rocket), CARROT (early nantes) & LETTUCE (mixed) for mum

I gave a lot of thought to neat neighbour John whilst at the Hill – all that work he put in & all his neat growing crops. His runner beans are halfway up the poles, the brassica are all planted out, the peas are nearly ready for picking & the iceberg lettuce are hearting up nicely.

Whoever takes over the plot will have fallen on their feet & no mistake…should it be us, I wonder…?