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Sunday June 14th Talk of the sublime to the ridiculous. I now have six long green trailing marrows up, three Patriot courgettes, one from the old packets thatīs been in a roottrainer (and I canīt remember if itīs a Defender or a yellow one), and 23/24 sweetcorn (and a root coming out of the tardy 24th). On top of that, 14/16 runners have chitted and been potted up (as have the last two, just because I figured they would get there in the end). Some are already poking their leaves through the compost. From having none Iīve now got loads. Just need to get to the plots again to plant them! A nice end to a grotty weekend where I wanted to do loads and then ended up in bed with a horrid lurgy. Better late than never, but I have always gone by the 'they'll catch up' mantra instead of 'plant them early' as it's more often true. Especially if it stays warm into September as it often does these days. |
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Thursday June 18th Up to the plots at last, to try and finish weeding the bed I started the other week. To my astonishment the ground is back to being as solid as a rock, but then again I didnīt make it up at the weekend thanks to the bug. This bed is a total pig to weed. Couch nests everywhere. But eventually I won. Had a wonderful surpise though - after all the trauma of the failed runner beans, five of the ones I sowed directly have actually deigned to grow! So I will get *some* runners, one hopes. |
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Tuesday June 23rd A hot day followed by a hot evening, and close enough to the solstice to allow a lot of weeding. However I didn't really weed as much as I could have done, as I started off by planting the runner beans. Yes! At last! The sweetcorn isn't yet big enough, being a bit on the grassy side still, and the courgettes... well, more later on that! Not many other up there this evening so didnīt stay as late. Did spot a small tortoiseshell butterfly sunning itself on a piece of carpet. Anyway, 15 runner beans are now happily planted: the ones that were there have been a bit nibbled so I've doubled up a fair bit, and there are some 20-odd beans over my dozen poles. Must feed them this year since there's no manure underneath, or at least no new stuff... Then watering. Did the beans, then all the cabbages, then did all of Chris's bottom bed. I don't think it's adequate recompense for her strimming the grass for me yet again, but it's all I could do. Then hand-weeded the maincrop potatoes. Bindweed everywhere, but then this is the bed that's full of it. Well there's less of it now and it'll have to use more reserves in growing again. Spuds still look small and weedy compared with other people's. Oh well. Moved on to the next bed to be weeded. Pondered a while as to whether I wanted to do it today but then mentally kicked myself and stuck the fork in the middle of the bed. Crunch. Hang on... carpet! All of a sudden the bed looked a bit more doable. Pulled up the (admittedly) narrow carpet piece and found the usual blanched bindweed but not much else. Huzzah! Got weeding the edge bits where the carpet didnīt reach, and in half an hour had finished half the bed. This is the last but one non-abandoned bed on the upper plot, so things looking a bit better. And I picked a handful of ripe raspberries - *bliss*.
Next time, the butternuts are coming up with me. The smaller ones havenīt really grown much but the big ones desperately need planting out. And then thereīs courgettes. Now have two of the originals up in the roottrainers - argh - this after having carefully planted all those new ones. So I have currently got four trailing marrows and five courgettes, two of unknown colour as I donīt know which roottrainer row was the green ones and which the yellow! Sweetcorn still doing nicely but they also could do with bunging in. |
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Not that common any more - sadly. A Small Tortoiseshell. Their larvae eat nettles, so they should be ok on my patch, then... |
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But turned out to have carpet down the centre |
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This didnīt look fun. |
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The first raspberries! |
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Wednesday June 24th Midsummer Night. And a lovely evening it was too. Many more folk up there tonight, watering and the like. Went up with the butternuts and shoved six of them in the bed by the beans and one plant under the beans. Still had three left! Glad to see the runners hadnīt been eaten overnight. Then moved on to the little pot of lettuce mixed leaf seedlings and put them in along the end of another cleared bed. I am aiming to put the courgettes in the rest of the bed. Marrows are going in the couchy bed, mostly because their leaves will shade the underneath and hopefully prevent some of the weeds regrowing. And the corn will go in the bed I started last night.
Tonight I decided that the weeding could go hang. Was prompted by Chris to check my green gooseberries - and got a pleasant surprise. Hundreds of them! And large! And no mildew this year! Picked for a short time and realised the punnet wasnīt going to be any use. Went and grabbed a full-size seed tray. Filled it easily. Filled the punnet with the dessert goosegogs instead, after getting covered in sticky buds (goose grass) and ending up pulling it up in handfuls. Attempted to get a photo with both the fantastic sunset and the goosegogs in focus, but failed miserably without a tripod and several seconds of exposure. Got this one using the night scene setting, with the grass waving in the wind. Went home with a trug somewhat heavier than Iīd gone, via the Chinese takeaway! |
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The State of Play: poor old plot 2; still mostly wilderness. Iīll get there eventually! |
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