The Tomato Jungle has definitely seen better days. So It's time to start digging through and removing the old plants before the dreaded blight gets hold.
As you can see, the tomato beds have been infested with courgettes from the neighbouring bed. In fact we never actually planted courgettes here. They are rogues from previous sowings which seem to have got themselves established. Not such a bad thing, but it does make clearing up a bit of a challenge.
But we did manage to clear a couple of beds fully.
There are still three other beds to go, but they can wait. This bucket of toms will get turned into juice and sauce tomorrow.
We're kind of lucky with the blight this year. The long hot summer has kept it at bay. But now we're heading into autumn there is the possibility of infections, so it's best to start clearing up before it does so. Blight can hang around in the soil for years and allotments are particularly prone because you have to rely on everybody to manage blight at the same time, which is not always possible.
We also picked a load of apples from the tree.
All this work was being watched over by our Vulpes Overlord, Frankie.
And it's still the seed season. Despite the fact that we have a shed load of seeds already, The Wife just can't help but pick a few more seeds for next year.
Meanwhile, I was shovelling s41t, filling the vacant beds ready for next year.
These will eventually get a cover and left to the worms to devour over winter before being dug in. I've kind of over filled the beds because, although we have a large deliver of manure at the moment, the manure has to be shared by everybody. In previous years, by the time I got my beds ready there was no manure left to fill them with. So this is my share ready. It can be transferred to other beds as needed.
We spent a full day on the plot and it was extremely exhausting. Even Frankie needed a rest.
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