End of year roundup

Another year rolls around and we seem to be ending the year on a damp note.

This year has been very "challenging". Most notably because of the serious health issues I faced this year. At one point I was only a few hours away from death and it took a long while to recover. However it has shown that in the face of adversity then a lot of help can be had from friends.

I would particularly like to thank Michael for his offer of help which we gladly took him up on. His work allowed us to keep on top of things and make sure that the plot did not get too badly overrun. Also I'd like to thank Richard and Annette. We've been feeding them spare courgettes and beetroots for years so we made sure that their help in dealing with the plot will keep them in courgettes for years to come.
I'd also like to express my appreciation to other plotholders who all enquired after my health throughout the year.

So how did the year go?
January - Frankly, nothing doing. Only basic visits to drop off our home organic waste into the compost bins. Nothing worth blogging about.
February - Starting to get the plot into shape ready for the year. Culling weeds and cleaning. This is possibly the start of where everything went wrong.
March - We started planting. I broke our old garden fork back in 2018 so this was the first chance of using the new one, an all steel construct, which was far sturdier than the previous one. It made short work of the beds. But we did manage to get our seeds started.

April - This is where things started going downhill rapidly. I had been coughing for a couple of weeks. I am a severe asthmatic so I really didn't give this much thought as it is common for me to have breathing problems from time to time. Especially living in London - the only place you can get your daily intake of minerals in one breath. So when I took a week off work to do an Allotment Week, I didn't manage to complete it.
May - This was my first hospitalisation of the year. I saw one of the leading lung specialists who immediately admitted me to the Royal Brompton hospital. I spent a week in there on some pretty high strength anti-biotics, undergoing daily blood tests, a CT scan and lung tests. Overall I left hospital a week later with a different medicine regime (actually the new medicines have worked really well) and a gradually reducing steroid programme.
June - Very weak still and trying to recover. However the last week of June saw me rushed into hospital almost at Death's Door. My wife managed to keep the plot alive, but she was far more worried about me than the plot.
July - Meh. I did absolutely nothing but try and live throughout July. We didn't pot things up properly, nor keep up with watering. So the plot from here on out was pretty much neglected. Anything that did manage to survive this neglect was tough and resilient.
August - I did manage to get back to the plot but it was pretty much a weed infested jungle. The courgettes were not performing as well as hoped, but they did produce some. The beans did generate some results, as did the Patty-pans.
September - It was during this month that I started doing pulmonary rehab at St. Georges in an effort to try and get back to reasonable shape. The change of medicine from my Royal Brompton stint, and the rehab has worked wonders. But sadly the plot by this time was seriously neglected.
October - December - with nothing doing on the plot now, we pretty much left it alone and concentrated on getting my health back.

I'm glad to say that I am now fully recovered. I can now blow over 500ml on my peak flow (which is pretty good for me) and now use less salbutamol than ever before.

There is a lot of work to be done on the plot to get it ready for planting again. Weeds must be pulled. Paths must be replaced. And the rear of the plot which hasn't been touched for a couple of years will definitely have to be sorted out before the Committee start complaining.

Walking in a Water Wonderland

It's been raining a bit.

OK, amend that. It's been raining a lot and as you may well remember from earlier times, our plot is on top of London clay, so that means it collects water every time that there is a small flood. So I was fully expecting it to be a little wet when we visited today.

Of course the greenhouse, being on the lowest part of the plot gets the brunt of it of often gets flooded. Here it looks like there are dry parts, but that is because the weed membrane has risen up in the flood. Step on it and it squelches down about 6 inches.

But the rest of the lower part is also fully under water.

As is the new addition where last year we had the courgettes growing.

As I said last time, maybe I should take up rice growing. They're perfect paddy fields.

All quiet on the Eastern Front

It's a little quiet round here these days.

No I haven't been ill again. I'm really feeling a lot better. The pulmonary rehab that I'm doing at the hospital these last few weeks has really helped. I'm feeling so much better now. And the change of medicines has done wonders. I've gone from using my sulbutamol two or three times a days to two or three times a week. At my last assessment I managed to blow 500ml on my peak flow test. So yes, I am really feeling much, much better.

No, the reason why it's so quiet is that we just don't have anything left at the allotment that's worthy. The only trips we do is to empty the weeks bio-rubbish into the compost heap. So today's little trip was a quick flying visit during a break in the rain.

We had a frost at the start of the week, and that killed a lot of the remaining plants. The Morning Glories are now sadly done for, and the high winds we've had a while back has ruined the arch.

The rest of the plot is now rather a damp bedraggled mess. If this rain ever lets up for a weekend I might be able to get round to clearing it up a bit.

In the greenhouses the frost has ended some of the chillies. But you might just spot a bit of red in there of a couple of the chillies that have actually matured. I don't know whether you can use green chillies in the same manner, but there are quite a few of them still in there.

Other than that, there is not much to do at this time of year. Maybe if I wasn't so ill during the main part of the year, then there may be something worth having. Still, there is always next year. Time to hit the online seed shops and dream of a better tomorrow.

Murder at the Allotment

So when we arrived at the plot it was a scene of utter carnage and devastation.

Firstly one of the Foxes had murdered a pigeon and left a load of feathers everywhere.

Secondly the Tomatoes had been murdered by Blight.

Thirdly the Courgettes and Patty Pans had been murdered by time.

The biggest issue was of course the blight. We had to rip out all of the tomatoes and bag them up. They cannot be put into the Green Waste or into the compost bins. Fortunately we had a few bags from compost lying around so we chopped up the stems and roots and put them in along with most of the fallen tomatoes. Then we dragged them to the waste area for collection by the Council.

The blight has come about because of the amount of rain that we have had recently. It seems to have affected most of the site as there are other plot holders who are also in the process of ripping out their plants. Fortunately for us, the plants in the greenhouse seem to be unaffected. But I still don't think that they'll produce any more fruits.

The courgette plants we simply pulled by hand and threw them into the green waste bins. The feathers....? No those we just left in place as a testament to our guardians of the plot. Pigeons, Rats and mice. Foxes are welcome to any or all of them on our plot. I just wish more people saw the usefulness of them clearing up the vermin that eat our seeds and produce.

It's all rotten

Not the produce... the paths. This last week has seen heavy rain, and as the temperatures are dropping at the end of summer that can only mean it's mushroom season. And boy are they coming out in force. Almost every path on the plot is sprouting little brown conical caps.

That's the reason I use woodchips for the paths. Well at least one of the many reason. I hate grass. You have to keep cutting it. You can't eat it. (OK technically you can but... meh). The wood chips rot down and make the nutrients available to other plants that need it. ie. the veggies.

Not that we have much veggies left these days. We "cleared" the old sweet corn bed of the stalks that we harvested last week. Well it's not fully cleared as there are some rogue Cape Gooseberries that have sprouted in there, and also buried somewhere in the middle is probably a whole load of potatoes.

Back in June I simply threw a whole load of potatoes into the middle of the sweetcorn bed because I was simply too exhausted in trying to do any kind of work. Threw them in and hoped for the best. There are some down there. But I won't dig them out just yet. I may end up regretting that and I'll probably end up with rogue potatoes in the bed for many years to come. Ah well.

But we did manage to scavenge a few last minute goodies from the plot.

Grapes from the vine (at least the ones which weren't stolen) and the last of the cucumbers. The sweetcorn was from last week. I thought I could leave them at the plot but the damp weather has started to rot the outside leaves so I thought it better to strip them and take them home to dry out a bit. And I still have to get round to making that cornmeal and cornbread.

Maybe this weekend? Nah. Don't think so.

Strawberries in September

I think our strawberry plants are a little confused. Some of them think it's the middle of summer and are producing a few plants. Mind you, they're not as sweet as the summer ones.

But the heat has certainly had an effect on other parts of the allotment. Most notably the poor neglected tomatoes in the greenhouses. They have certainly dried out through the lack of watering.

Mind you, it's their own fault. They haven't turned into the promised glut of tomatoes. Probably because of the lack of watering, so it's kind of a circular argument. But at this stage of the season it's not really worth while trying to do anything with them.

But we are still getting some decent produce. We decided that it was time to pick the sweetcorn. We'lk leave the corn a few days to dry out a bit, but then it'll become part of the glut of corn ready for making cornbread.

If I ever get around to it.

A hot day for weed pulling.

It's no secret that the plot has been neglected over the past few months. Ill health has meant that I just haven't had the strength to keep on top of it all. But today we had some of our neighbours visit the plot and lend a welcome hand in clearing the pathways of any infesting greenery.

They also managed to take the time to tour around some of the plots, and I do believe that they were particular impressed with one of our fellow plotholder's archway of hops. I think there were thoughts of beer in the making.

Our popcorn seems to be coming to fruition. We've tried picking them to eat as a normal corn-on-the-cob, but it seems we don't have the right variety for that. However it does work superbly well in the popcorn machine. So we've come to terms with that. Although we have still to attempt grinding it to cornmeal and baking corn bread. I think I mentioned that at one point. Still not got around to it.

Today also happened to be the MAGA annual Produce Show. We didn't enter anything not having anything worthwhile to enter, least ways not show quality. But we still got a reasonable harvest which we gladly donated some to our erstwhile helpers.

But there were some impressive showings at the show.

There was even some rejoicing from one of our old bread club members who won a first for their Kashmiri Apple and Date Chutney.

Last time I entered something was a couple of years back. Again Bread related. I'm spotting a theme here. Definitely have to get around to making that corn bread.

More Watering

We're hoping that our tomatoes will actually ripen in the late August sunny weather. But one thing is certain, they won't survive unless they get plenty of water. So that's my job. Watering.

I was so busy watering that I didn't really take many photos. OK, I took one, and that was when we first arrived on the plot. The Morning Glory was in full flower up and over the archway.

The rest of the time was watering for me, weeding for The Wife. We did manage to get a few toms of the rogue plants, but the Ildi and the Sweet Millions just aren't producing. Perhaps a dose of Tomorite might help them along.

Despite having a new sun hat, I was wilting worse than the parched plants and after a couple of hours decided that discretion was the better part of valour and headed for home, with instructions to deliver some rhubarb from a plot neighbour, to a house neighbour.

Bank Holiday Weekend

So it's a Bank Holiday Weekend... that means wind, rain and unpleasantness.

Except somebody didn't get the memo. In a change to the traditional English Bank Holiday weather we have 30°C which means plenty of watering.

Fortunately we have so few plants now that watering is quickly accomplished. But we still have enough that we can sort of get a decent harvest. The Patty-Pans are doing the same as the courgettes in that they are going rampant in producing masses of fruits.

The Cucumbers are still providing the odd one or two but I suspect that the plants have seen better days and are on their way out. The Tomatoes are starting to ripen up now. But we still have to see anything of any amount on the Sweet Millions and the Ildi's. The ones we are getting are from rogue tomatoes left over from last year.

Elsewhere the weeds are starting to take over. Our paths are now turning green from weeds rather than brown from wood chip. But it's too hot to do anything about them. And I certainly haven't recovered enough for the heavy work required to dig them out. I guess they'll wait until it's cooler, and I'm fitter.

New Visitor

We haven't seen any of the old foxes for a while now. We suspect they've moved on or, more sadly, probably succumbed to the way most urban foxes do. The average life span of an urban fox is tragically short.

Anyhow, we now have a new resident that we suspect is this years cub. Since she carries the distinctive sharp face stripes and white tuft tail we think she may be the descendent of Billy the Bully. In our typical naming fashion we've called her Francesca.

But even a quick visit for her didn't stop us from trying to fight back against the weed menace. This was after about our fourth wheelbarrow-full.

Meanwhile, I tried to tie up the tomatoes that were outside. They've flopped everywhere and seem to be losing their flowers. Hopefully lifting them and cutting back some of the foliage will force the flowers to set and fruit to ripen.

These are Ildi tomatoes and they produce quite a set of fruits. If the flowers are anything to go by that is.

The Gladioli are putting up a load of flower spikes which keeps The Wife happy.

But we did get a reasonable harvest considering how neglected the plot is. (Plums courtesy of a neighbour)

Windy Day

So there is another storm battering the UK again. Floods in Scotland, Power Cuts all over the place. Fortunately the only thing we have to put up with down the plot is high winds that seem to insist on blowing The Wife's hat off.

I'm still not up to doing much, so while SWMBO pulled a few weeds from various beds, I started potting on some of the Chillies that we have. Here you can see the results of Her work.

My work wasn't really photogenic enough. But we did have a reasonable harvest of things.

Although the Tomatoes were donated from a fellow plotholder. Our Toms are still in the flowering stage due to the delayed starts. But we did also have a number of Courgettes to give away to others.

After a couple of hours I was flagging too much to continue. One of these days I'll be able to do a full day down the plot. But not for a while yet.

Weed infested jungle

Today was the first time I managed to get to the plot in nearly two months.

Although The Wife has managed to get to the plot on occasion, that was mostly related to watering to keep stuff alive. The weeds have gradually taken over.

I tried to help with pulling weeds and cutting back some of the overgrowth on things like the grape vine, but it seems that I'm still not well enough for hard work. Hardly surprising given that the Docs say it may well take months to get back to anything resembling normality.

We've pretty much given up getting anything decent from the plot this year and we've settled for just getting anything. Which we are getting here and there.

We managed to pull the French Dwarf Beans and shelled all the dried ones. Plus the ubiquitous courgettes of course.

Everything else is a little behind. The tomatoes, chillies, sweetcorn and potatoes all seem to be stunted and not producing anything.

But at least the Petunias seem to be starting to put on a good show.

I still have a few hospital appointments over the next few weeks to assess how well I'm recovering. Hopefully I'll be able to do a lot more down the plot. But for this year, I think we're just going to accept whatever we can get and try to put our energies into getting ready for next year.

More lack of updates.

If you're a long time reader of this blog, then you will know that over the past few months I have been having some serious health issues. Last weekend (Sat 22nd) those health issues seemed insignificant compared to what the next few days would bring.

At about 8pm I was rushed into St. Georges hospital A&E in an almost catatonic state. I was suffering from Pneumonia, Acute Kidney Failure (Stage 3), and a blood pressure of 66/40. I spent the next 3 days in intensive care whilst they flooded my body with intravenous antibiotics, masses amounts of fluids (to get BP back up), and generally tried their damnedest to save my life. Fortunately they are good at their job and it worked. Within two days they had brought the Stage 3 Kidney issue back to Stage 1.

After 3 days I was transferred to a Respiratory Ward where I was taking half a pharmacy's worth of tablets and still taking intravenous stuff through some of the many cannulas that infested my body.

Lets throw some numbers into the ring.
Days in intensive care : 3
Number of cannulas inserted : 8, 1 on back of each hand, 1 in left elbow, 1 dual-way arterial in right wrist, 4 way "central line" inserted in jugular.
Blood pressure when admitted : 66/40
Temperature when admitted : 39.0
Time taken to insert "central line" : 45 mins (normally 10-15 mins)
Total Number of times catheter bag has been emptied (that I know of) : 32
Numbers of times I disgraced myself by vomiting all over myself as I lay in A+E: 2
Number of blood tests : 18
Number of urine tests (that I know of) : 2
Number of CT scans : 2
Number of tablets taken : lost count around 50

The CT scans used some sort of blood dye (not sure exactly what), but they did discover "a left lower lobe dense consolidation" and a "solitary 6mm subpleiral nodule in R lower lobe". Basically an infection point and a cyst which they think is 98% benign.

I was discharged late on the 29th, and I'm resting now at home. I have zero chance of getting to the allotment anytime soon.

I'd just like to give a huge round of thanks to the folks at the London Ambulance Service, as well as the team in the St. George's Intensive Care unit. Without whom, I certainly wouldn't be writing this.

Help is appreciated

I'm still not well enough to do heavy work. But many weeks back I was contacted by a gentleman who is on the waiting list for an empty plot. He offered to help me do some of the more manual work on the plot. Today the first day that he helped out, and what a huge help he has been.

So, do you remember the photo I took a couple of weeks back showing the weeds at the front?

Well Micheal put his back into clearing them out. So now it looks like this...

Much better. We even managed to clear out the pathway that I put in a couple of years back.

Although moving just four wheel barrows of woodchips put me completely out of action.

Meanwhile, whilst Micheal was pulling weeds, I managed to throw the remaining unloved potatoes into the ground. These poor things have been sitting "chitting" for a couple of months. Last week I threw some of them in the Sweetcorn bed. These last ones are going into a mixed bed. Part Carrot, part, tomato, part beetroot, and part potato. Basically all the remaining leftover bits and pieces.

Elsewhere we've managed to plant up the cucumbers into buckets rather than small plant pots. They were a bit pot bound, however now they should be free to grow as big as they need. We planted three outside, and the remaining seven will be in the greenhouse. Also we planted up the chillies. Looks like we have several (27) plants that have grown true. Not bad for the seed that collected from last years crop.

Slowly, but surely we're pulling the plot back into shape. But only with help from others.