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.