Fighting back against Covid

I have just received my testing kit from Imperial College. They are currently doing testing research to help try and track how many people have been infected and how far the disease has spread. They sent me a letter a while back asking if I would be happy to take part. I replied yes because this problem affects us all and anything I can do in my own small way, I am happy to do.

Anyway, they sent through a home test kit which was really easy to use. I'm not adverse to using things like this. I've had blood tests many times in the past on my trips to hospitals and whatnot. But this is the first self-administered one I've used.

I expected a Negative result. This is what I got...

Yes, it's a negative.

Hardly surprising really as the only places I have been are home and the allotment. The only people I speak to these days are outside my window at home (shouting through the window panes) or via Skype, Webex, Microsoft Teams, Slack or Discord (depending on who I'm talking to).

Guess I'll be back down the plot at the weekend. In the meantime, stay safe.

Harvesting in the rain

So there was only a light cloud covering when we left for the allotment. The weather forecast said there was only a 10%-20% chance of rain. And the day started out quite well.

We fired up the Ghillie Kettle to have our usual cup of coffee and started pottering about watering in the green house, pulling weeds etc. But then a few spits started. Not so bad, we thought. The cloud cover was still light, but it did look darker on the horizon so we carried on. It was only a couple of minutes later that we realised that it was getting darker so we did a mad dash to collect all the currently available courgettes (and a beetroot) before it got really bad.

By the time we grabbed these and dashed back inside the greenhouse (to finish our coffees) it really starting coming down. So we decided that we didn't need to water outside, and we made a beeline for the car and home.

Even so, we were a little bit wet but nothing a warm shower, dry clothes and a nice courgette soup made from one of the above (I think it was the one on the far left) couldn't fix.

Dealing with weeds

There are three main ways to dealing with weeds.

1. Mulch to stop them growing.
2. Diligently keep pulling them out.
3. Burn them out.

The mulching is really the better choice. Whether you use a weed membrane or a spent mushroom compost, it covers the seeds and stops them germinating. Thats all well and good it you have the spare finances and time to deal with it. But we don't spend a great deal on the allotment. It more for a little bit of veg here and there and a way to escape the house for a short period of time. Something which is well and truly appreciated in these current times.

Pulling them is seriously time consuming and you need to do it regularly. Well we only go to the plot a couple of times a week. It's quite a hike from where we live and a busy schedule doesn't really allow us to spend a lot of time during the weekdays done there.

So I opted for the burning. I have a weed gun which deals quite easily with seeds on the ground.

Last year the plot was seriously neglected due to ill health and the weeds well and truly took over. So now we're kind of fighting back. A lot of our beds have been infested, and although we tried to keep on top of it there was just too much. Our crop of New Zealand Spinach either didn't germinate, or failed to compete with the weeds in the soil, so we pulled it a few weeks back. And the bed has been lying dormant ever since. So it's time to kill the seeds and get something else in there.

So what started as this...

Ended up as this...

These are side-shoots from the many rogue tomatoes that we've had poking their heads up throughout the plot. Technically they're weeds too. "A weed is a plant growing in the wrong place." But they're useful weeds.

The trough you can see there is actually part of the framework built over the Kale bed and holds up the netting. London pigeons are the worst and they have decimated our attempts to grow Kale in the past. This year we're keeping them at bay and having a massive crop of Kale as a result... when the butterfly caterpillars aren't munching them that is.

Elsewhere we're gathering in Courgettes in huge numbers (again).

And we pulled the last of the peas. We've had a good crop this year, enough for several meals. But now the plants are dying so it's time to clear the bed. I'll let it sit for a while before hitting it with the weed gun and getting something else in there. You can see the old pea bed at the back of this shot.

As this is where I've started digging out some of the potatoes from earlier in the year. It was an unexpected find we thought we wouldn't be able to do anything with them, but I stopped digging when we had enough for a meal. The rest are (hopefully) still in there.

The next major crop we're expecting though will have to be the Apples.

The tree is bending under the weight of them. But sadly a lot of them appear to have been hit with the moth again despite putting up a trap. There is only one thing worse than biting into an apple and discovering a maggot...

Flower power

The veggies are prolific at the moment. But that's not all.

The Wife is really happy that all her flowers are blooming. Her flower bed of mixed blooms are showing a variety of flowers. I couldn't even name one of them.

At the front of the plot, the petunias in the trough are in full flower.

And the Sunflower is attracting it's fair share of bees.

A while back, we discovered an albino spider. I expressed a hope that it would survive. I am happy to report that we have found another one. Now either it's the same spid, or one of it's offspring, or a totally new totally new one with the same genetic shortcoming.

Anyway, I am happy to see a unique spid living large down the plot.

Elsewhere we're looking forward to a few beetroot...

... and a really bumper crop of grapes this year.

A wet Wednesday harvest

Well June is the exact opposite of March, April and May. It's been throwing it down. But things are still managing to churn out some goodies.

The last of the strawberries, some peas, a handful of blueberries, a courgette and an odd little turnip that was accidentally pulled out whilst pulling out the weeds that are sprouting like crazy after all this rain.