Dealing with Couch Grass

It goes by various names... Couch Grass. Quick Grass. Quack Grass. Scutch Crass. Twitch Grass. Witch Grass. I just have my own name for it... BLOODY ANNOYING. S'cuse my French.

It has long creeping rhizomes roots which means it gets literally everywhere and is really hard to get rid of. To coin a phrase, I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I put down a load of newspapers earlier in the year and they did a reasonable job in keeping it somewhat under control. Except at the edges. The roots travel a few inches under the ground until they hit something hard, in this case the wooden beds, and then start creeping along that bed sending up tufts of grasses.

Today I spent a good few hours digging in the woodchips to find those roots and pull them out.

The woodchips are a bit compacted, but very easy to dig though, so once they're loosened up a bit it's relatively easy to pull out the rhizomes. It's just back-breaking work. And it's never ending either. So I am determined to dig over as much of the plot as possible to try and disrupt the damn plant, before once again mulching with woodchips and newspapers.

It's not going to be easy. But then we didn't get allotments thinking it was.

It must be Autumn

 Autumn is mushroom season. And we have a load of woodchips paths all over the plot, which fungi really love so when autumn rolls round they start sprouting.

Although we're coming to the end of our time on the plot for this year, there are still a few last things to harvest. There are a few Chilli that have ripened.

Not sure how many more we'll get. Although there are a few still on the plants, they may not turn even though they're so close.

As for the rest of the plot, that it. We're not planning on growing anything over winter. Here's hoping that next year we can go shopping to buy so many things we need. New wheelbarrow. Marine plywood for building the seating area. So much to do, but we can't go anywhere because if this damn virus.

Dash to the plot

 A seriously quick dash to the plot today. Because of rain.

I could only grab a couple of courgettes (probably the last) and a few tomatoes before dashing into the greenhouse for shelter. But whilst I was in there I wanted to water the chillies just to see if they could produce a few more fruit. So I grabbed the watering can and quickly popped outside to the rain water butt to fill it... only to find it empty.

It looks like the last tine it was used, the tap was left open. So all that lovely rain we've been having just went straight through. Anyway I closed the tap and filled up from the water tank at the front of the plot. I still reckon that it'll fill up soon anyway as this rain doesn't show any signs of letting up at present. 

We're not quite into flood territory at the moment, but the pathways are looking very sodden. Still, it is the season for flooding. Well, between now and April.