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.