It's looking a little un-loved

 Well we've been having miserable weather. And what with the new lockdown, it's all looking a little forlorn, forgotten and unloved at the moment.

Indeed, about 2 minutes after I took this photo the skies opened and it absolutely threw it down. But by that time I was just getting to the allotment gate. I dashed out of the car to close it, getting a bit of a soaking in the short duration, then cranked up the heating in the car to dry off.

W're not growing anything over the winter. Whilst I did briefly entertain the idea of growing Field Beans and/or garlic over winter, this year has been a bit of a washout. So we decided that we're going to give the plot a bit of a break and concentrate on fixing up the house a bit. We'll start again in January.

Or February.

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.

End of the Season?

 It was rather cold and blowy down the allotment today. I guess Autumn has finally turned up to say "Game over peeps". Certainly the courgettes are now just a pile of dusty and dead leaves.

But hidden in amongst them are the odd one or two. Plus there are a few tomatoes hanging around slowly ripening, and in the greenhouse the chillies are still turning out the odd one or two spicy delight.

But as for the beans, well they never really amounted to much this year. I guess the cold weather when they were just sprouting kind of stunted their growth, but we got a few. The rest we've left to turn into bean seeds, hopefully for a better crop next year.

Either that or I'll just throw them in a stew and be done with them. It's not like they're magic beans.

On the subject of Beans... I guess we should consider the year effectively over. I probably won't grow anything over winter but I am tempted by Steve's suggestion of Field Beans. Of course I have to be careful which bed I put them in because the lower beds of ours have a tendency to get flooded in the winter months. But we do still go to the plot at least once a week (mostly to off-load our compostable waste) so having a ready source of greenery to eat might be a good idea.

(Incidentally... 400th Blog Post!!)