National Vegetable Society Meeting
Tuesday’s weather wasn’t quite as bad as the weatherman suggested but I thought it a bit damp for the allotment in the afternoon anyway. In the evening we had our National Vegetable Society meeting. The speaker was Graham Wagstaffe who I’d seen give an interesting talk on growing vegetables in containers at Middlewich. Tonight he talked about growing in an area of about 100 square feet. That’s just ten feet by ten feet. Hardly half a small patio but he’d managed to grow an amazing amount on there. Enough to make a significant contribution to the larder for sure.
Clearing the beans and the greenhouse
Wednesday being dry it was time to get back down to the plot. The first job was to clear the French beans from the deep bed on plot 29 and make a temporary repair to a corner that had sprung on there.
I gathered a couple of pounds of beans and the plants went onto the compost heap. Then four barrow loads of compost topped the bed off and it was down to the large greenhouse. A couple of tomatoes off the last plant and then that went to the compost heap. Out with the support stakes and then the roots of the tomatoes. I was a bit surprised by those, expected much more development than there appeared to be.
On the other side of the greenhouse the red egg aubergine bit the dust. Val’s very unimpressed with the fruits and so there seemed little point in carrying on growing them.
I set a plank as a ramp up to the door and trundled half a dozen barrow loads of compost into the greenhouse borders, it’s surprising how the level in the borders has gone down. A couple more barrow loads went onto bed on plot 29 by the greenhouse. I think I might well turn this area into a fruit bed and get a fruit cage. For now, it’s just a matter of getting the compost moved and the plots ready for winter.
One positive advantage with this load is the shovel. Believe it or not, I can fill the barrow in half the time that it took with the digging spade. I think it was worth, after due and careful consideration, the investment of 499 pennies. The compost isn’t as heavy as soil would be so you can load the shovel and twice as much and halve the number.
Neighbour reappears
I was pleased to see my neighbour on the plot adjoining plot 29 has appeared. He’s not been around all season and I knew he’d got a new job so I wondered if he just didn’t have the time anymore. I asked him if he was keeping on and he said yes but he’d been so cheesed off with the awful summer he’d given up for the season. It’s a real shame because he’s a pretty good grower and I don’t know how he does it but he digs over a plot in about half the time it would take me. That was when he was recuperating from a hip replacement as well!
His plot had become pretty overgrown and the weeds were creeping onto my plot so doubly welcome to see him back. In a couple of short sessions he’s cleared the weeds off half his plot and dug half of that over. I wish I had his energy but I don’t so when the sun began to go so did I.
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