Legumes etc

Runner beans still producing vast quantities. Need to be constantly picking them though to obtain good crop. Going straight in the freezer. Mange tout are coming into their own now. Although we only planted 3 as a test run and only 2 plants seem to be thriving, I got a good handful of crop today. Thinking about it, the main crops next year are going to be Spuds (goes without saying), broccoli, beans and mangetout. To be perfectly honest, the greenhouse is a mess at the moment. I sowed the right sort of seeds for the season in rows and waited to see what happened. What I found happened was, not all seeds would germinate - with a few of the others succumbing to caterpillars, leaving large gaps for weeds and previously seeded potatoes to grow in their place. Now unfortunately, some of the weeds look like potato plants and I've not been able to tell the difference, so anything other than the crop in the row has been pulled and as it's a greenhouse that is watered regularly, the weeds have grown again - within a week. Next year I'll be more careful to make sure that once the seeds have germinated, to carefully transplant the strongest ones into the proper rows and anything standing out of line will be destroyed... Whoa, This gardening lark is turning me into a fascist. I also need to remember that even though legumes fix nitrogen from the air, they still require other nutrients, so I'll do what is says in the book and dig some trenches... although unlike the fruit bushes, I'll make sure that the manure has been completely rotted.

Learning curve.

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Bloody Wind!

I really need to get this lawn seed down before the weather gets too cold otherwise I'll have to wait till April to get this bit established, but it hasn't stopped being windy (apart from that day I did the spraying) since the middle of the summer. One of the drawbacks of living on The Fens I suppose. Shifted barrowloads of topsoil from the other end of the garden yesterday to the bit by the orchard which is all gravel and preparing area to be lush grass right up to the curb. There's always something to do round here so today I'm going to strim the front dyke again as well as in the bottom of it and around the road tunnels to tidy it up a bit now that there is not much water in the bottom. At least it's sheltered from the wind down there!

Fruit Harvest

Hurrah! A post that doesn't include the words dyke, greenhouse, or lawn.....DOH!

Today we picked the fruit. From one tiny pear tree we got one carrier bag full of pears - need to ripen in a box with the apples. From a small apple tree we got about the same amount of apples. Some had been slightly eaten by insects (well at least more than the pears) but we got about 15 good apples that hadn't been touched at all.. and - wait for it........ 4 carrier bags of plums from one 9 year old tree. All were edible, ranging from nearly ripe through to very ripe... we ate the very ripe ones tonight. Hope we don't have the proverbials tomorrow morning. So far so good. Photos of the plum harvest included. My wife is taking one of the plum bags into work tomorrow - all washed of course and for the staff to eat. Not sure what to do with them yet, but we've supposedly got 3 days to decide - unless we give them all away. ONE TREE!! Self sufficiency here I come. Note to self: Man does not live on plums alone.

Dyke

Yet another post about the dyke...sorry. Nearly got to the end today, but mower plug fell in bottom of dyke so leaving it for a day or two to let the plug completely dry out. Wasn't plugged in when it happened thankfully.

WHY you may be asking am I using an electric mower for such a huge job? Well reader, that's a very good question and I'm glad you asked it. Dyke sides are very steep and I would never have the strength to use a mower to do the sides. So then why don't I use a strimmer? The dyke sides are presently very uneven - and this old mower is doing the job of flattening them out nicely, secondly, it's impossible to get to the top of the dyke when standing in the bottom and vice versa. I will be using my strimmer to do the bottom when these top bits are completely done.

Spray starting to have an effect, although probably too early to tell if I've killed everything else in the process!

A plan for today is to prepare more of the far end (where the JCB removed the compost heaps) for lawn. Not long now till I sow another half acre!

Calm day - Spray day

Finally, yesterday, the air was still enough to spray the drive and weeds with general weedkiller. I'm hoping that I've not killed everything else in the garden at the same time. It took 2x 20 litre napsacks of 'roundup' to do the lot. The plan today is to do a little more of the other side of the dyke with the overall aim of having the dykes and the front of the lawn manageable by the start of October. Then the painting, varnishing, oiling, bulb planting & pruning will round the year off nicely. Then I'd better think about getting more logs for the logshed. I have a feeling it's going to be a harsh winter.