Today at the plot

I had a very valuable 5 hours at the plot today. My back soon unstiffened from yesterday's efforts and I got so much done.

DH brought the strimmer with him and he sorted out the nettles on the banks and all the grass paths, on the plot and between my plot and next door. I raked it all up and the nettles went on the compost pile, and the grass went on the early spuds to mulch them. I earthed them up yesterday so this is a bonus for them. Anything to cut down watering....

I carried on hoeing pathways between beds...most are now done. So...state of the plot today...
Picture 1. In the background are the Sutton Broad Beans...doing nicely. Next to that is a roots bed...still needs attention. Next to that is the carrot bed....with a lot of Desiree too as there were too many for the bed I had allocated for them.

In the foreground the RH bed was the brassicas over winter...needs clearing. Next to them are the shallots...which I weeded out today. Next to them are the onions...also weeded today.

Picture 2. The bed on the back left is the maincrop bed. I spread grass on there yesterday. Then under the nets in the foreground are the cabbages I planted out today.....actually cabbages, caulis and Brussels sprouts. I covered them against the pigeons. Chris next door lost a whole row of peas to pigeons, and so did the plot next to him. I forgot the cabbage collars...will do them tomorrow. The next bed is the Charlotte salad potato maincrop.
Picture 3. The early spuds Kestrel are on the right in the foreground. These were earthed up yesterday and today I piled the strimmings into the dip. The pathway here between that bed and the next is very grassy and needs more than hoeing...a job for tomorrow. The last long bed is for the courgettes and squashes. I will also put the sweetcorn in this bed, my Two Sisters bed!! Chris and I had a natter whilst sipping water and having a mid-afternoon sit, and commented that no-one at the plots appears to grow sweetcorn. I suspect I'll find out why this summer! I suspect it gets blown over in the ferocious winds we get. My runner beans used to blow over on the old plot
This picture taken along the back fence shows the comfrey along the fence, the Autumn Bliss raspberries in front, and the rhubarb in the front RH corner, with the gooseberry just poking itself into the frame. I had a preliminary hoe around all these today and picked up a whole;e barrow load of sticky weed, nettles and bindweed. Tomorrow I will hoe it all again and then plant out all the poached egg plant modules to become the ground cover in this corner.

I pulled a load of rhubarb for us and gave some to Chris. His was only planted this year and is quite small. I also cut off all the globe artichokes that were big enough to eat. I'm giving them one last go. I'll try Sarah Raven's recipe from her garden cookbook. If that doesn't do the trick I'll dig them up and put them on the surplus seat and see if anyone else wants them.

All in all a very satisfying day. We did a lot and made good progress. There is still much to be done though.......! Watch this space