4th November 2006

I went to the allotment today on my own as Luke and Sue had gone to Bridgwater Carnival with Luke’s father. The weather had been very cold and we had a few frosts so, as you might expect, the veg has suffered. I had a wander around the plot to see what damage there was and soon found the withered remains of our Christmas potatoes that had only just poked their heads above ground.

The tomatoes were now past their best and neededdigging up; I will do that next weekend. When I inspected the greenhouse I noticed that the Tomarillos had suffered from some frost damage because the door to the greenhouse had come off and cold air had got in. The damage was not too bad so they should pull through for next year. I sort of fixed the door using a brick, a bit of wood and a sheet of plastic.

I decided to start by clearing some of the ground where the squashes had been as they were now past their sell-by date and most of this was now starting to die back. Then onto our Garlic patch.

The week before we had spent the day digging the very last patch of our plot and felt a sense of achievement when it was done. This are was destined to be our garlic patch. I had sent off for some Isle of Wight garlic a few weeks ago and it had arrived so I decided to plant the lot along with some that Luke had bought (next year we are going to stink).

After that I planted a nice bed of Japanese onions that should over-winter and be ready next spring. When all this was done I tried to start a fire to burn as much of the vegetation as I could but it was very damp so I didn't get very far.

The day had been fantastic and I managed to get quite a lot done, even if Luke had decided to go on a jolly!

Once again I am here on my own (do you think Luke is trying to tell me something?!).
He has got rather a lot on at the moment, having been very busy at work and today he is helping his father who has come up from Cornwall to fit their kitchen for them. This could take several weekends.

Today was very warm and the ground wasn't too wet so I decided to rip out all the old tomatoes, beans and anything else that caught my eye. When this was done it was time to start digging AGAIN!!! Oh how we love to dig. I managed to clear a nice area that we will use to plant some broad beans in for an early crop next year.

Luke and his father turned up later on in the day to inspect the work I had done and have wander round the plot. The day went very quickly - another productive day.

What a bad week it has been very, very wet. It just not stopped raining all week.

Luke made it this week at around 2pm and I turned up a bit later. We managed to do some digging but the ground was very wet so it was hard going. Luke had only brought his trainers to dig in, which was a very big mistake as he slid around the very wet mud like Torvill and Dean on ice. The day was cut short because the rain started again but not just a little rain, a whole months worth in about ten minutes.

We got rather wet but did manage to pick a few of our veg for tea that evening. Despite not being up there for very long it was really nice just to be up on the plot again after the stresses of work.

25th November 2006

Tim: Rain again, will it never end? During the summer we didn’t have enough and now we have too much. What’s going on? I managed to get to the plot about 10am. No Luke this weekend as he is helping his father again with his kitchen.

The raspberries were looking a bit sad for themselves so I decided to prune them along with the blackcurrants. All the good prunings I cut off I am keeping to see if I can grow any new plants for next year. It's good this gardening lark; once you get started you can grow loads more stuff for free.

When all the pruning had been done I put loads of manure round the base of the plants to give them a good feed ready for next year. The raspberries have been fantastic this year. When we bought them they looked like twigs with a bit of a root on them. We planted them and just let them get on with the job of growing us some fruit. They took ages to get going but once they did there was no stopping them. They fruited and fruited and fruited, I hope they do the same next year.

Again the day was cut short because the weather turned bad and the rain came down like stair rods yet again. By the way, did I say that it has rained a lot?

Luke: I turned up today around 15 minutes after Tim had left as it turned out. I had brought my father with a drill so we could make a hole in the greenhouse concrete. The water had built up because of the wet weather. We had more of a swimming pool than a greenhouse. As soon as the hole was drilled the water drained out like a bath without a plug! I picked some carrots and surveyed Tim’s work on the plot.

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NOVEMBER 2006

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NOVEMBER 2006