OUTDOORS 3

October began, and on the first weekend I had a spare Sunday. I began by digging over 1/3 the allotment plot and digging in some horse muck and the contents of my larger compost bin. I pulled a few weeds, watered the leeks, and took a few crops home, too.

At home, I watered and cropped my tomatoes and potted up around 30 cauliflower seedlings. I was then heading back to the plot. This second session, I did my edges, pulled weeds, redug the dug over area, planted spinach, a few garlic and kale, and worked out what would go where fruit wise.

Here you can see the state of the plants and weeds along the old shared fence in the back yard. The bindweed was murdered by the next door neighbor prior to her putting up the dog-proof fence, but as I don't want to eat chemicals, I can no longer eat any of the crops I planted along my side of our shared fence - the mint, coriander, corn, and turnips are all wasted.

Soon, I plan to rip out the dead plants, weeds, and unusable crops into piles for the hedgehogs and toad to enjoy. This should leave a few tiny shrubs, a geranium, a purple plant my friend Liz gave me, and a small side-angled hedge. The long term plan is to grow a hedge of 3-4 foot height along the old fence and let the old fence rot. In front of the hedge, I will then plant flowering plants and maybe a few herbs.

Back on the allotment and at the end of the first week I was viewing the plot. This first shot shows the area that housed the runner beans and corn. remaining you can see a cabbage, a purple Brussels sprout, and rocket/mooli. To the left, my nasturtiums are doing well producing salad leaves/flowers and seeds, the strawberry bed has been weeded, and the artichokes are growing huge and flowering. To the right, you can see my other strawberry bed, the area I have dug over, and some growth from melon-squashy things that came out of the compost. At the back, you can see raspberries.