Saturday 18th August 2006 - Weather: Sunny but breezy

An early start once again and I was on the plot before 8am (had to pop to Asdas (ggrr) first). Only had a couple of hours spare, so the first job was picking. Eight lemon cucumbers - that rain did the squashes to power of good! A handful of french beans, dozens of cherry toms - both yellow and red, couple of flying saucers (oh okay, pattypan squashes) and a bowl full of blackberries. Checked the waterbuts, and they are all full which is very satisfying. Last job was to dig and rake the old carrot bed. It dug beautifully, again thanks to the rain and I was able to rake it down to a very fine tilth. I sowed a row of white mooli winter radish, a row of black long winter radish (both great in stir fries and salads), a row of redball beetroot, a row of winter lettuce and a row of mixed leaf salad. I don't have any fleece now as it was all on it's last legs so it ended up on the compost heap - so before the weather gets nippy, I will get some so I can protect these as necessary. I still have red and green kale to plant and late French beans to get in. Also want to sow more spring onions and regular salad radish. Am contemplating sowing a couple of rows of carrots under fleece to see if I can harvest a crop for Christmas dinner. Now the weather is cooling, I am hoping that they would get away quickly before the weather really turns.

Overall, after the fabulous week of rain we have had, everything has really perked up. There are fresh flowers on the runnerbeans and squashes, my late 3rd sowing of sweetcorn is now standing over 4 foot tall and has flowers and the greens are looking lush and turgid.