Thursday 14th October 2010 - weather: wet and windy

After a brief coffee with chums in the village, I headed to the allotment. The weather was 'orrid! There was a fine misty rain blowing in my face all morning. You know the type, you don't realise how wet you are getting as it is such fine rain, but when you break for a coffee, you realise you are wet through and shivering.

However, regardless of the rubbish weather, I had work to do. The main challenge of the day was to completely weed the winter root bed and finish de-dandelioning the strawb bed.

The roots are all looking great. I have more beetroot than I have ever successfully grown...the same with turnips. The parsnips were so late germinating, I think I will sell them to the family as chic baby veg. I also have a late row of carrots and some baby spring onions. I don't know if the fine builders netting I have around the bed helped not only keep the muntjac off, but also reduced the number of flea beetles, but the turnip foliage is wonderful.

I checked out plot number 2 and my oriental greens and radish have germianted.....somewhat sporadically. Not ideal, but something is better than nothing over the winter. The garlic and broadbeans however are up already and growing away fast. The onions have some green shoots, but at the moment, they aren't very action packed.

I cleared away this summers sweetpea plants now as they were ready for the compost heap, but I did gather a handful of seed, but low and behold, it had started 'chitting' in the pods. Not wanting to waste such keen to grow seeds, I quickly put up a wigwam of canes and planted a thick ring of the seeds. I have more at home in packets to sow, but I wasn't going to waste these babies.

As the rain drove on, I began to loose the will to live, so after weeding through, I picked the borlottis that were ready, some runner beans and a courgette, then called it a day.

As I headed for the gate, I took a last glance at my white alpine strawberry plants and noticed they are covered in young fruits. I picked a few, which were heavenly, so now I am hoping for a few sunny days to ripen some more. They really are luxurious.