Under The Weather

I don't think this will be a long of scintillating entry this week. I have come down with a heavy cold & feel rough at times. I've done copious amounts of drugs (anti-snot medicines and pain killers, nothing illegal!) but they only take the edge off it!

Looking quite bare now

Before I was struck down I popped over the allotment to do some clearing & check on the progress of the veg for Christmas Dinner. I still needed to pull up the old sweetcorn plants and all remaining runner beans with their supports. I could have done a lot more weeding but things were very muddy so It would have been quite heavy work. Among the beans which I pulled up were the very pathetic number of Czar beans which were meant to be my butter bean supply for next year. There were not even enough to plant a crop for next year. I think the weather was just too bad for this seemingly fussy bean to cope. Oh well, back to buying them in the supermarket. Last year I used that wide green netting stuff to support the beans, its horrible isn’t it! Dreadful stuff to work with and not biodegradable but it was convenient and cheap at the time. I forgot that in the back of the shed are two rose arches which I had intended to use to make a bean tunnel, using long canes between them to make the horizontal supports. Next year then.

The green manures are showing some signs of frost damage, they really need cutting down and then rotavating in but I didn’t have the big strimmer with me, couldn't find it when I looked in the shed. Never mind they wont run away and if we should get another cold snap the frost will probably kill them off.

mostly green manure

The leeks for Christmas very from pencil thin to leek sized. I pulled up a couple of parsnips – one very long and thin, the other slightly more parsnip shaped goodness knows what the rest will be like. Ah well, they will all be cooked up on the day and I'm sure the flavours will be good.

The poor old fruit cage will definitely need a new covering, the current one of fine green mesh is suffering in the bad weather. I crawled into the fruit cage to cut down the raspberries, which I didn't root because I've got quite a lot already. However I did cut down my lone blackcurrrant stem and chopped it into pieces then popped them into the soil. With a a bit of luck they will all take and I'll have a set of free bushes (I think the parent was a freebie too).

My last job was to clear the weeds away from the base of the two fruit trees, one wonky plum tree (its few branches were all on one side) and one sad russet, then I gave them a sackful of organic compost to feed them in the coming year.

The sad little russet

Now the sofa & box of tissues are calling so I'll wish you a Happy Christmas and a Joyful New Year. :)