Sunday 23 September 2012

Nature is fickle. Umph!

   Serves me right! The night after the day I had said that a frost was needed there was a frost! Pooh! Killed off my runner beans, courgettes, haricot buerre and haricot vert. That has just about finished this season for me. Really is time to move on.
    Most time has been spent on getting the strawberries sorted out. I really ignored them this season and they have suffered. There are three beds of strawberries. Well, there were. There are only two with plants in and they all needed weeding and forking. No problem with bed 1 as it was a new bed dug last year and was cleared up quite quickly. Bed 2 was another matter. I found once I started to clear the weeds that all the strawberry plants had died. I decided to dig the bed and replant. Mistake. I think the bed had never been dug. I think someone just put down a load of soil and planted the strawberries into that. About four inches down it was pretty much solid clay and that was for over half of the bed. The rest was not much better. So it was to Irish navvy class for me and I learnt how to swing a pick axe! Several days later all is done. Bed 3 still had plants in it so I decided just to fork it over and remove the weeds. Even so it is going to be the same problem as bed 2. That will be next Septembers job!
Three strawberry beds

Rocks removed from bed 2

   











 
  Outside tomato's have now been cleared. There is more and more open ground as crops are cleared and beds given a fork over. 
   In the poly tunnel the tomato's continue to ripen and look a picture. They will have to be picked soon. Other plants continue to grown and cauliflowers are forming. I fear these autumn ones are not going to be as good as the spring ones. We will see.
   Over the next few weeks broad beans to sow and winter peas. Seed box needs sorting and consideration given to buying new seed is required. Next years crops need to be decided on now and an action plan put in place! Not that an action plan always helps! Nature has a way of upsetting the best laid plans of mice and men!

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