Hi Hoe..

H came with me. The visit to the lottie was supposed to be for testing the new Hoe or Swoe as it is rightly named. As you see from the picture it is shaped like a sand iron golf club. It is made from hefty gauge stainless steel and comes with a 25 year guarantee. The shape is supposed to help you work round plants. We will see. I have knack of clipping plants with the blade of the hoe.

I put just the necessary in the back of the car, Swoe, boot and the fork. When I got the lottie I found a ton of horse muck had been dropped on the plot near the muck bin. H and I decided to look about the lottie first. It is a dismal sight. The prolonged wet spell has drowned most things. Then a fortnight of sun which has baked the soil. Even the weeds are struggling but not enough to stop them and something is eating the plants. Despite this the first two sowings of Peas are ready to crop which H set about with a will. I, on the other hand felt it necessary to shift the horse poo. But first I loosened the Onions and bent the necks over to start them drying. Even as I did this thought to myself the dry spell is over. I am not careful I will loose the Onions to rot.

The poo bin was half full already so using the fork I set about the poo pile. The tines are too far apart.for shifting dry horse muck. I eventually found a spade on one of the allotments which was just the job the clear up the poo. When the bin was full I got in and stamped in down a bit more. After three or four poo pressing sessions the tipped poo pile was neatly contained in the poo bin.

I emptied the 40 gallon drum that acts the site's brazier. I used it last so it had a couple of inches of ash from the weeds and wood that I had burned. I tossed some of the ash on the poo pile, some on the compost heap and the remainder in one of the plastic compost bins. Next I set about the dock pile and put the worst offenders in the black compo bin to get it going.

It was getting dark by now. H had a basket full of Petite Poit pods and had tried out the Swoe. The ground was rock hard yet it made a impact. I had a go round the sweet corn. It seems to work but it flexs a bit. It might be just because the ground is like concrete and I am on the other end shoving like something possessed.

I heard myself say to H that I would not do any more weeding until we had some rain to soften the ground. I asked for rain!! I woke up this morning to find that it had been raining during the night and, indeed, was still was raining, if only lightly. Fencing tonight, picking Plums on Wednesday, going to Devon again on Friday. That only leaves Thursday evening for weeding. I can wait.

As soon as we got home I shelled the peas. I got about two pints. H has a recipe for Pea and Mint soup so guess what for tea tomorrow? There are still lots and peas at the lottie so if I can get to them before the beasties there will be plenty for the freezer. I saved the pods and put them in the freezer to make a pea pod Burgundy when I get a minute.

The best laid plans.....

Yesterdays blog shows the great plans I had for last night. I had agreed to meet my buddy at the lottie and then to go onto the Railway Inn for a chat and perchance, a small libation. On my arrival at home from work H prepared a couple of Gin & Tonics. Well that hat was the end of the plans. H and I went and sat on the patio and chatted. Then onto a light tea [dinner to you southerners] by which time the appointment at the Railway was looming.

Once I made it as far as the rendezvous with Steve I was ready for the outing. We had very convivial evening. A major part of the chat was about where we are going to get our hedgerow fruits from this year and what we would do with them. The front runner at the moment is Sloe gin or Sloe vodka. We might do Damson Vodka if we can get enough Damsoms. I have this idea to bottle the Sloe Gin near Christmas for presents. Steve told me where I can get small, fancy shaped bottles. I have to run my daughter to Devon to stay with her cousins this weekend. A four hundred mile round trip. Steve gets to go sea fishing at Aberystwth. He has promised me and few Mackerel went he returns. I look forward to that!

Back from holidays to...........

Blight. Potato blight. The five rows Charlottes were in flower when I left and on my return they were just stalks. I dug them up the very next day. To my surprise the crop was largely unaffected. There was just a beginning of softness in perhaps twenty tubers. The five rows yielded 50lbs and they taste great. The remainder were fine. I washed the spuds before I left the lottie and picked over them again when I got home. I hope this will mean they will store well. The twelve rows of the main crop were starting to show the first chocolate spots indicating blight. I chopped the haulms down to a few inches above the ridges and cleared away the debris. I hope that this we provide me some time by preventing the blight spores getting into the tubers. I am in a spot at the moment as I do not have anything in which to store the main crop. There are likely to be bags and bags of spuds.

During me holidays it was reported to me that there had been a lot of rain. The garlic was in poor condition so I harvested what was was available. The bulbs where small but in good condition. The bulbs have put to dry in the greenhouse. The Onions have a little rust so I am holding off pulling them to see if the warm weather we have been promised helps them. The Chick peas are a complete disaster so they will have to be dug up. The early broad beans are not to bad but need picking and bed clearing. The Saporo broad beans that I put in later have flowered but not set pods which is probably to do with the bees not being able to get about.

The brasicass bed is a mixed lot. The Chard, Broccoli, Swede and some of the cabbages are doing well but the seedlings I put in before my holidays have disappeared and the caulis are rotting. So that is another area that has to be cleaned up.

I seem to growing Carrots for the first time. They need a more weeding which is not so good but it is a result. Sweet corn is doing well but the Gherkins and Pumpkins less so.

I found a small leak on the central heating system at home so I had to spend almost all Saturday repairing it and as it is a little over year since it was installed I flushed the system and treated the system with an inhibitor. In case that was not enough the fruit tree border is three feet high in weeds. It seems I am the only one with a strimmer that is powerful enough to tackle the weeds. So that is what I did last Sunday morning. The strimmer can not cut the grass so I will have to go over it again but with wire attachment. The wire cannot handle the heavy stuff but chops the grass a treat. I though I would do some hoeing as the Pumpkin patch is looking a little tatty. More or less with the first stroke of the hoe the handle snapped. End of hoeing. It is a good excuse to buy a new one. I have never been happy with the old one but I have had it a great many years. I hope to buy a Swoe. It is a hoe that looks like a sand iron golf club. It is supposed to be good for getting up close the plants. It is stainless steel so I imagine it will last a long time.

Just before my holidays I picked up a couple of plastic composters from the council. I have this plan to use them for the long term composting of Docks and other weeds. I have always run a pile of Docks athe end of the plot that does, in time, rot down to a useful compost. It takes a year or more. With the two composters I hope to reduce the time it takes to convert them into something useful and keep the end of the plot tidy as well. The black plastic really gets hot which I hope is going to be the key to speed up the process. I think I might fill them from the Dock pile this evening.

Because I broke the hoe I decided to spend a few minutes to tidy up the end compost bin. The bin has turned into a collecting point for bits wire, part rolls of chicken wire, plastic bags and useful bits of fleece. All those bits that are too big to throw away but might be useful in the future. They might "come in" as H says. I reorganised the bin so as to make room for the composters and re-positioned all the spares to be neat. I even took somethings home for the dust bin men.

As it stands I have done precious little on the plot. I am going the the plot this evening the job list is:
Start composters
Clear away Chick peas
Clear away manky Caulis
Use the new Swoe!