Strim City

Finally, after a busy month or two, we managed to spend a large chunk of Sunday on the plot (rather than just nipping down to harvest stuff and guiltily ignoring the weeds). We spent most of our time clearing the existing beds back to ground level. Anne picked the last of the tomatoes (red and green) and dug up the plants. After clearing most of the beds I then went to work with my trusty petrol strimmer to tidy up the paths and edges of the plot a bit. Typically the strimmer ran out of line halfway through, which was followed by 20 minutes of me muttering darkly whilst trying to re-fill the bump-feed cassette.

The plot now doesn't have much left growing on it - apart from the cauliflowers and cabbage, which seem to be doing OK (but what do I know? I've never grown them before). There are still some potatoes awaiting harvest (must do that soon), the globe artichokes have masses of silvery foliage, the courgette plants are still hanging in there but don't seem to be producing much more fruit, and the butternut squash are still surviving, until the first frosts. Surprisingly, the eight pepper plants that I planted in my cold frame and then just ignored, apart from a few waterings, have produced a late crop of at least two or three quite large peppers per plant. I have reassembled the lid to the cold frame in the hope that the increased temperature will help them ripen before the frosts claim them (green peppers are OK, but red are much nicer!).

The weather was simply fantastic on Sunday, unseasonably warm for the beginning of October. We even met and had a chat to Ivan, the new chap who has taken over the adjacent plot and razed the rampant brambles and scrub to ground level in record time. He showed no signs that he wears his underpants on the outside of his trousers, but it has definitely been a superhuman feat.