RIP Sam's Pumpkin, aged 1 week...

A quick trip to a local garden centre yesterday and I've now got half the greenhouse irrigation system - i.e. a water butt and a downpipe fixture that fits the greenhouse guttering (with a little silicone sealant to help). I need to source some appropriate flexible hose to link between the downpipe and the butt, and am still waiting for the irrigation dripper system to arrive in the post, but nearly there. I also bought a replacement for the 4-tier grow-house in our back garden, as the cover had perished over the past few years of use. The shelves of the old one now reside in the greenhouse on the plot - no point in wasting them, and greenhouse staging is amazingly expensive!

Sadly on arriving at the plot it became clear that Sam's Pumpkin had succumbed to the local slug population within a week - not even the stem remained. My three courgette plants had been attacked but it seems they were large enough to stave off the slugs. I'll replace Sam's Pumpkin and make sure I grow it on in a pot until it's mature enough to do the same. 

Apart from the usual hoeing and watering session on the plot (now rendered fairly pointless by a night of rain, but such is life), we dug over another bed and planted eight "Green Globe" artichoke plants. Eight seems a lot but there may be sacrifices to the slugs, we've got the space and we like artichokes! There won't be much of a crop this year, if any, but hopefully next year we'll get a good number, and the plants make an impressive display themselves.

I also planted ("puddled in" is I believe the correct term) another row of leeks - seedlings this time rather than seed, which I found at the garden centre. They should give an earlier crop than the seeds I sowed last week. We'll not be short of leeks if they all survive.

The Under-Gardener really enjoyed with the final job on the plot; incinerating a bin full of dried weeds and grass tussocks that had previously been dug from the plot. The wind was in the right direction (i.e. away from the adjoining houses) and strong enough to really get the incinerator burning fiercely, so it didn't take long at all.