Month: October 2009

I have no pumpkin to show you for Halloween. Just some more or less ripe tomatoes, a handful of raspberries and a good amount of spinach beet. And a pretty un-spooky picture of the plot at sunset. Moreover, I am afraid I am not in too good a mood to write either: stressful times with…

… you cannot stay on the allotment all day, especially if duty calls from down a drain, the one that collects kitchen + washing machine… Nonetheless I managed to spend 3+ hours on the plot, which now looks amazingly tidier. Unfortunately I did not sow any seeds: I find it takes a certain mood setting…

Had a great time on Sunday when I spent most of the day on the plot. The weather got increasingly better during the day and it was warm. So much so that tomatoes are still ripening, and there’s still plenty of flowers: blue borage, cascades of orange nasturtiums, tiny white thyme flowers, yellow coreopsis, even…

Following a forecast of freezing I braved the night on Monday to cover up my aubergine (40 cm of stem, 5 leaves and a flower is all I got this year) to try and preserve it for next year’s cropping. I also retrieved my half-used packets of seed to complete my stocktaking, and I am…

Stocktaking: seeds and produce, and plants cells Making the most of a weekend in the house, I started my annual seed stocktaking. It takes a lot of time and I have not learned to use it in the most effective way for my planning, but I think it is worthwhile to persist. Unfortunately this year…

It seems my headache on Sunday might not have been caused solely by digging, but by some virus, as it turned out I’m having the flu this week. I’m writing in one of my few waking moments, which means, in turns, that I am not making much progress on my first horticulture lesson, which is…

Although there is still a good amount of clearing to be done, it must be said that native ladybirds seem to like my weeds. Today I found two: one in my untidy compost pile and another one on a patch full of stones and overgrown with comfrey. Unforturnately I also found 2 Harlequin on my…