Penellype's Allotment

[burnie]

Chin up Penellype, I hope things start to get better soon

[Penellype]

Thanks Nicos and Burnie. I agree that its the problems and failures that make you appreciate the successes more. I do at least have plenty of chopped onion in the freezer so all is not lost from that crop.

[Penellype]

Thursday
No gardening time, apart from harvesting a couple of courgettes and some french beans and collecting rain water. It rained for a fair chunk of the day anyway.

Friday
More rain water to collect from over night showers. it was forecast to be very hot, so I went down early and got on with things for an hour or so. I sprayed the brassica foliage in the tunnel with potato water again, This is very successful and there were only a few whitefly left. I then spent some time weeding and pulling out horsetail until it got too hot. Harvested a cucumber, a few raspberries and the last cherry, which I'd thought was going to be small and inedible, but was actually fine.

I was going to go down and water in the evening, but a glance at the radar showed I didn't need to. There was a huge thunderstorm heading straight for York. It actually split into 2, and we didn't get as much rain as anticipated, but we did get enough lightning for it to strike a house about a mile from me, setting it on fire. My loathing for lightning increases, and I am seriously considering getting a lightning conductor fitted to my house as this is the 2nd time in 2 years that a house in the village has been struck.

Saturday
Busy and tired from lack of sleep (due to heat and anxiety about thunderstorms), I got very little done at the plot apart from watering trees and potatoes, collecting a little rain water and harvesting salad leaves, turnips and a couple of courgettes. I took down 2 kale plants and took some photos as it was 1st of the month - I will post them when I get time.

Sunday
A better day, although a little showery. I managed a good hour in the middle of the day and did some weeding, planted out some lettuces in the old onion bed and sowed a row of florence fennel. Harvested a few raspberries, most of the remaining peas, a yellow beetroot and all of the gooseberries.

Monday
Spend nearly 2 hours at the plot in the morning. Set about removing the finished peas in the tunnel - there are about 3 pods left that are not quite ready. When my hands had had enough I spent a fair while digging out horsetail from the tunnel and pulling up a few weeds. Then I cut down some more of the old raspberry canes - there is very little fruit left now. I tied in the new canes and cut off any weak ones, completing just over half the row before I'd had enough. There was plenty else to do, but another fine day was forecast today and I didn't want to overdo it. I harvested some baby spinach (showing signs of bolting already), baby lettuce, a cucumber and a beetroot, plus the first runner bean. I was back in the evening and gave everything a good drink of water.

Tuesday
The forecast for today was dry. In fact, looking at the most recent forecast for today from the GFS model released at 6pm, it is dry all day. This is not just inaccurate, it is plain wrong, because it rained all morning and was showery this afternoon. I went down to the allotment at around 5pm and collected a bucketful of water from my lids, barrow and trays. So much for a nice dry day in which to get plenty more gardening done!

[Penellype]

Photos from 1st August, as promised. Sorry for the delay, mainly because about half were bigger than 2mb and had to be shrunk.



New runner bean support amongst the rhubarb. Melons doing ok in the hotbeds.








Tomatoes in foreground have some small fruit now. Nasturtiums have completely taken over the pea bed. Courgettes in the bed behind with turnips (nearly finished) under the bits of net. Beetroot in the onion bed has since been joined by lettuces and a row of florence fennel.



Lettuces and spinach growing well under the white net. Potatoes behind are starting to die down.



Parsnips and beetroot under the tall net.




Raspberries have about finished. My poor gooseberry has been completely defoliated by sawfly. The purple fruits have since been picked.

More photos to follow.

[Penellype]

More photos from 1st August.



Cherry has now finished fruiting, blueberries are ripening fast. I left the hollyhocks in the hedge as I like them, even though they are a bit in the way.



The DIY lid on the green dalek.



Strawberries have about finished, although some of the ones on the shelf (off picture to the left) are flowering again. Romanesco, calabrese, cabbage and PSB on the right, beetroot, strawberries, carrots and leeks on the left. Peas in the middle have finished now.



From the other end - cucumbers in bottomless pots are producing harvestable fruit. The big calabrese is ready to cut.



Another view of the cucumbers and peas, plus leeks and carrots. The flowering strawberries are on the shelf at the far end.

[Penellype]

Very busy week this week with work taking over, as it does sometimes. The challenge is to remember what I did a week ago!

Wednesday
A reasonable amount of time and finished off tying in the new raspberry canes and removing all the old ones except a few that still had green fruit on. Also went round the hedges trimming off long bits, brambles and nettles and pulling out horsetail. Harvested the last of the peas and a cucumber from the tunnel.
Watered everything in the evening.

Thursday
Aware that it was going to get very hot I made an effort to get down to the plot first thing and removed the finished peas and a few weeds. Harvested a courgette, a lovely big head of calabrese and most of the remaining blueberries. Watered everything again.

Friday
The grass was getting long and desperate for cutting so despite the increasing heat that was an essential job. Also did some weeding and pulled horsetail in the tunnel and sprayed all the brassicas with potato water to keep the whitefly off. Harvested some lettuce and baby spinach leaves and a handful of runner beans. More watering.

Saturday
Number 1 job was to cut the leylandii hedge at home and everything else had to wait. Harvested salad leaves, courgettes, cucumber and a couple of beetroot. More watering.

Sunday
A bit more time, so I made an effort to trim all of the long grass edges along both paths that run alongside the hedges. Also turned out the bucket of forced rhubarb from last year that has mostly rotted down and put the unrotted bits in the compost bin. Used some of the compost, with bfb added, to fill one of the mushroom trays, and pinned down 6 strawberry runners into it. cut off a lot of the other excess runners, but as usual I find it really hard to get rid of viable plants, and I didn't anywhere near finish the job. Dug some horsetail out of the tunnel. Harvested a few more runner beans. More watering as the forecast rain did not arrive.

Monday
Not quite so hot, with a pleasant breeze. Trimmed the grass edges along the fence and raspberry beds and did a fair amount of weeding and removing horsetail. Harvested cucumber and more runner beans. More watering - most of the dustbins are nearly empty so I bucketed some water from the big water butt to make room in case of heavy rain from possible thunderstorms.

Tuesday
Very hot day. Work threw another curved ball and wrecked my plans to get gardening done early, so I had to put up with being hot. Trimmed the remaining long grass edges, including the difficult path between my allotment and the neighbouring one, which is full of horsetail. Also went round most of the hedges pulling out yet more horsetail. Found a 3rd melon (Alvaro) has set - a long time later than the first 2. Nothing visible on Magenta or Emir yet despite loads of female flowers. Pulled out a few weeds before giving up and going home, eating a couple of late raspberries on the way out. No storms so more watering.

Wednesday
Much hotter today. I made an effort and went to the allotment, mainly to get cucumber beetroot and baby spinach for lunch. There had been a little overnight rain (but thankfully no thunder) and I collected about a litre of water from lids and barrow, which won't go very far! The spinach is bolting in the heat. Half-heartedly pulled out a few bits of horsetail and weeds from the raised beds and removed the remains of the turnips, which are clearly not gong to swell properly. Removed the nets but didn't have the energy to fold them up properly and put them away so dumped them in the shed. No more rain, so more watering this evening.

We appear to have been lucky with the storms, which have so far avoided York and the forecast now is for them to continue to do so. While we could do with some rain and less heat, I am very, very happy not to have the storms.

[Penellype]

Work has intervened again this week, which along with the weather, has made gardening difficult.

Thursday
No time for gardening, although I did spray the brassicas in the tunnel with potato water and harvest beans (runner and french) and a courgette.

Friday
Thankfully a bit cooler, due to being cloudy. I was aware that there were thunderstorms around, so I didn't spend very long at the allotment. I pulled out quite a few weeds and bits of horsetail, which still seems to be growing really strongly. I also netted some developing melons, which have finally started setting fruit again in the hot weather. 2 of these were in the growhouse but I can't tell if they are Alvaro or Magenta as there is a lot of foliage all mixed together. There were 3 Emir in the hotbed too, and probably more to develop.
Watered everything well as the showers avoided York. Harvested cucumber, beans and spinach, which is the best summer spinach I have ever grown.

Saturday
A busy day and with thunder again in the forecast nothing got done at the allotment except watering and harvesting lettuce, cucumber, a courgette, beans and beetroot. We again managed to avoid any showers and storms. Most of the water bins were now empty and I bucketed half a bin full across from the water butt to leave room in there in case we had a deluge. I'd resisted the temptation to start carrying water down again, due to the amount of rain in the forecast, but I was beginning to wonder if I had made a mistake with this.

Sunday
More storms on the menu, which again didn't arrive, although we had had some overnight rain so there was water to collect. I'd been hoping to cut the grass but it was far too wet. I spent a decent amount of time at the allotment, again concentrating on weeding and removing horsetail. The rain had flattened the spinach, which is rather a shame as it means that a lot of the leaves are now on the surface of the raised bed, getting dirty and vulnerable to slugs. I picked a large bagful for tea.

Monday
It rained hard all night, but again no thunder. When the rain finally stopped I went down and collected a bin and a half of water form the bin lids, barrow and trays and scooped up another bin full from the flooded paths. I also emptied the drip trays under the strawberries as they were full.
Went back in the afternoon and did a bit of weeding (the things seem to appear over night) and tidied up the strawberry plants in pots. Some of these are starting to develop more fruit. I also planted out the 2 kale plants in the tunnel and harvested almost all the remaining blueberries plus another bag of spinach and ate a couple of late raspberries.

Tuesday
A bit more water to collect from overnight rain, but mostly it was a very pleasant day. We again avoided the storms - I can't believe my luck with this as we have had a solid week of thunderstorm warnings and not a single rumble of thunder!
Unfortunately work required me to stay at home a fair amount of the day, but I did manage a short stint at the plot at lunchtime. I took down some more potato water and doused the brassicas in the tunnel. The whitefly are still quite bad, but are noticeably mainly confined to new leaves (which are growing very fast) and patches on the older leaves, presumably where I have missed spraying on previous occasions. This clearly needs doing weekly, but is a lot better than nothing. Other than that, all I really had time to do was pick a bag of beans and another of spinach. Even though I had only been out about half an hour I found I had missed a work call when I got home.

[Penellype]

Wednesday
A better day work-wise so I was able to spend some time at the allotment. Surprisingly, despite a little overnight rain the hedge was dry and I decided to trim the top bit which I can't reach from the ground. I moved the strawberry plants off the chair and used that to stand on and managed to reach pretty much all I wanted to trim with the aid of my loppers. I then had quite a pile of trimmings to chop and put in the green dalek. By the time I had done this I was out of time and energy so I harvested a beetroot, some spinach, a cucumber and a decent sized carrot that I'd noticed had been damaged by slugs and went home.
I went back in the evening to check everything was secure, and put nets under several developing melons to keep them off the floor.

Thursday
More overnight rain to collect. I had appointments all day so all I had time to do was harvest lettuce, cucumbers, courgettes, beans and beetroot.

Friday
A diabolical day weather-wise, much of which was spent clearing up at home as the wind seemed determined to destroy everything in sight. It ripped the net down on the fruit cage damaging a lot of the blueberries, knocked over the cosmos plants (which were tied to the arch) so I had to put them in the garage, snapped the cane supporting the peas in the bucket and then managed to force open the locked garage door 4 inches at the bottom. I have no idea how it did this as the locking mechanism is a steel circle with a groove in it that turns round a very secure steel peg! Last time the wind forced the garage door open it demolished the whole garage, so I was (I think understandably) more than a little worried that this had happened.

Once the wind had died down a little I went to see what havoc it had wrought at the allotment. It had dislodged one of the nets and knocked quite a few beans off the plants, but the supports were still secure. 2 of the tomato plants needed re-staking and a lot of the leeks in the tunnel had been rather flattened. Otherwise everything seemed mostly ok. There was plenty of water to collect.

Saturday
Still windy but thankfully no further damage. All I had time to do was collect more water and harvest lettuce, pak choi, beetroot and runner beans.

Sunday
A very pleasant morning so I made a point of going to the allotment before the stables and spent about an hour going round the whole plot removing all the horsetail I could see (except for in the grass paths and under the roadside hedge). I think this is starting to slow down a bit. I also removed some of the nasturtium plants from the pea bed as they were looking miserable. There were nasturtium seeds everywhere and I ran out of time before I had made much impression on them. Picked a cucumber and some spinach and one ripe strawberry from the tunnel.

I'd hoped to go back and cut the grass in the afternoon, but it turned showery, which put an end to that idea.

Monday
Finally a dry day - it was in fact a perfect summer day, sunny and warm but not too hot, with a light breeze. The plan was to go to the tip in the morning to get rid of the horsetail and also some stuff at home that has been hanging around for months, then cut the grass and weed the whole plot in the afternoon. I must stop making plans as they never work out!

The first thing I had to decide was whether to try to remove the horsetail from under the roadside hedge before I went to the tip. I've done this for the past couple of years, and I really should have done it a few months ago, but the proximity to the pavement and lack of storage space has stopped me. It took me about 5 seconds to decide no, for 3 reasons - it is still too near the pavement for comfort as people don't necessarily keep their distance, the (hawthorn) hedge hasn't been cut and I won't be able to reach under it without getting very scratched and if I spent time on the horsetail I may not have time to go to the tip, which could take much longer than usual if I had to queue. The horsetail will just have to stay there, and I will do my best with it next year.

I was lucky with the tip, only having to wait behind 1 car for a place. I had an early lunch then went down and decided to get on with cutting the grass as it was nearly dry and getting very long in places. I then picked up as many of the nasturtium seeds as I could from the half of the bed I had cleared and covered it with a piece of weed matting to keep the cats off (I disturbed a cat sizing up that bed when I collected the trugs of horsetail for the tip). Having done that I went back home for a break as I was tired and rather hot, and it was then that everything went pear shaped. I checked my inbox to find a load of mails from customers complaining that there was a problem with the software. This had happened suddenly during the afternoon, and was due to a 3rd party changing something, not our fault. I had to try to sort it out, which took the rest of the afternoon, although I did manage to steal a few minutes here and there to cut the lawns, nip off a few deadheads and pull a few weeds out of the drive while waiting for replies to emails. The weeding at the allotment will just have to wait. Apart from bringing home a bag of beans picked after I cut the grass, I didn't harvest any veg for tea and had to completely change my food plan for the evening as I hadn't time to cook anything.

[Penellype]

Tuesday
It rained hard just about all day. I walked down at lunchtime in slightly lighter rain and emptied the water into the bins as the trays were nearly full. The bottom corner of the plot was under water. I grabbed a bag of spinach for tea and retreated home as it was also becoming unpleasantly windy.

Wednesday
More water to collect in the morning and the bottom corner of the plot was still flooded, but thankfully the rain had stopped. All the dustbins were now just about full but there was a bit of space left in the blue barrel and water butt.

I spent some time weeding the tunnel and road end of the plot, which were dry enough to work in. While I was weeding the tunnel I noticed some caterpillars (large white) on the brassicas. These immediately struck me as very odd. Large whites lay eggs in clutches on one leaf, unlike small whites, which lay single eggs all over the place. Therefore if a butterfly had got in the tunnel there should be one or two infested plants with serious destruction to the leaves, and the rest should be untouched. I would expect all the caterpillars to be the same size. However there were one or two caterpillars on every single plant and they were a whole range of sizes from about 1/2 an inch long to nearly 2 inches. Even where the larger caterpillars were, the damage to the leaves was minimal and there wasn't much caterpillar poo. I picked off all I could see and continued weeding, very puzzled. After a while I came across another medium sized caterpillar crossing the path between the carrots and where the peas had been. There are no brassicas that side of the tunnel. I then noticed 2 more climbing the netting, one inside the tunnel and the other outside. The only conclusion I can come to is that the caterpillars are migrating from elsewhere and some are managing to get underneath the tunnel netting. I have never seen this before.

Apart from the weeding I emptied excess water out of the trays under the strawberries and ate a ripe strawberry, and harvested lettuce, a cucumber and a beetroot for lunch. I also decided to harvest the single cabbage that had been a spare from ones I'd grown for my friend and had been shoved in between calabrese plants. It had made a nice head but was clearly very slug damaged and I wasn't expecting it to be edible. In fact, having peeled off about half the leaves, the inside was clean and almost undamaged and it actually did me 2 meals.

Thursday
Busy as usual, but nipped down in the morning to harvest beans, a courgette, beetroot and lettuce and collect some water from Wednesday evening's showers. A little rain was forecast for later, but nothing much and I was pleased to see that the flooding in the bottom corner had nearly drained away.

So much for the forecast. It started to rain at lunchtime and got heavier and heavier until the heavens opened around 5pm. By the time I went to bed (still raining) we had had over an inch.

Friday
It rained all day. After Thursday's deluge I felt I had to go and empty the bin lids in the morning before they collapsed under the weight of water, so I chose a time when the radar didn't look too bad, and simply got wet. Unsurprisingly the bottom corner of the plot was again under water. As all the bins were full I propped the wheelbarrow up behind the shed and put away 2 of the 4 drip trays. I then grabbed some more spinach (nearly finished now) and went home to dry out.

Saturday
At last the rain had stopped. I went down first thing and crammed as much of the water from the bin lids as would fit into the bins. The water butt and blue barrel were also overflowing so I left the water from the roof in the bucket and put away the last 2 drip trays. There was still plenty of standing water on the grass and paths in the bottom corner. I waded round it to harvest lettuce and salad leaves, removed another caterpillar from one of the romanesco plants in the tunnel and decided to give it a day to dry out as I had plenty else to get on with.

[burnie]

A very busy week, I too am finding caterpillars here there and every where, but mine seem to be moths rather than whites.

[Penellype]

Where has this week gone?

Sunday
A little more time for gardening. The water level had gone down to just a few damp patches in the lowest area. I sprayed the whitefly with potato water again and removed more caterpillars from the brassicas. I then spent some time digging out couch grass and horsetail as best I could from under the roadside hedge where it was dry. Harvested spinach, beetroot and a ripe strawberry and was about to go home when I thought I would check the melons. The whole growhouse smelled of melon and I found that one of the first 2 (Alvaro) that I netted had turned yellow and was cracking slightly. It came away in my hand so I had unexpected melon for tea

Monday
Another nice day to make the most of. I repeated the couch grass and horsetail treatment along the west hedge and also dug some horsetail out of the path next to the tunnel, although I found that as soon as I got below the top couple of inches it was very wet and sloppy. I also cut down the remaining old raspberry canes, having eaten the last couple of fruit. Removed the inevitable caterpillars from the brassicas, Harvested a bag of runner beans, some spinach, a carrot and the 2nd early melon which had also gone yellow. The beans have hated the wind and a lot of the leaves have wilted and are going brown. Some of the carrots have split, presumably due to a sudden large influx of water.

Tuesday
Appointments to dodge so not a great deal of time. As it was 1st of the month I took my camera down and took photos (will post later). Removed the obligatory cabbage white caterpillars from the brassicas, plus a black and orange one which I can't identify at all:



Pulled out a few weeds and harvested lettuce and beetroot for lunch.

Wednesday
Another busy day full of appointments. I nipped down to the allotment before lunch to grab some beans, a summer leek and a carrot for tea, and found the council man cutting the roadside hedge. Strangely, having made a fuss about letting the hedge grow a couple of feet taller last year, it has now been cut down to its original height. I'm not complaining as its easier to maintain at that height, its just odd. By the time I had cleared up all the bits it was more than time to head back home.

Thursday
No time for anything except harvesting beans, courgettes, beetroot and more caterpillars (which I feed to the chickens at the stables).

Friday
Again not a great deal of time for gardening and most of what I did was at home. Just collected caterpillars and some large slugs which had emerged after Thursday's rain, and harvested beans and a carrot for tea.

Melons:



These are a few of the NINE fruit on the outdoor Emir melon!

[Penellype]

Photos:



Beans have nearly finished and are looking a bit worse for wear. Hedge before cutting!



Melons in the growhouse hard to see because of the sun.



Blueberry bushes looking happy - the pink one has some ripening fruit, the blue one is finished now.



Spinach and lettuce under the net, potatoes have fallen over after the gales. Lettuce and beetroot under the green net, melons and tomatoes behind. The photo from the other end of this part of the plot was too dark to post, having been taken straight into the sun.



Parsnips growing well, beetroot at the other end of this bed has almost all been harvested. Courgettes behind have been disappointingly slow.

[Penellype]

More photos



Raspberries are finished now. Shade is increasing at this end of the plot - this was taken late morning.




Brassicas (romanesco, calabrese, kale and broccoli) are growing well despite caterpillar invasion. Peas have finished.



Strawberries, beetroot, carrots and leeks.




Brassicas from the other end. Cucumbers have some small fruits coming along after a break, presumably caused by the weather.



Leeks are growing well. The green on the floor is moss and algae as it has been so wet.

[Penellype]

Saturday
Very little time and only managed to harvest lettuce and beans and pull off a few caterpillars.

Sunday
I was hoping for a better day, but it was showery so nothing much got done except the obligatory caterpillar hunt and harvesting 3 beetroot. A bird (not sure what variety - small, brown but not a sparrow) had got into the tunnel somehow and it took me a while to persuade it to fly out of the door.

Monday
Forecast to be a mostly dry day, it rained most of the time and I didn't make it to the allotment at all.

Tuesday
Finally some time and reasonable weather. I went down in the morning to pick lettuce, cucumber and beetroot for lunch and check for caterpillars, and saw that the potatoes were rapidly dying down and one bucket was completely brown. I decided to harvest it. The harvests at home have been disappointing this year and I was expecting about 1.5kg per bucket (Desiree). I couldn't be bothered to root in the shed for my tarpaulin so I decided to scoop the compost out with a trowel and pull out any potatoes. It was soon apparent that my estimate was way out. Every time I moved any compost it seemed I met another huge potato and I began to wonder if this would beat my best ever harvest from one bucket of 3 seed potatoes (3.8kg, also Desiree). When I got home and weighed them there were 4.1kg from this bucket:



I went back after lunch and did some weeding, but couldn't resist harvesting another bucket of potatoes. I chose the one at the sunny end of the bed as this was likely to have the biggest yield. I noticed that the bucket was slightly misshapen, so I was a little disappointed that the first few potatoes I found were rather small. I needn't have worried, the bigger ones were lurking underneath, and there were some monsters:



Yes, that is a full sized seed tray. These 2 together weighed over 1kg! The whole lot came to 6.1kg:



I picked some french beans and literally staggered home with an arm under the bag of potatoes as I was worried it would split under the weight.

[Penellype]

Oh dear, I keep meaning to update this thread and get sidetracked. Now its hard to remember what happened.

Wednesday
The grass was desperate for cutting and although it was not really dry I decided it would have to be done. I know I found some caterpillars because there have been some every day.

Thursday
Very little time so just checked for caterpillars and harvested some veg for my family - beans, lettuce, cucumbers, a large courgette and a few pink blueberries. there were 2 ripe strawberries which were a bit slug damaged but some was edible.

Friday
Didn't seem to be able to get much done apart from pottering about pulling out bits of weeds. Probably trimmed some grass edges. Harvested beans, cucumber, a carrot and another of the buckets of potatoes - 4.45kg in this one!

Saturday
Hardly any time but I did harvest lettuce and cucumbers, beetroot, beans and the last bucket of potatoes for a whopping 5.15kg. The total yield from 4 buckets of Desiree (12 seed potatoes) was an astonishing 19.8kg. All 4 of the buckets beat my previous record from 1 bucket.

Sunday
A little more time. I sprayed the brassicas with potato water and checked for caterpillars (still several a day) then did some weeding. Harvested a few beans and the first red tomato (Ferline). Noticed one of the Emir melons looked like it was starting to crack, and decided to take it home to ripen. With hindsight this was a bit early, as it is still not smelling ripe (Friday evening).

Monday
Rather a hot day but I did manage to get plenty done. Went round the hedges trimming back the nettles and brambles and a few late shoots from the hawthorn and leylandii. Pulled out all the horsetail I could reach at the same time. Trimmed more grass edges and tidied up some fallen leaves. Potted up 6 more rooted strawberry runners into another of the mushroom trays and separated the earlier plants from their parents as they had rooted well. Harvested lettuce, cucumber, beans and a courgette, plus a couple more strawberries. Watered everything as things were starting to dry out.

Tuesday
An even hotter day and after a little weeding I had had enough and retreated home. Harvested a cucumber for lunch - after a serious break these are now producing loads of small cucumbers and I am going to have a glut very shortly. Also the first of the Oh Happy Day tomatoes.

Wednesday
Cooler and cloudy. Weeded the whole of the tunnel. Only one caterpillar today (small white this time - most have been large whites). Also some very large slugs appeared and were captured for the chickens. Trimmed the grass edges between my plot and the next one, which is best done on a cloudy day as it is the sunniest bit. Harvested another cucumber, a carrot and some beans. Watered everything.

Thursday
Very little time. Again only one caterpillar - a huge large white. Harvested courgette, lettuce, cucumbers, beetroot and some pink blueberries.

Friday
No caterpillars today - the first time that there has been none since I found the first ones in the tunnel. Went round the hedges digging out couch grass and pulling a few bits of horsetail that were emerging. Harvested cucumber and 2 ripe tomatoes. Came back after lunch and watered everything thoroughly as it is drying out again in the wind. I'd brought with me 2 empty 5 litre bottles which I filled from the water butt and made sure that I used water from there to water the plants (rather than from the bins) so that there is space for water when it starts raining. Did some more weeding and harvested a large carrot that was split but still edible and a few beans.