Don't Lose The Plot: time weather hot fruit gooseberry bushes adder guttering butts repair screws rhubarb

Apart from 2 short posts recently its been almost 3 weeks since I've had time to sit down and reflect on happenings down my plots. The time has passed unnoticed, with a busy schedule of d.i.y., re-designing some areas of N2 Plot, harvesting and more seed sowing taking place. The main time consuming work has been harvesting currants. The hot weather up until last Tuesday has meant harvesting was best done on an evening to avoid continual standing in strong sunlight. The vast amount of currants ripening, especially Red currants has taken approximately 2 hours per evening for the last couple of weeks to harvest, with still more to pick in the coming week or so. To save myself time I have stopped weighing and recording the amount of fruit gathered. After a loud and angry thunder storm in the early hours of last Tuesday and some further rain later that morning the weather has cooled here slightly since, with more rain showers yesterday and today. Although the rainfall has only penetrated the soil a couple of inches, most plants are now refreshed, if not fully recovered from the last month or so's hot dry weather. By Tuesday midday the sun was back and it didn't take long for the soil to dry. I decided to clear the remaining Gooseberries from N1 Plot and set about stripping down the 4 bushes of their berries. I had already harvested several punnets of Gooseberries a couple of weeks ago but decided to pick the remaining berries, mainly due to the fact that one of the bushes was suffering from stress due to lack of rainwater. I don't normally wear gardening gloves down the plots or in my garden, maybe on this occasion I should have done so. It's almost impossible to pick Gooseberries without getting a few scratches from the thorns. By late afternoon I had stripped the bushes and cleared out various weeds and foliage from underneath them, working around the Strawberry plants growing in their shade. I had several scratches and cuts from the gooseberry thorns, on my hands and arms but nothing serious I thought. An hour or so later my arms became unbelievably itchy and irritating and my left hand and forearm was swollen up like a balloon. It was only then that I noticed 2 fang marks on one of my fingers which I decided was a spider or other insect bite. Later in the week I was informed it was an Adder bite. I didn't see that coming, should have gone to Specsavers. Well it's o.k. now and it seems it was a glancing blow rather than a full on bite. I was told yesterday, that a previous allotment holder had caught 2 adders on his plot a few years ago and released them into the drainage ditch which runs past my plots, well at least that adds up.

Frog In My Water Tank (He Was Rescued)

The remainder of the rainwater guttering was fixed into place on the drainage ditch side of my shed on Monday, just in time for Tuesdays thunder storm. With 2 more water butts installed, taking water from the said guttering, I now have 7 butts installed around the shed. I think they will come in handy in future, if the recent dry weather is the same again next year, or indeed later this year. The remaining soil dumped on top of the drainage ditch, from N2 Plot during last Winter, has been removed, cleared of Dandelion roots and other weeds and applied to the raised beds at the lower end of N2 Plot. At the moment I am in the process of building a low wooden fence along the area where the soil was, to keep back the vegetation under the hedgerow. As my regular readers will know I recently moved my poly tunnel to its current position where an old compost heap used to exist. I decided that the original door on the tunnel, consisting of a flap and 2 zippers was a nuisance to open and close, having to bend down to completely close the zippers didn't do any favours for my arthritis. On Wednesday I constructed a wooden outer frame and door frame which, hopefully, will be fitted to the tunnel tomorrow. Funny what you can achieve with an old bed frame, wooden mantle shelf, some pallet offcuts and some battens left over from my recent shed repair, oh and the screws and metal braces used were also re-cycled.

Replacement Door For The Poly Tunnel Made From All Re-cycled Materials 24/7/13

Thursday was more relaxing with one of my favourite jobs of seed sowing. Although my successional sowing has been hit and miss this season, I've decided it has to be a priority for next. Anyway I raked over the 2 larger raised beds on N2 Plot, leveling off the soil and removing small stones and some other bits of debris. One bed was sown with Carrots (Autumn King) and the other bed was sown with Radish, Spring onions, Beetroot and Cauliflower seed. O.K. so I know its probably the wrong time of year to sow Caulis, but they are in a fertile bed, sheltered and if they germinate will be easy to cover for protection. On completion of the seed sowing it was more fruit picking time, by the time I had harvested 2 large punnets of Black currants it was time for home and a cuppa.

Carrots Sown Into Raised Bed At The Back. The Bed To The Left Has Radish Spring Onions Beetroot And Cauliflower Sown Into It 25/7/13

One of my favourite veggies with some meals is Swede but I don't use much Beetroot. As both crops were ready for harvesting and with a glut of currants and a lot of Rhubarb, I decided to take some of the veg to a car boot sale. Things were organized by late on Saturday evening and a successful morning was had at the sale this morning with the Rhubarb selling extremely quickly along with lots of Black currants. This afternoon I spent a couple of hours harvesting some more Red currants for the freezer. Jam making will have to wait for a while, probably when the evenings start to become darker earlier or it rains again.