Bl**dy good job I have the plot – needed a bit of space yesterday. Pottering about in the mud does help. As does seeing things come up or ripen. I am finding myself counting the saffron spikes – 5 in the bed and 19 in the tubs so far. Yay!

I picked 3 of the Black Futsus (1 left on the other plant), cape gooseberries, loads of cherry tomatoes (Black Cherry and Alan’s Sweet Million are still going strong – which I like so much I bought seeds for next year), chioggia beetroot, green harbinger toms, chillies, another 4 cukes, Trail of Tears beans and some runners. Mum came up for a wander around so was sent off with an armful of stuff.

It’s also really nice seeing some of the beds start to empty. There will be two and a half occupied over winter and hopefully there will be a manure delivery soon for the rest.

Putting the beets in late has worked really well – they have come up a treat and we’ll have tasty roots for the next month or two. The ones from yesterday are headed for the dehydrator.

The split Muscat de Provence squash seems to be ok so far. I took it home and it’s turning orange on the windowsill. The area around the split is still rock hard. I am hoping that it will make it to fully ripe.

It’s plot inspections this weekend, so my target is to get the rest of the pink bed up (boards being painted at home) and the digging started. Can’t imagine that this lovely weather will hold for much longer, and I know for just how much of winter my plot is saturated.