Like in the ’70s, if you wouldn’t mind. Not this miserable, damp, cool weather that’s more at home in October than August. It feels wrong to be wearing a jumper and boots this time of year. Though looking at last year’s diary August was pretty wet then too.

#100
My shed is starting to put on its autumn clothes, with bunches of beans and flowers/herbs hanging from the roof to dry. So far DFB Nun’s Belly Button, Minidor and Vermont Cranberry for next year’s early plantings. The other plot’s Black Coco beans for HSL are fattening nicely – the pods are developing streaks of red on the pale green, which looks pretty.

Weeding progress is going well, it should all be tidy soon, with bin bags of rubbish ready to take to the tip. Mum’s chopped down her cherry tree and I need to go over there to pick up some lengths of trunk for some rustic bed edging near the shed and to make a home for the last rhubarb. That gives me 5 in the ground and 2 spares that I might stick in the hedge. And then I can start on that pink bed and think about what to do with the remaining section…I am in 2 minds still about the other greenhouse and whether to pop it down the bottom where the horsetail is creeping through.

The Munty frame is a partial success. The Cara La Virgen de la Banera Leon are all the way up to the end (and growing into my neighbour’s plum tree) but the Lazy Housewife beans have slid down the strings. Cara have just started flowering, whereas LH are in full bean production. Added to that a Sweet Dumpling is growing up and through the back strings, which must be pulling them down further.

#92
In a minor stroke of genius the greenhouse tomatoes have been tamed! I hung two horizontal canes from the roof and tied them to the shelf supports to cinch all the plants in. So now it’s easy to get in to pick, water and weed and I wish I’d done it weeks ago. Keeping the greenhouse drier is beginning to be a challenge though – there is a lot of condensation in the roof most mornings, despite the autovent. Picked 4kg of assorted tomatoes to take home and do something with. Some lovely Blush tomatoes have been de-seeded and are drying to add to the Seed Circle.

One lonely Geraumon Martinique squash has been bagged for pollinating tomorrow and am crossing my fingers that it’s not still raining.

My months of a charm offensive aimed at the allotment cat are finally paying off. He has the softest fur of any cat I’ve met and will now tolerate a brief head scratch before going off hunting.