A birthday well spent.

I spent almost 7 hours on the allotment, uninterrupted by m***** or anything else and was joined by my co-tenants for  2 hours each at different times.  So a lot was done.

The poppy field is on Thomas's pumpkin patch next door.  I caught it in time as the red petals had all gone by the evening. 

Continuing clockwise, we finally removed the 2 year old chard plant. It has fed us well, but was taller than me and about to produce seed everywhere. So it is now contributing to the compost heap and I must get some new plants.

The gooseberry crop is growing well and the netting seems to be keeping it save from the birds.

The alliums (garlic, onions, elephant garlic, shallots and are all growing well.  There is a bit of rust on the garlic and some has been blown over recently, so trying to decide if I should be harvesting it soon.  Judy weeded all of this area today and planted out the Christmas parsley around the raised bed.

Once the next area was cleared of the giant chard, I dug up the potatoes that were growing there - potting on 2 plants that might be pink fir apple and harvesting enough potatoes from the rest for a meal later this week. There were also a lot of borage plants which were dug up and donated to other plot holders (I kept 2 for the bees). Supports set up for the runner beans and achocha.  

Finally on the other side, Kathryn has thoroughly weeded the saffron bed, potatoes and peas.  We also mulched the second early potatoes with the grass cuttings.

So a lot of work done, but also some great conversations with other plot holders. I do love my allotment community and it was great to spend time there.