For quite a while we had two pumpkins growing off of the one plant, one grew larger each day while the other one stayed the same size and eventually died off. I’m thinking this is because it never got pollinated. The one that did is growing larger each time I go to the plot and hopefully we will harvest it at some time and then work out what to do with it. We also have a single butternut squash (left over from the garden) but I doubt anything will come from it. It sits under the tomatoes which are covered in green tomatoes at the moment, I hope they turn red but time is running out. I noticed another plot holder had the same concern and interestingly they have cut off all the leaves from their plants leaving just the tomatoes. I’m thinking this gets the sun on the fruits and also all the plant’s energy. I thought I would give it a go at home and cut off most of the leaves (not brave enough to cut them all off). Straight away I can see all fruits are now getting as much sun as possible (and with each day it brings less sun) and I’m sure a lot of them were slowly changing colour today, maybe that’s hopeful thinking.

At the weekend I went to the plot just after the sun had risen but not yet got over the trees. It was cold and so I wasn’t going to stay long, just do some hoeing and pick any red tomatoes. In the end it warmed up and I started on the next part of edging the plot using old decking, a job that is probably over a year in doing. The idea behind this (apart from using up old decking wood from the garden) it to remove the old and falling down wire fence and replace it with just something to edge the plot and tidy up the path. By having the wooden edging it means it is easier to cutdown or stop the grass from coming into the plot. I’m also digging a small path on the edge of the plot, lining it with left over plastic covering (from when we first got the plot) and covering in woodchip. It’s always been weedy on the edge and this is way to reduce that, although this year various weeds made it into the woodchip instead. Either way, it looks a lot neater and easier to manage, it’s just taking me multiple years to slowly do it.

The field beans I planted in any available clear bed the other week have all germinated and are growing well.

I was surprised to be able to harvest a yellow courgette from one of our (small) plants. It’s been not a good courgette year, the plants stayed small and didn’t product much.