Just a week ago the garlic was looking very healthy and continuing to grow and then the next week there looking a bit yellow of flopping over, suggesting they were ready to be pulled up. Looking back at dates this sounded about right, it took me by surprise as it must the first time ever I had not suffered from rust on the garlic leaves. I had high hopes for a good harvest and this does appear to be what I have got, some nice big bulbs on the majority of the plants. I will leave these outside undercover for some weeks to dry off, at which point I’ll clean them up. I hoed the now empty bed and raked it ready for sowing Bellotto beans on the next visit.

The potatoes are flowing and doing well. So are the raspberries; I picked some to take home. So are the currants and the birds have noticed and so I covered them loosely in netting.

I had some beetroot seedlings in a cell tray and put them out within the gaps of the row I direct sowed. It looks like slugs have eaten a lot of the leaves which is annoying. The sweetcorn and courgette plants I put out the other week are starting to grow further. The broad beans have been a bit of a disaster with them being covered in blackfly which has mostly killed them off. I wasn’t going to grow broad beans this year as we still have so many in the freezer but it doesn’t make it any better that we lost all the plants. I’ll go back to autumn sowing of them for next time.

It wasn’t windy and it wasn’t raining meaning it was quite pleasant to be on the plot, I spent a bit of extra time clearing some of the plants climbing up the fence. Weeds and brambles, just 10 minutes when wearing thick gloves makes a big difference. The small part I fully cleared earlier on in the year is still mostly clear of weeds and when they do show up it is easy to pull them out and maintain the clear fence. I’ll work my way along and clear the whole side of the plot.