Doing a Runner.

Well, it’s the end of the season now and most things I had been growing have finally given up for the year.

These runner beans for instance were the last of their kind. I let them grow so I could collect the beans for next years plants.

As you can see there were not many left on the plant. Runner beans are good nitrogenators of the soil. So they will put back more than they use. Next year I will move them to another patch so they can add to the soil there.

I took these picture a little while ago as I let them grow on a bit.

The rest of my day at the plot was spent getting rid of weeds and clearing some of the ground by using weed killer on it. It shouldn’t do any harm to the crops next year.

I noticed that some of my fellow plot holders had bought in piles of manure. One had a huge pile that could have covered the whole plot an inch deep! I thought that was a bit over the top as you really only need to dig in some manure closer the the season. I will get mine from a friend and of course I have the spent hops from the brewery as well. These I will be variously holding on to or digging in as and when I plant. Some vegetables cant be planted with manure as it burns them, so that does need to be dug in ahead of time, but mostly they love a good bit of horse dung to start them off.

I didn’t see anyone at the plot yesterday, so I guess they have all been during the week – lucky them to have the time really. Some of us still have to work 9 to 5.

The winter sprouts are doing well, buds have formed and should be good at Christmas and beyond. Also the parsnips and swede are doing well.

I finally took down my tomatoes and put the last few on the windowsill to ripen. We have had a bumper crop this year and I have frozen quite a bit for later use. I have also been using them for my lunches in the week and in any cooking I do. You cant beat home grown tomatoes for flavour, especially when used with home grown chiilies. Although I didn’t get a bumper crop of those – for obvious reasons – there are still a good few and of course, last years dried crop have lasted as well.