And the waters receded.........

A week to forget about.

Despite all attempts (including blowing up my microwave and filling the flat with acrid black smoke) I did not quite manage to cough myself inside out however, and am now pretty much recovered. (Why does Benylin have to taste so revolting?) So taking advantage of the unseasonably dry spell between 9am and Noon today I went to the plot to see what has been going on in my absence.

I arrived just as Peter, who promised to do some watering for me, was just finishing doing exactly that. We had a brief comedy conversation along the lines of “ Ah, Thank you my man.” and “ I knows my place zurr”…before I actually looked at the ground and pretty much lost the mood for humour.

Fecking weeds !!!

A considerable amount of hoeing and hand weeding has restored some order to the top half of the plot, but the soil is far too wet for me to get onto the bottom half to finish the job. Weeds offend me, but I will just have to tolerate them until things dry out a bit.

I consulted Pete’s copy of Dr Hessayon, the vegetable bible, and decided it was the right time to pinch the tops out of my broad beans as they have just set pods, and were really starting to get covered in blackfly.

After this I planted 60 pots of sunflowers. The ones I sowed in the soil in April have all failed to germinate, due to the cold and the damp. To be honest I can’t personally be bothered about them now, but having had several conversations with bemused plot holders about my theoretical sunflower hedge, I feel obliged to try and make it happen, so have sown another lot, albeit rather late, in the cold frame.

The runner beans have taken a pasting from the wind and the cold, but look like they will all hang on if only the weather warms up a bit now.

Apart from this things are fairly shipshape on Plot 14, and will have to blunder on for another week before I get chance to put in much time down there again.