Good to have another set of eyes on the plot

Another day of building heat, following two scorchers. The ground is very dry, so lots of watering today.

Green manure sown a fortnight ago has already come through, showing the distinctive leaves of phacelia and field beans. Dry conditions have encouraged powdery mildew to spread, mainly amongst the mint and over the courgette leaves, though the courgettes themselves are fine.

The Discovery apples are beginning to turn a “Snow White” red – very tempting! But we’re still picking windfalls rather than apples from the tree. The first of the plums were picked with many more to come – soft and perfectly sweet. We also spotted a late truss of lovely loganberries – a breaktime treat.

Colin from Caley Saughton joined us to fine-tune plans for the upcoming Harvesting and Storing workshop, contributing his weeding skills for a bit and staying for a coffee. It’s always good to have another set of eyes on the plot. We briefly discussed the possibility of trying an experimental “scavenger” crop such as rapeseed, in the bed affected by clubroot, as a way of drawing in the spores – for future consideration.

Not a lot of harvesting today, as we’re keeping as much as possible for the workshop. We did pick beans that were ready and would be past their best if left and some purple sprouting broccoli. We cut about half the tattie shaws, which help the potatoes begin to harden their skins in preparation for lifting.

The grass was mowed and edged, and we weeded along the windbreak, amongst the leeks and over at the Communal Bed. Extra support was carefully added to the peas, requiring very patient untangling.

We picked more sweet peas for the community café and even did a bit of housework – brushing out the shed whilst it was empty.

As it was getting oppressively hot, we left a bit earlier than usual.

Jobs for next week: water all plants with a comfrey feed and make up a new batch; weed; curtail our harvesting instinct for one more week!