A sad day for courgettes.

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The courgettes are no more.

They have ceased to be, bereft of life they rest (in peace) on the compost heap. Sorry, I got a bit distracted. Following the discovery of the powdery mildew I have taken them up, partly because I’ve had enough of courgettes, but also to protect the squashes that are in their vicinity at the moment. I am not really worried, as the courgettes get it every year up here, but at least I have had a nice crop from them this year.

The sweetcorn is also mixed form, with the older plants on it’s last legs as well. I have left the younger, newer sweetcorn and all the older, already cropped sweetcorn is up and out. Again, I am not unhappy as I have managed to get a good crop of corn this year. And there are about 18 ears of corn on the newer plants, they need another good week to ripen, so they will be left till next weekend.

The whole year has seen fairly good crops of my peas, french beans and mange tout. I put it down to the warm and wet conditions we’ve had. The same ones that has seen an increase in spiders and crane flys this year. Oddly enough mrs MK had commented about the increased number of spiders (and webs) in the house the night before the news article was mentioned on the television.

The warm daytime weather is still bringing on a lot of raspberries, with me getting a good handful a day, which are very welcome at this time of year. I’ve taken to having them on porridge in the morning (and it’s one of my five a day). I’ve also started a batch of raspberry vodka off. I would like to reassure any readers out there that I am not an alcoholic. Honest. Although five measures of raspberry vodka a day might be a nicer prospect.

I dug up some more beetroot and decided to store it in sand in the garage. Luckily for me I have a couple of bags of sand kicking around (well you never know when you’ll need them). So I layered the beetroot in sand which should mean I can have beetroot in December if I want. There are still a lot left on the plot but they can wait another week or two. I’ll give a lot to some friends and probably make cake and chutney.

The allotment does look a bit bare, with large swathes of it empty or covered in manure, so it can be a little bit forlorn. I am not too worried though. Everything that is there will be used up in the winter months.

On the plus side it is still giving me a good bounty every day and life is good. I have started on the leeks, and they taste wonderful.

And weirdly enough, my broad beans are flowering again ! I don’t reckon I’ll get anything but if it gives the bumble bees a free feed then I will leave them.

The weather is still with us and hopefully the good weather will help my squashes ripen. I may seem a little obsessed with them but only because in previous years my butternut squash have come to nothing, so now I have at least 6 I want them to ripen because if they do they look a million times better than the ones in the supermarkets.

The world is good, the sun is shining, everything is busy doing it’s Autumnal thing. Make the most of it while it’s nice enough …

• 29 Sep, 2009
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