When I did get up to the plot I had an autumnal pot I wanted to get planted. I had a witches cauldron that was supposed to be for sweets but I drilled some holes in the bottom and decided to plant it up! I think it looks fab with a heuchera cherry cola as the main plant and the trailing plants that were rescues so I don't know the names of them (if you can identify them please let me know!)I have made some decisions about my beds. I will definitely be moving my flower bed to next to the shed. The bed that had the onions in this year will be for potatoes so I have cleared the few weeds and dug up some onions that I missed when I harvested (they were little ones that hadn't grown) and covered it with a weed membrane. The bed that is currently covered will be for onions, I've already bought my sets and some garlic so I'm debating whether to lift that membrane and plant the sets now or plant through the membrane, which will help keep the weeds down or wait until the spring to put the sets in. Once I've decided I'll let you know - probably with photos if I decide to plant through the membrane.
The other bed that had potatoes in has already been planted with some brassica's but I also popped some beetroot in there, which I might lift and put into the polytunnel. I'm also not happy with the brassica's that are in there. They're all being munched so it's very possible that they'll come out and be replaced with something else. The current brassica bed, which is looking full of sprouts at the moment although the broccoli isn't looking so great, will be for peas and beans and the current flower bed will then be for roots, which I didn't grow this year. I have previously tried to grow carrots but they were rubbish because of the carrot root fly so I need to try a few different things this time to avoid it.
I had a bit of a problem with my fruit-cage today. My neighbour has mentioned that he's had to let a bird out of it and today there were 3 dunnocks in there. I am really careful to make sure that the netting is pulled tight and that there are no gaps but today I found that the netting had been lifted slightly at the back and I have no idea how that might have happened. After picking the raspberries I therefore re-did the netting and put extra tethers to try and keep it down. Hopefully that will sort it out!
I wasn't able to measure the height of my sunflowers today, which I'd wanted to do, because I was there on my own and I didn't think it was safe for me to be climbing on my stepping stool on my own! I would guess that the tallest is at least 12' high though and they all have loads of heads. They look amazing and I'm happy to leave some for the birds but I did decide to harvest some to bring home. I'm also going to try and save some of the seeds for next year because they have been brilliant so it would be fabulous if I could grow them again next year. The next few weeks are really going to be about planning for next year and thinking about how to get the best out of my plot. I have space in the polytunnel but I have no idea what I'm going to plant in there next year now that I've discovered peppers and chilli's are from the same family as tomatoes so they can't be grown in the same bed which is a bit frustrating! I might use that bed for the pumpkins or I might do some cabbages in there.
Hopefully this week will still be mild, I'm hoping to get up to the plot in the week because it's my birthday next week and littlest L will be playing against Bradford City Girls so I have no idea what time I'll get up there!
Happy gardening everyone :-)
