As you can see in the before picture there was some pretty long grass which had gone to seed as well as various other weeds having a riotous time in that area. I remember being told never to let a weed see two Sundays but unfortunately these weeds have seen many many many Sundays!
I decided to set-to this weekend and get the paths and boundaries sorted - as you can see from this picture it really does make a big difference to how the plot looks; unfortunately however the other boundary is a bit more problematic. My neighbour next door has an interesting way of working and one of the things that he does is have fences and boundaries that are like Fort Knox. The fence between us is a mish-mash of chicken wire, tubing and other wire stuff. It is at least 4 layers thick which means that the weeds just grow in-between an it's almost impossible to get them cleared. A couple of weeks ago he informed me that it was my fault that it was such a mess because I don't dig the roots out and he proceeded to come and pull my membrane up while showing me how to dig the roots out along the fence line. Of course, all that did was allow the weeds to grow where the membrane now can't be pulled back all the way to the fence line.
He is going to be moaning at me however because I am planning to remove the whole fence and replace it with a single layer of chicken wire fencing. In the process I will then pull out all of the weeds and attempt to pull my membrane right under the fence before I replace it; which should stop the problem of getting any weeds grown up into the fence at all (as I say, he's not going to like that!)
I am also slightly giddy to tell you that my kiwi has flowered for the first time ever. I've had it for about 4 years and it was a good size when I bought it so I'm guessing it was a couple of years old when I got it. I was almost ready to give up on it but this year it is flowering and I've tried to give it a bit of a helping hand by using a cotton bud to pollinate them.I have been told (after I bought this) that kiwi actually need to have another plant in order for fruit to grow. I have therefore now bought 2 small kiwi, which I'm planning to grow in my new plot. In the meantime I'm going to put them into a big pot with something for them to grow up.
I have also bought a wisteria, which is currently in a pot. Unfortunately I put it into the pot and put it alongside my other potted plants near the polytunnel and then we had a really bad windstorm and the poor thing got battered. It's looking a bit sad but I've given it a good soak and feed and I'm hoping it will come back.
Yesterday I had a hedgehog on the plot, I was a bit worried about it because it was in the middle of the day and they shouldn't be out at that time. I put him in my hedgehog house and put a dish of water outside. I also found a couple of fat, juicy slugs that I put into the house with the hedgehog. I left him there last night and when I got back this morning he'd gone so hopefully he just needed a rest and a drink and we'll see him back again on the wildlife camera in the future. Funnily enough, having said that, it's not unusual for me to see the wildlife camera be activated during the night but I can't normally see what's set it off - I think now that it might be the hedgehog.
Everything is pretty much out of the polytunnel now, except for the tomatoes. There are a few things still in there that I'm not sure I'll manage to get out. Most of them are things that can be kept and continue to grow on over the summer because they will go into the new plot when it's ready. I've got a couple of shrubs that I'm planning to use to fill the gap in the hedge and some carnations that are very happy in their individual pots. I did have a problem with the tumbling toms because I wasn't able to get up and water in the week so when I did manage to get there on Friday they were really sad looking. I've asked my neighbour to switch the water on for a short time before she leaves in an afternoon so that they get a good soak more regularly. They are setting fruit so I really don't want to end up with them all splitting because of inconsistent watering.
I'm really pleased with what I've achieved so far this year and while I'm leaving 86a covered to try and kill off as much of the perennial weeds as possible I'm really looking forwards to having things growing in the other plot so I can maximise my crops.
Until next time then - Happy Gardening x
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