I nipped down to the allotment between rain showers this morning, forgetting my phone for about the first time ever. So when I pulled up to the plot, the helianthus was flowering for the first time ever and there was a squirrel – another first – running down the fence post by the pear tree. He then headed off along the right hand fence into Mr B’s.

I picked the harvest and then in the afternoon there was a sort of break in the rain that allowed me to take L and D down to the plot. We met the squirrel on the path this time!

I was 24 hours too late for the last sweet corn cob. Something, probably a bird, had completely eaten it and shredded leaves were at the base of the plant. So now all the sweet corn stalks are cut down and chopped up. Just the stalks to dig up soon.

The robin came back later and was very close to where  I was working, just the other side of the tomato netting from me. Then it flew off to stand on the stalks to have a look around.

Most of my time was spent making a start on the trellis bed. I’ve cut down some of the purple toadflax, but I also plan to take at least some of them out as there are too many tall things here. The bed is now in that scruffy half-done phase. The toadflax up by Mr B’s gate will be kept as it seems to suit there and is covering anything else up.

My buckets and sacks are now officially completely full, so we’re going to the tip tomorrow to empty them out – and throw away the bucket I broke today 🙁

Today was a mammoth edging, weed-picking-as-I-go day, topped off with a mow of the allotment. The robin came to see me again. I’m keeping some sunflower hearts in my pocket now to see if I can get it to come to me. He certainly took a good look at the food I was holding out in my hand.

It was a two person harvest, but the head of the big sunflower has now been chopped off, all intact. The remaining stalk still looks rather nice, so it can stand there a while longer. The head is about 16″ / 40 cm across.

The pumpkins are now stood much more upright and I’ve trimmed off excess foliage. The pumpkins are orange all over, so it won’t be long before they come home. There’s a huge amount of weeds in all that straw, so that’ll be going to the bin rather than the compost heap.

I was doing pick weeding as I went around and discovered a dead carrot frond, which led to this squishy carrot. No idea why it’s like that.

Having had a few caterpillars on our plates – and with not much broccoli left – I decided to remove the netting. It was the small cabbage white that had somehow got through. It if it had been the large one, I expect the plants would have been history by now. I did a very careful examination of each piece I harvested.

I did a huge amount of deadheading. It might be a time suck, but it’s rather therapeutic and enjoyable.

The borlottos are turning towards a different stage of dry. I need to harvest them when I can hear  them rattling in the pods. One pod had split open, so I picked it to see how the beans are doing. They might be Christmas presents this year, depending on the size of the harvest.

The big sunflower has now bent so low that I can’t walk under it. I need to cut it down before anyone helps themselves to the seeds and ruins its look.

The gourds are also close to harvest too. It won’t be long before the office starts filling up.

I’d come down after work and my shed looked rather lovely in the setting sun with all the marigolds in front of it.

I’ve taken the runner bean roots out now and weeded and edged the bed. There were almost no nitrogen nodules on the roots, so those plants really were done for.

Continuing the rolling tidy up, I’ve cut down the finished sweetcorn stalks and cut them up for the compost heap.

This is the prettiest gladiolus so far. It had fallen over a bit, so I took it home for the vase. They have reasonable vase life, which is better than having them being pretty down the allotment while I’m not there during the week.

The two JBLs are suddenly looking much more orange.

In the afternoon I finished tidying up Bed 3 and edged it. I can’t wait to get rid of the big slope at the front of the bed, so I can stop falling down it. The big coreopsis is still flowering. I’m not entirely sure if it’ll come back next year, but it could do with being moved a little further into the bed.

Flowering broccoli and four cobs of corn, of varying quality. There’s one cob and a couple of little companions left to go.

Today’s big job was removing the runner beans. I thought I was going to just get rid of what vines I could, but ended up dismantling everything and all the vines are now on the compost heap. There was no sign of any flowers and no more viable bean pods. I’ve left weeding, lifting the roots and edging the bed for another day.

I took a break to rake up some apples for the compost and disturbed my robin friend under the tree. I was then stuck in a ridiculous position while I watched him and he watched me. When I got back to work, he stayed under there for quite a while before coming out to explore further. I’m a little concerned that he can’t fly properly, but he’s doing ok so far.

All of a sudden the broccoli is flowering, so we’ll have to pick some more soon.

I’ve started a hugel stick collection for possible use in my renovated beds. The latest additions are a couple of big sticks/logs, which had rolled out of the hedge by the main entrance.

The leaf mould bin has now been almost filled with the compost that had come out of the bin, plus the bags of shredded oak leaves. The pile of black bags had condensed a fair amount so I was surprised to find how much there was.

As another part of my ongoing improvements, I’ve laid a half slab in front of the left hand water butt. I can get a bucket under there ok, so wanted to preserve that. I’m also planning to properly cut off the end of the left boundary, so it doesn’t just descend into weeds all the time.

The leaf bin project is almost complete! I cut down the red geum that keeps getting in the way on the compost bin and cleared up the end section of the ledge. Then it was on to clearing the nettles from the side of the shed. Fortunately almost all of them were simply coming through from the other side. Alongside bundles and bundles of bindweed, the nettles filled a whole sack.

We’ve scraped out all the spilled/thrown compost that was sitting between the bin and shed. All the bits of wood and old canes have been sorted, then put back along the ground, as flat as we can make them. It’s unlikely that I’ll need the big poles at any point, so this is the easiest way to deal with them. I’ve put down tiles on the ledge, ready for the leaf mould bin tomorrow.

We had company from a comma caterpillar, and the robin was back. He hopped about very near to us and I came across him on the compost heap, having evidently found some goodies among the compost we’d scraped up and returned to the top of the heap.

The robin came to see me today, taking the opportunity to sit on my basket, stand in the shed doorway and on the water bottles and then tour all around the plot near me while my phone sat in the basket.

I fed the cucumbers, courgettes, French beans and some flowers. I’ve given up on the runner beans now. There are a last few pods to pick, but no flowers are forming in spite of feed. While there are still crops growing, it’s time to start tidying up what’s done.