We’ve been having gusts from the edge of Storm Evert and this was how my runner beans greeted me when I got to the plot to check the tomatoes. They were waving happily up and down and I picked the beans while I waited for help to arrive. In the end, help came from JG up the path, who brought a couple of big poles and some nylon twine to make some heft guy ropes.  Soon enough the beans were back upright and the only injuries were a couple of the canes, which had snapped but were still holding together.

The sweetcorn suddenly has cobs on it, and I’ve finally found the first broccoli head developing among all the huge leaves.

There are lots of flowers coming on the French beans now, and the final seedling has also appeared. So there will be beans, just not quite yet.

I’ve pulled up the poppies in the veg bed. There weren’t many flowers left and they were getting in the way of the development of the second set.

I went down to the plot after work and was very glad that I did, as the Roma tomatoes were showing signs of blight. I wasn’t really surprised, as before I’d even seen them, walking round by the apple tree and ledge seemed very dark and full.

More than just brown marks on the stems, some of the foliage had dark damaged patches with white underneath. I stripped off all the foliage with any sign of damage and then moved on to just taking off most of the foliage, making lots of airflow.

I’ll work on taking a lot more foliage off the cherry tomatoes too. There’s a brown mark on the stem, but nothing more yet. Seeing as the Ferlines have made pretty good trusses, I hope they manage to avoid the blight.

Every time I think I’m going to pull up the poppies, they do this. If they don’t stop soon, I’ll have to make myself pull them up while they’re in bloom.

Lexi and family came to inspect the plot. Lexi may not have been let in to mine, but still managed to zoom in and out of next door while C and V were getting through their gate.

I picked the first cherry tomato. It was nice, but could have been sweeter. I’ll leave the other one a little longer before picking.

Mum came down to pick the high beans and cut the long stems back. Together we put in four firm guy ropes to stop the frame blowing about in the breeze. Two are on the fence side, attached about ⅔ of the way up, leading down pegs hammered into the ground and then secured with another peg hammered in over the top (as the first pegs came straight back out with the strength of the wind). The other two guy ropes are on the other side, nearer the edges and at a less acute angle. Now the frame barely moves if you give it a shake. This will be our new MO for cane trellises.

I did another round of tomato pruning – particularly trying to get a bit of air among the Romas. I discovered more fruit coming on those too.

The compost area had become pretty overgrown, so I’ve made a start on clearing it, cutting back the geum, pulling up yards and yards of bindweed. I wasn’t dressed for tackling the nettles and the sun was too hot for my hoodie, so they’ll have to be cut down another day. I really need to get at all the canes down there and see what’s worth keeping.

The few ants that were on the compost bin earlier in the afternoon became a load of flying ants a couple of hours later. With no kettle of boiling water available, I spritzed them all with bug spray, just in case that at least annoyed them.

Pretty sure this is my tallest ever sunflower.

I’ve stood up the yarrow, which hd completely flopped out from its centre. I’ve put short canes in all the way round, so hopefully tomorrow’s heavy rain won’t immediately undo all that work.

Having seen how many runner beans are coming this year, I think I’ll simply keep feeding the borlotto beans, but leave them for a dried bean harvest.

The sweetcorn are still short, but suddenly have cobs and tassels.

I couldn’t find a support tall enough for the uchiki kuri to sit on, but it’ll be resting on this pot before long. It doesn’t need to get much bigger.

The first Gold Nugget is almost ready to pick and the first Roma plum tomato has appeared.

The runner beans were waving about far too precariously in the gusts. The soil is really soft and dry, so the canes are moving about in their holes, which doesn’t help. I did what I could on my own to support them. At least another cane needs to go in the other side. Beans need picking too, and the vines need a bit of pruning at the top, not least to take off a tiny bit of weight.

New female flowers are appearing on the pumpkin and one was on the grass, which I guided back in. There’s also a great pumpkin growing in the middle.

After some big old rainstorms, we went down to the plot to check if everything was ok. The yarrow has fallen out from the centre somewhat, but needs a more concerted effort to get it back up than I had time for.

The two middle supports on the uchiki kuri had snapped – not from the weather, but under the weight of the fruits. I had no idea they’d get this big. We managed to push the frame up a bit and put in new canes and bind them up. But there’s no question that it’s all much lower than it started.

Other than that there wasn’t a great deal to do. I staked up a few tomatoes, and a broccoli and also took a limb off the pumpkin in order to get it out of the way of the current pumpkin. It feels a bit sacrilegious to cut off a female flower, but there are others.

I did a lot of tomato pruning on all the plants today, trying to get some good air flow, as well as reducing the sheer weight of the plants on their supports.

The sweetcorn suddenly looks bigger, though still smaller than other people’s. I also weeded this bed, the broccoli, the tomatoes and the French beans, some of which was very overdue. Looks much better now.

Seeing as we had heavy rain after I fed things last weekend, I fed everything again today. Everything has had tomato food, except for the chard and broccoli, which I just left.

The food is clearly working. The uchiki kuri are huge (I didn’t think they’d get big like this!). There is no at least one female flower on all four pumpkin plants – and the current pumpkin is getting bigger.

The runner beans and borlotto beans are going now and I was able to pick the first ones. The tomato plants are insanely thick and leafy but they do have fruits. Hopefully continued feeding will rebalance them.

The chard that I had cut right down has started to grow leaves again. So it’s not a quick process, but it is possible to restart if it bolts.

I did lots of weeding, deadheading and edging today. Everything’s growing really well. I’ve stood up the broccoli that was leaning. I was able to just take out one peg, but I’ll have to dismantle more to do the weeding.

The uchiki kuru has grown a huge amount in the past few days.

The first runner beans are here. And the sweetcorn is still fairly short, but has tassels now, so that’s a good sign.

I started deadheading the Canterbury Bells as usual and then realised that it had loads of buds on the stem right behind the one big dead flower. So instead deadheading needs to be just the flower and with any luck we’ll get another flush.

I fed everything in the plot with tomato food, except for the broccoli and chard.

My first glut – six courgettes, which were spread around the neighbourhood.

I did lots of edging and weeding today – and finally cut down much of the nettle patch by the compost bin. There are more to go yet, but I barely got stung and didn’t want to push my luck too much.

Some of the broccoli leaves have these little dots on the leaves. They don’t particularly match anything in the pest photos, so I guess I’ll just wait and see.