Tuesday,Wednesday September 1,2

September started where August left off, wet, cool and windy. If anything worse than the previoous month.

Thursday September 3rd

A slightly better day. At least there was enough time between the heavy showers to get something done outside!

Weeded, thinned out and hoed the late sowings of carrots and turnips and then recovered them with fleece leaving about 20cm below it for them to breath and grow. The celery is growing well but the way the weather is think this might need fleece to keep it going well into the autumn. Then back top my daily task of finding and squashing caterpillars on the brassicas, especailly the sprouts and brocolli which we will need for winter greens in a few months..

The new grape vines seem to like this weather and have grown really well. It was only my intention to get some good spurs on them for next year but we noticed a few grapes on them actually ripe. Quite small but sweet and juicy. Bodes well for next year?

Friday - Monday September 4th - 7th

The weather is slightly improving - warmer and drier but still windy.

Unfortunately my health has not been good so I have doner very little in the garden. Monday particularly I was feeling really bad with severe asthma (20% respiratory function despite over 100 puffs of salbutamol over 36 hours), arthralgia and dizziness. I have no idea what has caused this.

Tuesday September 8th

Warm but overcast and even windier. Some showers later in the day.

Started to feel better by lunchtime so continued to lay the base for the shed.

Wednesday September 9th

Warm during the day with clear spells but quite cool overnight

Finished laying the base and amazingly the two diagonals were only 4mm different. For a 3m x 4m rectangle that is definitely a good square fit!!

Thursday September 10th

Misty overnight but soon cleared to another sunny day.

From now on there is a risk of it getting quite cold at night so I have covered the celery bed with fleece to stop it going limp. Apart from the cabbages and kale these are our main greens for the next few months.

The Arran Pilot potatoes I cooled in the refrigerator and then planted in pots are starting to come through. The bigger ones I have now planted into JI compost in 10L pots which will grow in the polytunnel to hopefully produce new potatoes around Christmas time. Last year an early frost bad enough to penetrate the polytunnel knocked them back.

Friday September 11th

A really sunny day once the mist had cleared.

Went for a walk round Whixall Moss. Plenty to see with the heather in full bloom and autumn fruits, particularly Rowan and Blackberry. There were lots of damsel flies around but I never managed to catch one settled anywhere for a photograph.

Saturday September 12th

Back to overcast with the odd glimpse of the sun.

Dug up the last maincrop potatoes. Golden Wonder. These have very thick skins and should keep well into next year. Not that good a yield for a maincrop, only around 12kg from the 1.5kg seed, but that is not surprising seeing as there was very little sun while they were growing the tubers during August. That is one of the reasons for growing several different types, hoping that one will be mzturing when the weather is right. Tnis year that was the 2nd early Kestrel.

Pulled up the late onions to dry in the polytunnel for next spring. A good yield of firm bulbs.

Sunday September 13th

Similar autumn high anticyclone weather; settled and overcast.

Finished clearing the 30 years of ivy and leaf mold off the top oif the woodshed, Now finally I can start to build the new shed. The weather is perfect for this at least

Monday September 14th

Similar weather.

The leaf mold off the top of the woodshed looked so good it was a shame to just pile it on the turf mound or even in the compost. So I sieved it and ended up with 7 80L bags, enough for most of the JI compost I will need next year. Now I need somewhere to store it - like a new shed!!

Tuesday - Thursdey September 15-17

More settled weather, overcast, cool with the odd sunny interval

Spent quite a lot of my time watering and tidying the garden so not much progress with the shed.

Friday-Monday September 18-21

Similar weather.

Picked the Russet apples. A goo crop, around 40kg. They keep well so should be enough to last us well into next year. The Laxton's have failed and the Bramley's aren't much better. There are some good apples on the new trees but these are not yet ready to pick and only a dozen or so on each.

Started to build the shed. The last one took me around 3 days to complete. This one is twice as big so might take a little longer even though I learned how to do it with the first one. The gusty wind doesn't help when you are trying to screw metal panels to a frame.

Tuesday-Tuesday September 22-29

Weather stays the same apart from occasional light drizzle

Still building the shed except for the weekend when I wasn't very well with the usual symptome.

All very boring really