A recurring theme
We had an exceptionally good year for tomatoes I’m pleased to report but today I decided it was high time I cleared the plants out of the greenhouse. This was a task that was well overdue and not a bad job to do on a rather cold, damp and uninviting day.
As usual, to allow for failures, and with the intention of disposing of any plants I didn’t need, I sowed far more seeds than I really needed. Naturally, almost all of them germinated, and regardless of my resolution to plant only as many as I needed I found space for far too many. Now, with the plants packed in probably a little too closely and side-shoots running wild as my pruning routine had become a little lax towards the end of the season, the greenhouse looked a bit of a jungle. A few snips of the secateurs and I soon felt that I was making a bit of progress though, and within a short time the debris was cleared and I was ready for a nice, hot cup of tea.
That job done, I found myself in clearing up mode so I headed to the allotment and set about uprooting the sunflowers. They’ve done their bit for this year and most of the heads have been pecked clean by the birds so it was their turn to be cleared.
We always grow sunflowers. Our allotment is on the edge of the site and near to a path that is popular with walkers. We get lots of admiring looks and kind comments about them and quite a few people stop to take pictures too. They’ve become a bit of a feature so I don’t think we could ever stop growing them. However, sunflowers self-seed incredibly easily and this year we let far too many of them grow to maturity. It’s as difficult to weed out a healthy sunflower as it is to throw away a tomato plant that you’ve grown from seed it would seem!
By the time I got all the sunflowers out the pile of stems looked like a lumberjack’s yard and my back was beginning to ache I have to admit. Still, there was a bit of time left so I decided to tackle the bean canes.
As I began to deconstruct the wigwams I couldn’t help wondering if four wigwams of runner beans and French beans might be a few too many for just the two of us but once you’ve gone to the trouble of germinating the seeds and getting them ready to plant out it seems a shame not to give them a chance to grow!
With a good day’s clearing done and the debris consigned to the compost bins, I was packing up my tools as one of my neighbours stopped for a chat. ‘I’ve got far too many beetroot and squashes I don’t know what to do with,’ he said. ‘Next year I will be spreading things out a bit and growing a lot less.’
‘I’ll be growing a lot less too,’ I agreed.
Neither of us will of course.