We'd mulled over taking down the old shed for a while, although no longer in good shape we still stored a few thing inside and sort of liked it's ageing presence.

However, on Friday it was time to say goodby and two of our Heritage project volunteers came over and swiftly dismantled it, with little help with some of the gardening group.  Now,  the panels are all neatly stacked up waiting to start a new life, in line with our recycling ethos.

I can't say too much but come along to our end of project exhibition on the 27th (4.00pm-8.00pm) and 28th (10.00am - 4.00 pm) at the Burnham-on-Crouch Museum.

When we arrived at the allotment we were greeted by the sight of our runner bean frame laying on the floor.  All  was not  lost and we were soon able to upright it with the lose of only one plant.  The beans themselves weren't damaged and we had a good haul.  Sadly, the tomatoes have blight so were only able to gather a few in and decided to remove most of the plants as they were badly damaged.   Plenty of apples still around and the lettuces we planted two weeks ago have sprung to life but will need thinning our soon.
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We launched ourselves into weeding and managed to rescue the kale from the undergrowth (bit of an exaggeration). The purple headed broccoli is really coming on and we're looking forward to having it as our first veggie next year

We didn't make it over to the allotment yesterday, thankfully we did loads of weeding last week, so we feel it's all pretty much under control, mmm I've said this before and regretted it !!!!!!!!!!.

We all chuckled to see how fast the Cabbage White butterflies swooped in on the cabbages when we took the net off to do some weeding.

We have been over the allotment collecting apples including windfalls - with view to making various types of chutney. Our plum tree is bending under the weight of all it's fruit and we've certainly been enjoying eating the plums. Strangely, we don't have any pears this year!! Not sure why as there was loads of blossom .

I guess like most people a lot of our time at the moment is spent watering and weeding. I gave the tomatoes, beans and courgettes their first 'drink' of comfrey tea today. As I've  said before the stuff really pongs but the veg are supposed to love it.

As we had a linocut work shop this afternoon,  I was really careful not to spill any liquid on me - I assure you nobody would have wanted to sit near me if I had.
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On Friday we carried on harvesting and the group in addition to the black currents the've taken over the last few weeks also had: runner beans, beetroot, elephant garlic, onions and a few potatoes.

We've put some chard around the runner beans and it seems to have taken well, although they are still small and we need to be carful not to tread on them when we are watering the beans. I will probably cover them with a plastic bottle until they are a little stronger and more visable.

We re-netted the purple headed brocolli last week, which seems to have encouraged their growth.  Shortly they will be joined by kale and cabbages
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Gave the comfrey tea a stir.... I'd forgotten how pungent it smells.

I wasn't down at the allotment on Friday but the work group reported that the runner beans seem free of blackfly - could this be down to the garlic and mint spray we've been using on them?

.Our runner beans were going 'great guns' then I noticed that one of them was heavily covered in black fly - strangely, the others seemed hardly affected.

So, I did a bit of internet research and found an interesting  and easy to make recipe for a mint and garlic spray.

Apparently, blackfly hate the smell of this concoction and give any plants treated with it a wide berth.

I made it up over night and gave all the runner beans a good drenching with it in the morning.

 So far so good. The plant that had loads of black fly on it still looks pretty sickly but the others don't seemed to have become a target.