Tuesday
It rained hard just about all day. I walked down at lunchtime in slightly lighter rain and emptied the water into the bins as the trays were nearly full. The bottom corner of the plot was under water. I grabbed a bag of spinach for tea and retreated home as it was also becoming unpleasantly windy.
Wednesday
More water to collect in the morning and the bottom corner of the plot was still flooded, but thankfully the rain had stopped. All the dustbins were now just about full but there was a bit of space left in the blue barrel and water butt.
I spent some time weeding the tunnel and road end of the plot, which were dry enough to work in. While I was weeding the tunnel I noticed some caterpillars (large white) on the brassicas. These immediately struck me as very odd. Large whites lay eggs in clutches on one leaf, unlike small whites, which lay single eggs all over the place. Therefore if a butterfly had got in the tunnel there should be one or two infested plants with serious destruction to the leaves, and the rest should be untouched. I would expect all the caterpillars to be the same size. However there were one or two caterpillars on every single plant and they were a whole range of sizes from about 1/2 an inch long to nearly 2 inches. Even where the larger caterpillars were, the damage to the leaves was minimal and there wasn't much caterpillar poo. I picked off all I could see and continued weeding, very puzzled. After a while I came across another medium sized caterpillar crossing the path between the carrots and where the peas had been. There are no brassicas that side of the tunnel. I then noticed 2 more climbing the netting, one inside the tunnel and the other outside. The only conclusion I can come to is that the caterpillars are migrating from elsewhere and some are managing to get underneath the tunnel netting. I have never seen this before.
Apart from the weeding I emptied excess water out of the trays under the strawberries and ate a ripe strawberry, and harvested lettuce, a cucumber and a beetroot for lunch. I also decided to harvest the single cabbage that had been a spare from ones I'd grown for my friend and had been shoved in between calabrese plants. It had made a nice head but was clearly very slug damaged and I wasn't expecting it to be edible. In fact, having peeled off about half the leaves, the inside was clean and almost undamaged and it actually did me 2 meals.
Thursday
Busy as usual, but nipped down in the morning to harvest beans, a courgette, beetroot and lettuce and collect some water from Wednesday evening's showers. A little rain was forecast for later, but nothing much and I was pleased to see that the flooding in the bottom corner had nearly drained away.
So much for the forecast. It started to rain at lunchtime and got heavier and heavier until the heavens opened around 5pm. By the time I went to bed (still raining) we had had over an inch.
Friday
It rained all day. After Thursday's deluge I felt I had to go and empty the bin lids in the morning before they collapsed under the weight of water, so I chose a time when the radar didn't look too bad, and simply got wet. Unsurprisingly the bottom corner of the plot was again under water. As all the bins were full I propped the wheelbarrow up behind the shed and put away 2 of the 4 drip trays. I then grabbed some more spinach (nearly finished now) and went home to dry out.
Saturday
At last the rain had stopped. I went down first thing and crammed as much of the water from the bin lids as would fit into the bins. The water butt and blue barrel were also overflowing so I left the water from the roof in the bucket and put away the last 2 drip trays. There was still plenty of standing water on the grass and paths in the bottom corner. I waded round it to harvest lettuce and salad leaves, removed another caterpillar from one of the romanesco plants in the tunnel and decided to give it a day to dry out as I had plenty else to get on with.
It rained hard just about all day. I walked down at lunchtime in slightly lighter rain and emptied the water into the bins as the trays were nearly full. The bottom corner of the plot was under water. I grabbed a bag of spinach for tea and retreated home as it was also becoming unpleasantly windy.
Wednesday
More water to collect in the morning and the bottom corner of the plot was still flooded, but thankfully the rain had stopped. All the dustbins were now just about full but there was a bit of space left in the blue barrel and water butt.
I spent some time weeding the tunnel and road end of the plot, which were dry enough to work in. While I was weeding the tunnel I noticed some caterpillars (large white) on the brassicas. These immediately struck me as very odd. Large whites lay eggs in clutches on one leaf, unlike small whites, which lay single eggs all over the place. Therefore if a butterfly had got in the tunnel there should be one or two infested plants with serious destruction to the leaves, and the rest should be untouched. I would expect all the caterpillars to be the same size. However there were one or two caterpillars on every single plant and they were a whole range of sizes from about 1/2 an inch long to nearly 2 inches. Even where the larger caterpillars were, the damage to the leaves was minimal and there wasn't much caterpillar poo. I picked off all I could see and continued weeding, very puzzled. After a while I came across another medium sized caterpillar crossing the path between the carrots and where the peas had been. There are no brassicas that side of the tunnel. I then noticed 2 more climbing the netting, one inside the tunnel and the other outside. The only conclusion I can come to is that the caterpillars are migrating from elsewhere and some are managing to get underneath the tunnel netting. I have never seen this before.
Apart from the weeding I emptied excess water out of the trays under the strawberries and ate a ripe strawberry, and harvested lettuce, a cucumber and a beetroot for lunch. I also decided to harvest the single cabbage that had been a spare from ones I'd grown for my friend and had been shoved in between calabrese plants. It had made a nice head but was clearly very slug damaged and I wasn't expecting it to be edible. In fact, having peeled off about half the leaves, the inside was clean and almost undamaged and it actually did me 2 meals.
Thursday
Busy as usual, but nipped down in the morning to harvest beans, a courgette, beetroot and lettuce and collect some water from Wednesday evening's showers. A little rain was forecast for later, but nothing much and I was pleased to see that the flooding in the bottom corner had nearly drained away.
So much for the forecast. It started to rain at lunchtime and got heavier and heavier until the heavens opened around 5pm. By the time I went to bed (still raining) we had had over an inch.
Friday
It rained all day. After Thursday's deluge I felt I had to go and empty the bin lids in the morning before they collapsed under the weight of water, so I chose a time when the radar didn't look too bad, and simply got wet. Unsurprisingly the bottom corner of the plot was again under water. As all the bins were full I propped the wheelbarrow up behind the shed and put away 2 of the 4 drip trays. I then grabbed some more spinach (nearly finished now) and went home to dry out.
Saturday
At last the rain had stopped. I went down first thing and crammed as much of the water from the bin lids as would fit into the bins. The water butt and blue barrel were also overflowing so I left the water from the roof in the bucket and put away the last 2 drip trays. There was still plenty of standing water on the grass and paths in the bottom corner. I waded round it to harvest lettuce and salad leaves, removed another caterpillar from one of the romanesco plants in the tunnel and decided to give it a day to dry out as I had plenty else to get on with.
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