Today we have had the remnents of hurricane Katia across the country, here in Bristol its not been as bad as Scotland where they have had gusts of 87mph our biggest was 50mph. Still with winds this high you do need to make sure your crops are ok and be prepared to lose some, after checking on the plot tonight I am pleased to say the runner beans and climbing French have survived but we have lost a few sweetcorn so on the whole not bad. I am also pleased to see the polytunnel held up well but its still blowing hard outside so I am not going to count my chickens just yet.
When you are erecting your bean supports in the spring you forget that come September they will be fully grown and in full leaf and taking winds like today. I always make wigwams as supports but add extra support at the ends for weather events like today. The trials and tribulations of growing fruit, flowers and vegtables in the good old British weather is what makes what we do so enjoyable be it frost, wind or drought we love a challenge.
My next big challenge will involve trying to beat the elements as I attempt to over winter the peppers and chillis we have growing in the polytunnel. This will involve cutting them back to around 30cm height at the end of the growing season and trying to protect them from frost, I am going to do this by having cloches within the tunnel and then hoping they regrow again in the Spring. I will sow some in January just in case my overwintering fails.
Come wind, rain or shine there is always something to do at our allotment until next time goodbye.
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