A little help ...

The robin did his best to help me today with the big clear up, two weeks since my last visit and I hardly recognised the place. In Norse mythology the robin is supposed to be a familiar of Thor and it's appearance was connected with the arrival of thunder storms, luckily it stayed sunny and warm in Fulham because I had lots to do. It was difficult to know where to start really, some weeds were three feet tall and some plants had completely overgrown others, it was a mess.

First I picked about forty five courgettes and fifteen marrows, more than I could carry back home with me.  It's a bit difficult to tell from this picture but the front row courgette plants were now growing up against the shed, they had to go. It's quite difficult to pull the plants up because they're very prickly and the scratches seem to irritate my skin.

It made quite a pile of compost, more than I could fit in the the compost bin so I left it by the box as you can see. Having cleared the plants this was when the robin rushed in to help me by picking out any insects I had left behind, i think he was quite curious about having his picture taken.

I think the end result was worth it though, now I have a clear space to start growing things for next year as well. On the edge of the dark cleared soil you can just make out some the leeks which were totally over shadowed by the courgette plants, whose spiky stems have shredded the young leeks, I wonder if they will recover?

My other abundance is of tomatoes, this is much more welcome. I picked about fifty of the small plum type, they are very sweet although a lot of them have split, did it rain a lot while I was away? Not so much luck with the beef tomatoes, they just don't seem to ripen. I picked some more onions too, so it's robin ratatouille for dinner tonight!