A quieter week, so far...

The fabulous frames for growing squash over... we can only but dream!

7 August 2025 (Thursday)

It’s fair to say that so far this week has been somewhat of a quieter week, so far...  And when I say quieter week I mean less frenetic and less busy in the head. It’s still been a really busy week, with things having to be done every day and these things fully being done every day, though there's also been space in my head to be able to allow me to get on with other things, however small or.major they might be, and get on with them effectively.

The plot, which is really looking okay and fine at the moment, has thrown up a challenge, albeit a challenge which I knew I had, and that's with the cinquefoil. I know I've said it before, though for me it is the worst weed to have on the plot. It's so invasive and pernicious, which is really horrible to say about a plant which is rather lovely. Its Latin name is Potentilla reptans, and as cinquefoil suggests it has five parts to each leaf, and it also has lovely yellow flowers.  However, it has an aggressive trailing habit, akin to a strawberry because it is a relative of that plant, and this is what makes it really invasive. I found out early in the week that it had really knitted its way through our grass paths, and as I've said in segments of A Week at the Plot this week on Planet Vegetaria, I'm now mulling whether I get rid of my between bed grass paths and turn them into wood chip paths.

It's really a shame that this plant takes hold quite so quickly, and voraciously, and because it's got a really large tap root I was sure, as others have said, that actually when the soil is rich rather than poor it won't like it; the tap roots suggests that it takes up nutrients from deep deep down. However, it seems to love any type of soil and, particularly grass paths where it can surreptitiously weave its way through the individual blades of grass, keeping close to the ground and keeping well camouflaged. When I took a hand fork to a section of the grass, sliding it horizontally close to the soil level and between the individual grass blades, I lifted up a whole load of its runners.

Cinquefoil... about 8kg of it... and another bag similar!

​So I now think the best way to deal with it is to have as little grass for it to surreptitiously grow through as possible. Yes, I can weed it out and those roots that really do go down too - where I see them I will take them out.  It's happened pretty well with the beds, except at the very edges, where on the outside edges cinquefoil thrives, I've managed to weed most of the growing areas of a whole load of this invasive weed. And I guess by not managing the soil well, as the half of the plot that is invaded by it wasn't before I took it on, it allows it to propagate. By working the soil, I think the amount of propagation and thorough weeding of it reduces its spread, and therefore its propagation and negative impact.

So anyway, I’m mulling whether some of our grass paths become wood chip paths, though at the moment I think the likelihood is 70% for wood chip paths and 30% to keep the status quo. Time will tell…

My desk work work this week, ie For Earth's Sake and the Great Green Barn… having had a really good day physically down with Vanessa last week I was able to just crack on with a whole load of things this week; needing very few answers from Vanessa which meant that I could just push forward. One of the important jobs was designing a new advert using Canva for one edition of the local Round & About magazine, to highlight all we have in the autumn season so far (and I’m working on more to book in) and also show how the Great Green Barn’s space can be used in various different ways… hopefully, the ad does this!

Great Green Barn's autumn ad for Round & About, September

Also, For Earth's Sake's closing for a summer break; a fortnight of repairs and maintenance… and a few alterations! It may be that we end the two weeks with having more space in the side barn that currently houses all of the dispensable liquids and all of the fruit and veg. There's an area at the back where the fruit and veg could move to which would allow much more space for the liquids down one side, rather than them being a bit bunched up together as they are at the moment. It would also allow for another chiller cabinet to go in which would be hugely beneficial. 

And so to other things…

A temporary bike rack at Kew Gardens - put in place to accomodate Thursday evening's session of cycling through Kew Gardens.

This morning, Richard and I went to Kew Gardens which of course is always a fabulous place to visit. We took advantage of early opening for members only, where they open two of their gates at 8am rather than 10am. Again, it felt as though we had the whole of Kew Gardens to ourselves, apart from Kew’s staff and craftsmen who do a good bulk of their work before the gates open to the public.

When we'd arrived at Brentford Gate (Fenella was parked up and would wait patiently for our return - most probably hob-nobbing with other cars as they arrived, passing glances between each other) and had our tickets scanned, we were told the gates close at 4pm today as this evening they have the special event of allowing people to come and cycle through the gardens - and as we walked around we saw various adaptions in place to accomodate this, including green barriers at the entrance of places which I think cyclists will be allowed to put their bikes against, and at the big lake there was a temporary cycle rack (above), which I thought a great idea!  We also visited the Kew Kitchen Garden, not to be confused with Kew Palace's Kitchen Garden... I did a segment in here for this week's A Week at the Plot (which will be uploaded next Monday), and was truly amazed at this fabulous squash frame at the top of this post - currently, we can only dream of such a structure, and of course admire Kew's own!

We had a great two and a half hours there, and if you're a member of Ko-fi I did a little piece at the side of one of the less traversed ponds at Kew Gardens. So if you're a Ko-fi member, go over and have a watch.  And if you're not a Ko-fi member, and have six pound coins spare, why not have a think about joining for a month and seeing if we're worth it… just like L’Oreal…

I'm at the plot, dictating this into my phone and later on I'll be sitting at my desk correcting the grammar and also making sure spell check has worked, because sometimes when I say ‘weed’ it comes up as ‘read’ or occasionally ‘reed’ if it's feeling in the horticultural mood.

Richard's at home at the moment doing some recording of rhubarb recipes; I think a Rhubarb Fool with Greek yogurt, and also hopefully making a crumble. I've got no idea what supper is going to be yet; it may just be some salad with cheese as we've got lots of lettuce and tomatoes and cucumber, or maybe it will be something like a farinata which I've been wanting to make for absolutely ages but never got round to.  I think it needs time to sit after the batter’s been made, so maybe that's something for another day. 

Anyway, much of this will become clear by bedtime!

Happy Days indeed!
​

Weather:  It’s overcast much of the day, around 22°… the sun tries its hardest to break through, though never quite makes it…

Breakfast:  All Bran, Yogurt and a little oat milk
Snack:  Lidl Corncakes with some buttery spready, yeast extract and thin slivers of cheese
Lunch:   Lidl Lentil Soup bulked out with softened red lentils, cottage cheese, yeast extract, cucumber, tomato, radish and crackers
Supper:  I’ll let you know!

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