It was another hot one today (sorry if you’ve had rain and thunder, especially yesterday). Today reached about 29 degrees in the South East, where as yesterday we got up to 34!! Yes I know for September that it’s unheard of, and even for the UK it’s a rarity. I was working all day yesterday so was unable to get to the allotment. To be honest it was a little too hot to be out in the open for any length of time. Still I did get to sit in the park at lunch time and enjoy the sun. Today it was cooler (not by much) and I wasn’t working, so I went down the allotment for 3 hours!! Don’t worry I took plenty of water with me, and some lunch. I’m now working through each bed and weeding and harvesting what I need. After the summer holidays and all that came before, I feel like I’m making some headway again. Hopefully that’ll last and the weeds won’t take over again. I managed just over 2 barrow loads of weeds and grass, so that felt good. Some vegetables like the beans have come to an end, but I’ve harvest loads. Others are still growing like the Squashes and the Pumpkins. The Pumpkins are swelling up nicely, nothing massive, but still good sizes. Of course nothing is the perfect shape, but then that’s just boring, and not my style. I’m particularly proud of the Pumpkin and it’s extra growth.
My perfectly shaped pumpkin!!
Some of the large sunflowers have also come to an end, and my tallest this year is a little taller than me, so must stand around 6 foot tall. I checked to see if the chickens would eat the seeds from the head, and yes they can. It’s helps them in their egg production. So I harvest one massive head (it must be 12 inches across if not a little more) and I’ll dry it out on the garden table for a couple of days in the sun. Then I’ll pop it in the chicken run, and hope the girls enjoy it. There are plenty for them all to share, so there should be no fighting between them.
A sunflowers head for the chickens to share.
I’m off out tonight, so I’d better have a bath before I go. I’m a little on the yucky side, and shouldn’t really be near anyone else.
Clairesallotment's Blog 
Hi Claire I give my chooks a treat of a handful of mixed corn, mealworms, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. They would think they were in heaven if they had such a sunflower head. Are you going to hang it up in the coop?
Hi Claire I give my chooks a handful of mixed corn, mealworms, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds as a treat. They would think they were in heaven if they had your sunflower head. Are you going to hang it up in their coop?
I’ll put it on the ground and let them feast away.
Hi Claire, I don’t have an allotment or a garden but glad to see you still live in Surrey after all these years, and you are passionate and enjoy doing what you do. 🙂
Mark (you may or may not remember the name:-) )
I’ve not travelled far.
What a beauty of a pumpkin! Looks like it has a ‘C’ for Claire on the skin too.
I’m hoping to add some sunflowers to the my plot next year, my site neighbours ones do look fantastic. I’m sure the chickens will love yours too. x
They do brighten up the vegetable patch and the bees love them.
Lovely update thank you for sharing have a blessed day did not get round to growing pumpkin this year hopefully next year
Claire, this has been a week of rain. It’s rained just enough to prevent working in the garden. I’ve been trying to cleanup a side yard where I live and even that has been hindered by the rain. Concentration on Fall cleanup needs to be the focus now.
I harvested just a hand full of pumpkins. They were small about the size of a bowling ball. Many of the pumpkins were destroyed by raccoons, I think. They punched a hole in the side of the pumpkin about the size of a tennis ball and ate the entire contents of the inside. There was nothing left but a shell. So now I need to build a pumpkin fortress as well. Five watermelons made it to maturity but struggled with the vine borer early on. Now that I’ve defeated the raccoons in the sweet corn fortress, my focus will be on defeating the dreaded vine borer next year. There are many ideas floating around on how to do that. My plan is to try some methods out until I find one that works.
Have a great Fall cleanup day on the allotment.