11th day at the plot

Weather at the plot: autumnal, mild and still. 98% humidity. 15 degrees at 3:00pm, 14 degrees at 5:30pm.

At the allotment for a few hours this afternoon. I walked the hoe up there, through Hartshill Park.

* Hoed the remaining weeds off the lower plot.

* Put ten half-sacks of bark chippings onto the path edges, to help suppress weeds.

* Pruned and then dug out a big unwanted gooseberry bush from my immediate neighbour's plot (with permission).

* Dug over a strip of the middle plot, in order to plant my row of gooseberry bushes. I'm hoping these can be trained into a 'hedge' that will divide the lower from the middle plot. One of them had just been left in a pot, and stuffed in with the mint. There are still two more small ones elsewhere, that will have to be transplanted into the row on another day...

The first light night-frost is due for this coming Friday night, according to the Stoke forecast.