Chemical warfare on the plot. Brownies, leg warmers and gloves at home.

I visited a social enterprise in Birmingham with work on Thursday.  It was a 2-hour drive there and back, giving me plenty of time to get stuck into my new book ‘The Permaculture Way’.

On Friday I made a chilli using homegrown tomatoes, chillies, peppers, onions and garlic. 

I used some peppers growing on the plant in our back garden.

The weather wasn’t great on Saturday so I stayed home and finished sewing up the leg warmer and the fingerless gloves.  I also baked a brownie.  I usually use the River Cottage brownie recipe, but this time I used Mary Berry’s ‘Best ever brownie’ recipe from her ‘Complete Cookbook’.  The brownies turned out well, I should have taken them out of the oven a bit sooner, our cooker must be quite hot as everything seems to be ready sooner that the cookbooks predict.

On Sunday I picked the first melon down at the allotment.

Our allotment neighbour Gary has waged war on his weeds by spraying everything with glyphosate.  Shortly after 3 of the tomato plants in the greenhouse started to die off and the leaves went brown.  The plants are directly opposite where he has sprayed, next to a vent in the greenhouse wall. 

I got rid of some of the nettles under the damson tree – it also seems to have suffered with something or other, and I’m hoping its not also fallen victim to Gary’s chemical attack.

Here's a quick pumpkin and marrow update.

There's a funny shaped chilli in the greenhouse.

The tomatoes are still coming thick and fast.

I picked loads of tomatoes (again).

Chris dug up the rest of the second earlies.

Here's what the greenhouses look like.

The back garden at home is looking a bit like a jungle.

The sweet peas are in full bloom.

The heliotrope/cherry pie plant smells like pie and looks delicious.

I turned over the TV on Sunday night and ended up getting sucked into a cool film called Intermission, set in Ireland and starring Colin Farrell.