The plot is dead

Sadly at 8:00 pm on Saturday 28th July I declared my plot officially dead for 2007. We went to visit it to see if the flood waters had drained away and see what impact the flood had caused. The good news was that the majority of water had gone - enough to allow us to drive right up to the entrance.

What greeted us was a stinking half rotten mess, the whole site all the same. The water had mostly disappeared with all that could drain away gone. The back of the plot was still under water and that will take several days to evaporate. The edges were ok to stand on but anywhere that had been dug was like a bog. Not knowing I strode out onto the soil only to find the mud over the top of my boots! It was so soggy and so saturated. The soil has clearly been starved of oxygen drowing all the plants. Practically all of them had died and were going black and mushy. The pumpkins had faded white and shrunk to half size. The courgettes were mush and the broad beans were jet black. Nothing had survived except the sweetcorn. This appeared to be still alive and had grown since the flood started. The heads had started to appear and maybe these will still make it through. I think its very stunted and is currently at 2' not the 6' it should be but at least its alive.

So thats it for 2007. Its now too late to plant again so I'll leave it to naturally decay and then dig it in. I'll be preparing the ground in Autumn for next year and hopefully will have more luck. I'll tidy up the debris and keep it weeded and who knows mabe corn will come good after all. Here are a selection of the pictures from Saturday and keep the blog updated from time to time especially if the corn makes it through!