We’ve got a collection of sewing needles and today I asked Jane to dig out the big ones. The reason was that I wanted to repair a plant cover I knocked together last year. The original was a square of wooden planks with two blue plastic hoops and horticultural fleece on the sides and over the top. However, a couple of months ago, I noticed that the top cover had got ripped in some of the high winds and today I finally finished off my planned fix, sewing in some reinforcing gussets made of rolled-up fleece with garden twine.

That is now installed back at the allotment protecting a late planting out of cabbage plants. I wanted to get them out earlier but it took longer than expected for them to bulk up a bit – hopefully they won’t get wiped out by slugs the same way September’s Pak Choi did. I don’t know what this winter’s weather will bring but I won’t be surprised if we get some high winds that will effectively test the measure of my work.