It's been a bit wet the last fortnight with some very high winds at the start of the month. At last, we've had a dry weekend so I managed to get on to the plot for an Autumn tidy up. The first thing was to plant a handful of Autumn Raspberry canes, the rather lovely 'All Gold'. Perhaps it's bit early for them to be moved but they were going free so I had them, hopefully they will catch, if not, nothing lost.
I've grown garlic in the past, planting the cloves in March. However, the books recommend that garlic should be planted in the Autumn as it needs a spell of cold weather so the bulbs develop properly. So, for the first time I planted some seed garlic at the 'proper' time and have been surprised to see that the cloves have put up two inch stalks already. I thought that they would remain dormant until Spring but obviously not! There's always something to learn.
I cleared away the last two red summer cabbages to the 'fresh' compost bin and added some shredded paper to the older bin as it looked a little wet. I gave the older bin a bit of a fork over and it will be suitable to use under the greedy feeders like squash next season. Talking of squash, these have become a firm family favourite. This year I tried a few 'unnamed' Butternut seeds and a few 'Sweet Dumpling' seeds. From three Butternut plants we had around ten squashes and from three Sweet Dumplings we had around sixteen. Not a great crop but next year I'm going to be more choosy about the seed I use. (Pictured are some examples of my rather attractive Butternut & Sweet Dumpling squashes).
One last word on Winter squash - while we haven't traditionally been too fussed on the taste of Pumpkin, I always grow one for Halloween. This year I planted some of last year's saved seed (I believe it was Jack O' Lantern) and got a good 16lb specimen. We then roasted and ate some and, to our surprise, it was pretty good. Either we had a mild tasting pumpkin or it was crossed with a nicer squash! (This year's pumpkin pictured next to a sewing machine for scale. Same fella after my wife took a knife to it).
I've given each bed a quick dig over as I've cleared the crops away this Autumn and I've decided to pull my plastic covers over some bare areas. I like covering my plot where I can for the Winter because the covers stop my clay soils getting sodden so I can dig them even if we have a rainy Spring and the black covers warm the soil ready for sowing. I dug a few more feet of my ongoing project, the 2' strip down the side of my plot. It's infested with couch grass and I'm taking out half a bucket of white roots for every square foot - it's hard going but it will give me a bit of extra space.
The leeks (old reliable Musselburgh) have taken a bit of a battering in the last fortnight in the very high winds. Despite this they are thickening up well and I've already eaten a row. I've tried a few leek varieties over the past few years but Musselburgh are still a good choice, growing quickly and can be cropped from October to April.
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