21 Oct - Courgettes, Spuds & Leeks

The weather has been lovely for the past week or so though, at the time of writing, it's all grey skies and drizzle. Seeing the forecast, I put my back into the plot and got everything as tidy as I could over the past few days.

The first job to finish off was the bed where the Winter squash and runner beans had been. I started digging over this area last month but got sidetracked with other things. I'd left two of the four courgette plants in the bed too as they still looked healthy; sure enough they were producing courgettes right up until this week when I dug them up. (Pic - courgette 'Atena' still producing mid-October).

The only plants left in this area now are the Musselburgh leeks. I decided to remove the enviromesh cover and frame on the basis that most of the leek moth threat has passed and the plants could do with the extra light during the increasingly shorter days. The plants have suffered some damage, mainly due to holes in the enviromesh, and I spotted and removed three caterpillar/cocoons. 

Still, they aren't too bad with damage mainly on the outer leaves which were stripped off. I weeded around the leeks and added a sprinkling of fertilizer to give them a boost going into the Winter. There are a number of decent sized leeks so I dug the first one of the season - lovely! They should continue to swell now and put on a bit of growth.

This side of my allotment is now completely weeded and roughly dug over for the Winter. I'll cover as much as I can with black plastic as I find that this helps to preserve the soil structure which can get very heavy and boggy as it's clay. Covering it allows me to get on it early in the Spring.

The last main bed to be dug over is the one with the main crop potatoes in it over the other side. I started harvesting them early this month and have finally got them all up. I wasn't too hopeful about getting a decent crop looking at the plants themselves as they looked rather stunted and poor. Of course, they have mostly gone over now but the blight resistant Sarpo Mira seem to go on, growing well into Autumn when all the other potatoes have long gone. (Pic - digging the Sarpo Mira spuds at the start of the month - finally finished!).

Nevertheless, once they were all dug up the Sarpo Mira's have performed well again this year. There was no evidence of blight on them and there were enough decent sized spuds to make them worthwhile. Last year there was a lot of scab on them but I had grown them in soil that had been limed the year before for the brassicas. This season I grew them in a different rotation order and there was very little little scab evident.

The grass around my plot was longer than I thought so I borrowed the communal strimmer and gave it a once over; I've also weeded and covered the potato bed. Talking of strimming, the full plot next to me is vacant again; this plot needs a lot of work as it's really overgrown. Myself and the site secretary strimmed the weeds and grass down in the hope that a couple of people on our waiting list will take it in hand. It's been decided that we'll split the full plot into two half plots, less work for those involved and hopefully a greater chance of someone getting at least one of them straight.

I'll end this post with a picture of my plot on a sunny 20th October 2015. Most of the plot has been covered and the grass cut. Bye for now.

07 Oct - Tomatoes, Sweet Corn & Carrots

We've had a few days of heavy rain showers though the temperatures have been pretty good over the first week of October. Wow, October already?! Time's flying this season, Autumn is well and truly here.

What great harvest of sweetcorn this year. Last year was pretty poor, I had some but it wasn't great with too many stunted plants. In my last few posts I have mentioned picking corn cobs and this week I've picked the last of them, I've had loads of lovely corn. While I eat a few cobs fresh, I mainly tend to boil them up then freeze the corn, it lasts longer and we use it in all sorts of things.

The Sweet Candle F1 carrots looked pretty good when I pulled a couple last month so, I thought it best to pull the lot this week. I only barred in three rows, around 21 carrots in all. Believe me, that's plenty! The carrots are massive and taste delicious. I had a few attacked by slugs and a couple that had forked but, even these were edible with a bit of judicious trimming as they are so large. Again, I keep some fresh but the majority are peeled and blanched in boiling water and then are frozen for use throughout the coming months.

It's quite hard to see just how big these carrots are in the picture but you can get some idea by looking at the width of the sink to the left and a large cake tin and toaster to the top of the photo. Anyway, these were all prepared and bagged up in the freezer, plenty for the Autumn and Winter months. Job done for another season

Into the greenhouse now and it's time to clear out the tomatoes. It's been a bit of a mixed year for toms'; I tried Shirley F1 first of all, they were expensive and there were only a dozen or so seeds in the packet. Worst of all, only four plants germinated where I normally get good results in a heated propagator. I actually sowed a second pot of my usual Alicante to make up for the losses and, to be honest, there wasn't that much difference when the plants finally started producing. There's no way I'm shelling out for Shirley again, I just can't see that they are worth it. (Pic - tomato plants 'gone over' in the greenhouse, time to clear them).

That's it for this post. See you soon.

21 Sep - Bean Poles & Carrots

Yesterday dawned misty and Autumnal; a bit of a surprise as we've had good weather for most of September so far. It didn't last long, the sun soon burned off the early morning haze, just as well, I had a few things to do.

The first thing on the agenda was the state of my bean poles. A number of the bamboo canes snapped and the I've been propping up the rows with bits of timber. Time for them to be removed. It's always a bit sad taking the runner bean rows down as it kind of marks the end of the main growing season. Still, they have produced well though only low down on the vines; there were stacks of beans 2 to 3 foot off the ground but virtually nothing above that, not too sure why though a few people have mentioned problems with beans this year.

Anyway, I picked another few hand-fulls of beans and uprooted the vines and canes. The bamboo has lasted a good few years but I'm going to need a few replacements for next year as a fair few have finally weakened and snapped. (Another thing on next season's shopping list). Most of the roots were left in the ground as they develop nitrogen nodules and can be dug in.

I'm still digging over the area where the Winter squash were - I do a bit then get side tracked. It's only a matter of pulling any weeds up and roughly turning over the ground. I plan to cover as much as I can in plastic - I'll get around to finishing it at some point.

I've had a look at my Sarpo Mira maincrop potatoes; the first few plants were pretty unproductive but the next few produced some nice sized spuds. I'm hoping for a few pound over the next few weeks despite the plants looking pretty ropey.

My Sweet Candle F1 carrots look good again this year. I've pulled a couple to see what they are like and I'm pretty happy. I've used the bar method for the second time this season and it certainly seems to work. A couple of nice 'uns!

That's it for this update. I'll see you in October.