We had some lovely warm weather on the weekend (17th-18th) and I spent most of it at the allotment. I suppose I had the urge to start to get things tidied up as Autumn seems to be well underway and Winter is just around the corner.
The first job was to continue to harvest some of the squashes, mainly the Turks Turban and Crown Prince as the vines on these two varieties have withered and there seems little point leaving them on the ground. Likewise I brought my sole pumpkin indoors with the hope that there are no nicks or cracks on the outside so it stores nicely until the end of October. The only squash left in the plot now are the Hunter Butternut. (Pic - Turks Turban & Crown Prince Winter Squash).
On that side of the allotment I also cleared the sweet corn plants. It's been a great year for sweet corn on our site as everyone who has grown it this season have had great results. I literally ended up with a wheelbarrow full which took a few hours to prepare for the freezer. (Pic - just a small sample of this season's sweet corn crop).
On a less positive note, my carrots weren't particularly great. I had some half decent Sweet Candle carrots but nowhere as large as they were last year. Also, most had some evidence of carrot root fly so my method of protection proved to be inadequate. Between the Sweet Candle and the Nantes I did end up with around a carrier bag full so things aren't too bad. (Pic - Sweet Candle carrots).
Having had enough of runner beans and with a few bags in the freezer, the bean poles have been taken down and the area in front of the shed cleared and dug over. There's only the brassicas, leeks and parsnips on that side now.
Talking of the brassicas, I needed to weed around the cabbages and Brussels sprouts so decided to bite the bullet and take the frame and nets down. There are still cabbage white butterflies around but the temperature is cooling; I'll keep an eye out for caterpillars but I'm hoping there shouldn't be too much of a problem. I gave the Winter cabbages and the Brussels sprouts a light top dressing of fertiliser to give them a bit of a boost as they start to develop lovely green marbles.
The weather forecast was rain for Monday, which proved correct, so I was glad I put a few hours in over the weekend. I decided to put the covers on the newly dug over area as the sycamore tree near the shed is absolutely laden with helicopter seeds which I don't really want all over my plot - the plastic stops them rooting.
That's it for now, bye.
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