october

Nearly a month since my last post: a busy time at home and at work.

We have come through one of the busiest gardening periods but graced the allotment with little of our time.

But we seem to holding up quite well, despite the neglect, as the photo shows.

Foreground left: potatoes lifted and stored and beds planted with overwintering field beans and one bed of overwintering broad beans (aquadulce). First early potatoes were harvested early in the season and now phacelia flowers, giving a late pollen and nectar source for the last bees and hoverflies.

Back left: our robust beanpole frame constructed from locally provenanced hazel rods has stood well throughout the season. Beans are being left to harvest as dried beans towards the end of the season.
It has not been a great year for sweet corn (maize) but beans have yielded big green beans which grace salads perfectly. Hidden from view are beds of overwintering mustard in the quarter of the garden that wil be given over to brassicas and leaf vegetables next year.

Back right: our early purple broccoli and brussels sprouts will last in the ground until spring, as will the chard. Calabrese is finishing its season and will be replaced by overwintering red and white onions and garlic. Those parsnips that survived the upheaval of mole activity will be harvested after the first frosts. Trefoil has been sown beneath brussels and broccoli.

Foreground right: our onions and garlic have been harvested and green manures phacelia and overwintering grazing rye have been planted to protect the soil. Two blocks of leeks will be harvested over the winter.

Patches of flowering marigolds, comfrey and borage provide late forage for insects.

Compost has been turned and left to rot ready to be used as a mulch next spring.

Still to do:

• complete apple harvest and prune apple and pear trees
• lift few remaining pink fir apple potatoes
• weed around blackberries
• tidy shed
• stake broccoli and brussels sprouts
• harvest last beans
• harvest squash
• burn wood and prunings