Barry Cuff takes a look back through his notes on what happened on his Sturminster Newton plot last month
Images: Barry Cuff
Brassicas – Cut the last of the calabrese, but also harvested our first romanesco of the year. The cendis cauli and Brendan sprouts should be ready to harvest in December.
Celeriac – Lifting as required. Straw put around remaining plants to protect from hard frosts.
Chicory – Lifted plants on 6th. About 15 roots, topped and tailed and put in a large container of moist compost in the dark to produce chicons.
Frost – The first frosts of late Autumn occurred mid- to late-month, with the temperature dropping to -3º on the morning of 26th. Hard enough to kill off all the tender flowers and weeds including borage, tithonia, dahlia and thornapple. We had put fleece over the more tender salad leaves and they survived. Generally the mild weather continued, with some nice sunny days and no excessive rainfall
Garlic – Planted four varieties on 2nd: cledor, germidor, edenrose and messidrome.
Green manure – The phacelia survived the frost and, together with the annual weeds, will give good ground cover during the wet months to come.
In the freezer – This year’s harvest included peas, sweetcorn, french beans and broad beans.
Leeks – Lifted as required – some have been attacked by leek moth but are still usable in the kitchen.
Manure – The manure for our site arrived on 19th. We wheeled our own 30 barrow-loads on to our plot to be spread later. Good-quality, well-rotted manure is a bonus – the Association has been using the same source for over 15 years.
Plot work – Due to the mild conditions prior to the frost, weed growth has continued, albeit slowly. These have all now been strimmed to prevent any flowering and seeding.
Root crops – Carrots, beetroot and parsnip all being harvested as required.
Salad and stir-fry – We have a good selection of plants to choose from as required: Chinese cabbage, radicchio, mizuna, winter cress, red and green frilly leaf mustards plus red moon, blue moon and daikon radishes.
Seeds – Our seed order arrived on the 6th from Kings Seeds of Kelvedon Essex (this year we got 36 packets of vegetable and 11 flower). As we are a member of the National Allotment Society we receive a 40 per cent discount on catalogue prices.
Stored veg – We have plenty of onions, potatoes, garlic and squashes.
Tomatoes – The frosts finally killed the two remaining plants in the greenhouse.
Water system – Part of the site’s water holding structure has been found to be unsafe. Our allotment association is drawing up plans for its replacement … there will be plenty of work on this over the winter.
