Despite the autumnal feel in the air, we still have plenty of warm days ahead of us. There’s plenty of produce for harvesting, apples, pears, courgettes, beans, peppers, squashes, marrows and pumpkins are in abundance. Tomatoes are still ripening on the vines, but do pick them green and ripen indoors at the first sign blight.
Make the most of your produce by eating, storing, preserving and sharing as much as you can. Feel free to share your favourite recipes on our facebook group. And there’s plenty to look after; sprouts, parsnips, kale and other produce, which you’ll be harvesting through the winter.
SOW AND PLANT
This is a good time to direct sow as the soil is warm and seeds will germinate quickly.
Salad vegetables - sow salad vegetables such as Arctic King lettuce, winter hardy spring onions, rocket, and radish
Sow frost hardy veg such as perpetual spinach, rocket, kale, chard, winter green cabbage, cavelo nero, baby turnips and swedes, purple sprouting broccoli.
Autumn onion sets and garlic can be planted now for an early crop next year.
Spring cabbages can be planted out to slowly develop for next year.
Pot up strawberry runners to make new plants for next summer. If you have spares they’ll be appreciated by other plot-holders and gardeners.
It’s the perfect time to take cuttings of lavender, rosemary and sage. Pot up in a well-draining soil and overwinter to have new plants in the spring.
HARVEST
Potatoes: To store potatoes, dig them up on a dry morning, leave on the surface for a few hours to dry out and for the skins to harden, rub off excess soil, and only store un-damaged potatoes in hessian or paper sacks in a cool, dry, dark place. Alternatively dig up what you need through September and harvest the rest in October.
If any of you potatoes show signs of eelworm or slug damage it’s best to harvest now.
Harvest as you need them, beetroot, carrots, cauliflowers, broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, leeks, marrows, onions, pumpkins, radishes, spring onions, spinach, sweetcorn, and turnips.
Apples and pears are ready to pick when they easily part from the tree. Lift the fruit gently in your palm and give a slight twist. Use the windfalls in your crumbles, pies and preserves now, and only store unblemished fruit in a cool, dark place, in racks or wrap in newspaper and place in boxes.
MAINTAIN
Runner beans and french beans - feed and water to encourage production, as they will continue to crop for another few more weeks. With the shorter days they will be a bit tougher. If you haven’t done so already, pinch out the tops so they concentrate on fruiting rather than growing.
Continue to feed tomato plants until all the fruits have finished growing and ripening. Any unripe tomatoes can be made into a delicious green tomato chutney or fried green tomatoes are delicious!
Keep watering winter squash and pumpkins if the weather is hot. This will prevent their growth from being checked. Pinch out the tips of triffid-like pumpkins and squash, and cut back any leaves with mildew. Place a tile under the largest fruit to stop rot creeping in where they sit on the damp soil.
For summer raspberries and all blackberries, cut back the canes/stems that have fruited this year. Next years crop will be on the new stems that have grown this year. Tie in/train the new green canes/stems for fruiting next year.
Cut hardy herbs such as chives, lovage and sorrel to the ground, they will be up again in a couple of weeks with fresh leaves. Water with liquid fertiliser to encourage strong regrowth.
GENERAL
If you have areas of bare soil, either plant crops to overwinter, or improve the soil by sowing green manure seeds, such as mustard and ryegrass. The green manure protects the soil from erosion over winter, leaching of mineral and nutrients, as well as boosting nutrients and adding organic matter when dug into the soil. Another option is to lay down cardboard and cover with composted manure, or just apply the organic matter directly to the soil.
This is a good time of year to work on your compost heaps. For many heaps the top layer will only be partially composted; take this off and dig out the well-rotten material beneath to spread on the ground. With no-dig gardening you should spread it over the soil to replenish good bacteria in the top layer of the soil, but if you prefer, fork it into the top layer of the soil.
When adding to your compost pile, cut large plants into small pieces to speed up the composting process. Have a good mix of green and brown organic matter, and cardboard. Cover the heap with cardboard and it's important to make sure it stays moist.
IN THE GARDEN
Herbaceous perennials will continue to flower up to the first frosts, so keep dead heading to encourage new buds. . Dahlias, Penstemon, Cosmos and Salvias are looking at their best.
It’s a good time to take semi-ripe cuttings of Rosemary, Lavender, Roses and other small woody shrubs.
Annuals such as nemesia, diascia, fuchsia, cosmos and pelargonium will also continue to flower if you keep deadheading.
Improve your lawn with an autumn feed, and it’s a good time to sow seed on any bald patches.
WILDLIFE
As you crop and clear your plot over the next weeks, tidy debris as you go. Netting is high risk to birds and small mammals, so once your strawberries have finished fruiting clear your nets and put them away securely until next year. Doing this will also increase their useful life as the plastic will degrade overtime.
It’s the perfect time to sow wild flower seeds. I recommend a mix of perennials such as cowslip, primula, lychnis, campion, and annuals, poppy, cornflower, borage, forget-me-not. Bees and other insects are still active and will be for months to come, so it’s important to have a range of flowers across the allotment site flowering through the year.
If you’ve got space, think about leaving a small log pile for wood lice, centipedes and millipedes. You might be lucky to house some stag beetles. Piles of leaves are also good, even if they’re in bags with holes to make leaf mould.
It’s the perfect time to put down a hedgehog house on your plot or in your garden if you have one. We’ll be putting some advice out on where to position as hedgehogs are quite fussy about where they overwinter!
Nest boxes can be put up now as many birds enter them during autumn and winter looking for a place to roost or feed. They often then use the same box for nesting.
Please continue to have water available for birds, insects, foxes and hedgehogs.
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