It really feels like we are coming to the end of the summer growing season. The courgettes have slowed right down and we are only getting the odd one or two now. The runner beans aren’t worth picking anymore as they struggle to produce beans of any decent size (and besides, the freezer is full of them), the french beans are small and curly and even the prolific sweet peas are starting to look a bit ragged.  On the weekend I harvested our two pumpkins and all of the crown prince and winter dumpling squash. I left all the foliage intact in case there’s any energy left to produce more fruits but also because we didn’t have any space left in the compost bins.

For that reason I sent Thomas out yesterday to hastily nail together some old pallets I had retrieved from a local builder back in the spring. An allotment produces any awful lot of material to compost. The problem I find is that all the ‘green’ material needs to be balanced with ‘brown’ stuff and there never seems to be enough of it. Some people advise layering in newspaper and cardboard but others say not to. I while ago I read a book on the art of composting (sorry - I can’t remember the name of the author other than he was American) who only advocated using shredded autumn leaves. In practice I find that I decide to pull up or cut down something that’s finished, for example the peas, and then shove it all straight into the compost bins without thinking. It’s only when I decide to turn the heaps that I find it’s turned into a soggy mass. If anyone knows what ‘brown’ material includes I would be very pleased to hear from you. There is something that has puzzled me for a while – the other allotmenteers don’t have any more compost bins than we do and yet their spent plants seem to disappear as if by magic. I must ask what they’re doing with it all.

But, it’s not all death and destruction. Our Autumn Gold raspberries are producing lovely yellow fruits which have a delicate sweet flavour (although they do have rather strange black hairs all over them which you have to try and ignore before popping them into your mouth). The leeks are looking really healthy which I guess is down to the rain we have been having and all the seeds I planted (coriander, pak choi, spinach, rocket, lettuce and watercress) are coming up nicely. Actually, I lie. There is still plenty of death and destruction: the caterpillars are systematically destroying our brassicas but the war is not lost – yet. Many meet their death by cutting in half (with scissors), squashing (with bare hands), stamping on (for the squeamish) and composting. Aah, compost bins have many uses!   

Prizetaker leeks

Autum Gold raspberries

Caterpillar damage to our purple sprouting broccoli