Everyone has been busy on the allotments clearing away spent foliage and digging over the soil ready to put their allotments to bed for the winter. We now have a huge pile of horse manure that we have all been spreading over the empty beds. Some of it hasn’t rotted down yet so that will be left under a sheet of plastic until it’s ready to use next year. Thomas (very helpfully?) joined the dung shifters and spread manure over some of our empty beds that I had planted green manure in. Mm. But to be fair, he also lugged barrows of it over to where next year’s potatoes will be planted so that’s a job done in good time (last year we left it until the spring and it was all a bit of a rush).  

There are still quite a few things growing so we won’t be able to manure that ground until they’re gone. The winter veg like leeks, parsnips and swede will stay where they are until we are ready to use them and there is a bed full of young spinach, pak choi, chervil, watercress and coriander. Our asparagus is still green so we can’t cut that down until it’s died off, the same with the jerusalem artichokes which won’t be ready to dig up until February. Otherwise, we still have some rows of spring onions, parsley, oregano and mint as well as the brassica seedlings I planted a few weeks ago. The horseradish was stripped of leaves by the caterpillars so I’m going to pull that up soon and make some horseradish sauce with it. The french beans are coming to an end now as are the last of the butternut squash plants that have produced a measly few tiny squashes. I don’t know what happened to them, or didn’t happen, but we did so well with them last year that I’ll certainly give them another go next year. 

There are some other things however, that we have decided not to plant again next year. Baby sweetcorn is a waste of time given the number of cobs you get but I might use it as a windbreak instead, especially as I have some seeds leftover. The leftover seeds of spicy leaf salad have gone in the bin as none of us liked it. I’ve given up on ‘easy to grow’ celeriac. If you consider tennis ball sized celeriac a decent crop then they are easy to grow, but I don’t, and this is the second year they’ve failed to do their thing. The mange tout was lovely but it is impossible to pick and eat often enough before it gets big and flabby. Lindsey and Stuart grew sugar snap peas which didn’t have that problem and they produced lovely peas if they didn’t get eaten in time so I think we might try those instead. Carrots will be grown at home in a box where they won’t get eaten by the badger and at home, I have decided not to bother with tomatoes due to the cost of the grow-bags, the inevitable blight and the need to water all the time.  

So, with this in mind, I sat down late last night and sorted through this year’s seeds and pulled out the unwanted and finished packets. I threw away the leek seed heads as they were providing a home for a swarm of moths. I put the seeds from a crown prince squash we’d had for dinner last week in a brown envelope and put the whole lot in a tin and put it away. Time for bed I thought.  

Our allotment from the front: parsnips and leeks. The herb bed is in the middle and the asparagus ferns still looking very green are on the right.

The clary sage is still attracting bumble bees.

Clearing the ground ready for potatoes next year. This should be enough space for three rows which should give a much more realistic amount of potatoes for a family of four!

I brought home a string of shallots that had been drying in the shed and some Prizetaker leeks to go in the chicken pie.