Top tip: keep an eye on your rhubarb and divide if it's starting to look weedy
Rhubarb is a relatively short lived vegetable (though we use it as a fruit, it is classified as a vegetable) and can become woody and weedy. This is exactly what has happened to the rhubarb that I inherited on my plot. I tried feeding it with compost this spring but to no avail. so today I took advantage of a sunny day to dig up the crown and divide it into new plants. The outer parts are best for replanting as they are less woody and still vigorous. When replanting though avoid planting in the same spot as it could bear diseases. I have replanted my mini plants in the rough patch by the water butt and in the fruit cage.
I have also dug up and relocated the strawberry plants that have sent out runner and were at risk of disappearing under the pile of compost that Bernie has relocated and the pile of plant matter that is fast coming off the plot as I tidy.
One unexpected joy was that the grapes we dismissed as unfit even for wine making turned out to be lovely eaten off the vine there and then, warmed in the late summer sun. Small and just the right type of tart, they would be lovely in a yogurt but I just gorged myself.
Top tip: make freezing your friend
I was told we couldn't save the brussel sprouts as the space is needed. Diasappointed that I couldn't have had an extra 2 months and eaten fresh sprouts at Christmas but at least it meant I harvested them young and it has introduced me to the joys of baby vegetables. And the sprouts in the other part of the plot might rally after all and recover from the mystery 'grey'.
We have replanted the sprout plants so maybe we will still have some fresh by Christmas. In the mean time, I have probably made the most of things by blanching them and they are tender and sweet.
The next question is what to grow next year ? What was successful for me? Beans? Jerusalem artichokes? I will also be growing more potatoes despite the fact they are already sprouting in my bag in the shed.
Well the ground has been cleared for the shed and many plants have been cleared away. All but a few beans have been cleared, I just left a few for seeds for next year. The cauliflower I was so proud of was a victim to the shed clearance.
While the cabbages are bulking up nicely they have been in the ground all year and take up a lot of space so may not feature so heavily next year. Cavolo nero, which is expensive and hard to find, and pak choi (pictured), which are quick growing, can be sown late in the season and is good in stir fries may be the only representatives of the brassica family next year.
Chilli peppers and aubergine took too long to mature and the physalis (cape gooseberry to me and you) is prolific but green so unlikely to be on the menu again. The asparagus pea that planted had one lonely scarlet flower but I will try again next year and sow it earlier.
Having left a few tomatoes on the plants, disaster struck and we suffered full blown blight in the damp late season. A lesson to us all to clear away and create chutney!
The Jerusalem artichokes are flowering (like tiny sunflowers) and apparently can be harvested from Autumn through to Spring.
Other successes are the giant radishes. The curse of the radish seems to have well and truly lifted and I am producing monster plants. They will be grated and added to salads in the future.
Previously, mentioned the late sowings of the poundland potatoes has produced a decent crop. Of course now the potatoes have gone the cats have moved in. Grrr. Any ideas on how to stop them?
Top tip: cover your brassicas with netting to stop pigeons from eating them and catch problems early before they get out of hand.
I am worried. My brussel sprouts aren't sprouting very well. In fact they look grey. I don't know if it's mildew or a grey aphid that I spotted earlier in the season and ignored. It's in the main patch and has spread throughout the brussel sprouts. There are early signs of the sprouts but they look a little frilly. Luckily the 'grey' hasn't spread to the Kale 'Cavolo Nero' or the cabbages but I don't know what to do about it.
The other patch however by the compost bins (soon to be decommissioned - sorry Tom, you're hard work is being replaced by a shed) is doing fine and it's exciting to see the developing buds. With luck we'll have our own sprouts for Christmas. That is as long as we don't have to sacrifice them when rebuilding the shed. On that topic, does it make me a lazy allotmenteer to pay another person to construct the shed and move my compost? I like to see it as sharing the goods - I have a job (hooray!) and he doesn't always. He is a builder and I'm not. He has skills and I definitely don't. He has time and I don't. Surely it's the best for all around?
Top tip: Avoid picking from the direct roadside and low down on bushes to avoid traffic fumes and dog wee.
Don't assume that you have to grow your own. If you look around where you live there are all sorts of foods you can use. And autumn is a great time to collect them.
Of course, everybody knows about blackberries and they can often be found in hedges in parks - in fact my friend, Joy, collected them by the bag load last year from Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery. As we are still without an oven and the freezers are still full, I won't be collecting berries this year and making jam.
Other less well known berries that you can easily find in the wild (and in wild parts of town) are elderberries and sloes. Both are tart in flavour but elderberries mix well with apples in a jam and apparently you can also make liqueurs and wines out of it. Sloes, found on blackthorn bushes, give flavour and colour to gins and vodkas. They are better after a frost to develop the sugars.
Prick them all over, put 460g of sloes into 1 litre of vodka divided between two empty 75cl vodka bottles. Using a funnel divide 112g of white granulated sugar into each bottle. Shake the bottles every day until the sugar is dissolved. Store into a cool, dark place. Leave for at least 3 months.
Also look out for unwanted fruit on trees in public places - plums, cherries and apples are often planted with nobody to pick the fruit. A local Transition Town initiative in Brockley is to match unharvested trees in public places and gardens with a team who will pick away and give away the fruit to passers-by.
Top tip: Keep an eye on your sweetcorn especially if it is a baby sweetcorn variety.
A neighbour was greedy and dismissed his plants when they were little and left them to grow large. Unfortunately they were a baby variety and when they grew big they grew hard and tough. The best time to pick them is when the tassles start to turn brown. If they are a 'grown up' variety then they are also ready when a milky fluid comes out of a kernel when pierced with your nail.
They say that growing plants from seed can be hard but obviously nobody told this little tomato seedling that I spotted in the October autumn sunshine. It has self seeded into a crack in out wall and seems perfectly happy. The frosts wll probably kill it off but in the meantime I'll see how long it lasts.
Top tip: look ahead to early crops in 2011
I am very excited as my plot has not only featured in an article in Eat Me, a funky new food magazine, but also won a photography prize for 'Best Arty Shot' in Kitchen Garden magazine - they liked my bright poles apparently and called it zany. Apparently I will get a lot of garden goodies - can't wait to see them though a subscription would have been grand too as it's a good magazine for foodies and growers alike.
Now is the time to sow overwintering peas and broad beans. The experts recommend sowing peas in a gutter. This apparently allows them to develop and get strong before the spring. This means earlier crops and better resistance to blackfly. Broad beans in particular suffer from black fly - in fact it can be so bad thatit can be frowned upon to grow them on the plot.
Meanwhile the shed saga continues. After finding out we needed planning permission to have it in our front garden we took it down. Well, actually we got our neighbour who put it up to take it down again. Despite not wanting have a shed on my plot and this one is really too big I don't want to waste it so the idea was to rebuild it on the allotment. It would take up the space of the compost bins at the moment and I will revert to using tardis ones dotted about the plot - all the easier to reach when weeding.
Top tip: Learn from my mistake - don't be in too much of a hurry to clear runner beans away. Leave the pods on the plants until the end of October. Save seed by podding them and drying them on newspaper in a warm, dry place. This also works with sunflower seeds.
With sunshine predicted this weekend and Tom having some free time on his hands, I decided it would be good to clear some of the plot. The tomatoes are almost finished and the courgettes are sending out very few finger sized courgettes. The patty pan squashes are never making it larger than a golf ball before starting to rot and the runner beans are getting enormous and stringy.
On the whole this was a good idea. We collected over 7 kilos of tomatoes (including 2 kilos of green tomatoes - if they don't ripen by the end of the month then more chutney is predicted. Friends and family you have been warned! Maybe I can get empty jars from work to put it in once I have a kitchen to make it in). We discovered a ripe butternut squash and the pumpkin has ripened to a proper Halloween orange. The debate now is whether to save it for Halloween or to eat it. Considering that I can't cook it properly and can't remember if it is a variety that is particularly tasty I think it might be best to keep it for a bit. It can live next to the unfeasibly tiny aubergine I rescued from Tom's clearing onslaught.
2 kilos of runner beans were destined for my aunt but then Tom and I were struck with the cold lurgy so the fridge is stuffed again until I can work out what to do with them.
We also picked the largest pods off the runner beans before they were hacked down - making sure to leave the nitrogen fixing roots still in the ground. My plan was to to pod the beans and save them either for seeds next year (ignoring the fact that I have loads of beans already) or else to boil them up as dried beans in the same way that you would treat dried kidney beans. This is where I should have waited until the end of the month as too many of them were under ripe and not worth the effort of podding - they should be a pretty mottled pink and purple. Still they are now in the summer house next to the sunflower seeds and I am dreaming of winter stews.
