Getting ready

Yesterday the first batch of autumn digging started. There has been very little rainfall this year, but lately there has been more rainy days, so I expected that the ground would quickly become a muddy mess, as usual at this time of year. I was wrong. The rain we have had has not soaked the ground at all, so digging it over was easy and the resulting tilth was lovely, crumbly, damp soil not great clods of mud and not dry, unbreakable lumps either. In fact it seems almost perfect.

We now have enough ground turned for our onions, spring onions and garlic to go in, but first it wants a bit of blood-fish-and-bone raked in to give the onion sets and garlic cloves a good start. The spring onion seeds need really fine soil so an extra rake over there is needed too.

The next spot to dig will be a space to plant broad beans to stand over the winter as an experiment. If that doesn't work we will just plant broad beans in the spring as we have done before, so there's no risk of not having broad beans which would be a big loss.

All of this is using up space when we haven't yet planned out the layout for next year. I will make a plan up, but as usual it will only be a starting point rather than a strict plan.

The extra rain has helped our leeks a lot. They are still not as big as last year, but they are doing well now. They were covered in rust earlier on, but now that seems to have gone. Reading about rust on leeks has left me feeling that people may have mixed their ideas about it. It's called rust because it is small, rust-coloured spots on the leaves. People equate rust on iron with water, so I think people have followed that thinking through to leeks, but I think that is wrong. The rust was there this year, and last year, during the dry spells. When there was plenty of rain it disappeared, so I think leek rust is a disease of dry weather and not wet as my books say. This time last year we were already taking big leeks, we will start taking some next week I think.

Disappointed

The crops on the allotment have been a bit poor generally. The extreme lack of water through the whole year has been broken to some extent recently, but still much more water would be welcome. The leeks are beginning to fill out, but they should be twice as big as they are by now.We'll start to take a few leeks soon but even though we planted more this year and that almost all of them have grown we will have less to eat because they are so small. They also have a bit of rust.

The sweet corn is delicious, but many of the cobs have not been fully pollinated, so some of the kernels have not swollen. I expect to grow sweet corn next year, but I'll have to improve the pollination rate. I have read that the male flowers on the top of the stalks can be cut off and the pollen introduced to the female tassels, so I'll try that.

We have continued to take courgettes and beetroot, both are good, but the courgettes have not been as plentiful as expected. The tomatoes are almost done. They have been good and they were spared the drought by being watered in the greenhouse almost daily.

It's time to start thinking about the winter crops and any changes in the layout. Winter onions and garlic are certainly on the cards again and we will try growing spring onions and broad beans over the winter too.

We are planning to move the fruit bushes to the back of the plot and digging up at least half of the rhubarb. I'm also thinking about moving the fence so the fruit bushes will be outside of the fenced area. It should make access to the compost bins easier. Moving the fruit should give us much more space on the very best soil too. I hope the weather lets us make the most of it next year.

More, soon.

The promised rain for yesterday arrived and fizzled out. Today the ground was dry with no real sign that there had been any rain. We took some asparagus, which continues to be delicious. We watered the stuff in the greenhouse and the newly planted courgettes, which need a lot of water to do well.

Some more beetroot will be ready to go out soon, as will some spring onions. Leeks will follow soon after, and everything will need watering again very soon.

Watering in leeks

We spent a pleasant couple of hours at the plot today. The ground is very dry, the rain we had seemed quite a lot but the warmth and especially the wind has dried everything out. We took up another batch of spinach sown in pots and the next batch of spring onions pricked out into cardboard tubes and pots (we ran out of cardboard tubes). These will stay in the greenhouse until they are big enough to go out.

We planted the first batch of leeks from the greenhouse into the ground. We used the latest gadget to plant them - a broken hoe handle sharpened into a long dibber. I painted a couple of rings on it to show how deeply the dibber has been pushed in. I made a series of holes and Jean dropped the leeks in. Ones with long roots had them cut shorter first. I then followed around and filled each of the holes with water. This washes some fine silt into the hole which we didn't fill in any more. I then watered just about everything else on the plot. Meanwhile Jean finished the weeding, well for now.

The asparagus is sending out shoots that I will leave to grow so it can build up its strength for next year. Extra water will help it on its way. Our carrots are a complete flop. The few that have come up are disappearing and I don't know why. Other things are doing fairly well, cabbages have been nibbled but the CDs have stopped that, broad beans are flourishing, spinach is growing well, the yellow onions are fattening nicely. Some of the garlic have bolted; I nipped off the flower heads, I don't know if this will help. We have a couple of courgette plants in the greenhouse. I wanted to let them get a bit bigger before they go out, but as we were leaving I realised that they each have six small flower buds on them. We must plant them very soon. We need to also get the remaining tomatoes out and see about sowing some more carrots.

I have used quite a bit of the water in our tanks and there's no prospect of rain either to water the plot nor top up the tanks. I might have to resort to the tap yet.

Potting leeks

The first batch of 60 leeks have been potted. After a few days to settle down we'll take them up to the allotment greenhouse, which is very cosy at the moment.

Sprouting seeds

Our first seeds of the spring are sprouting, and very welcome they are too. The beans and leeks are beginning to show, though they are still very small. The leeks carry the seed case for a few days, before they finally crack it open to reveal the first leaves.

The beans will push a bundle of leaves up quite quickly, they have more resources available from the big bean seed.

And they're off

The weather has suddenly turned much warmer so seed sowing has started. We have planted some broad beans in pots. Learning from last year, we are planting far fewer plants this year since we were overrun with beans last year. We are also only planting one in each pot and starting in bigger pots. The aim is to transplant the young plants into the row where they will grow at just the right time. Last year we planted the first batch out when the plants were lanky and soft. We planted the last batch out much too late and they didn't really do much. We have many, many times more seeds than we need, so I'll see if my sister and here children want some when they visit later this week. The beans are saved seeds adapted to our northern climate, but they should do well in Kent too.

We have also started our first batch of leeks. Spreading the planting to extend the season does no good what so ever with long growing plants like leeks, but we spread the planting a bit to lessen the load of plant trays and to not keep all of our eggs in one basket. We want more leeks than last year if we can, we had finished all of ours before the end of the season and could easily have used many more. We also took a few when they were small - very late planted - and they were very good raw too.

I need to get the shelves in the greenhouse finished so we have space for the young plants. Our method last year was to plant almost everything in trays or pots and then to plant out as strong plants that don't need to be thinned. The plants were mostly sown at home and as soon as they sprouted they were moved to the greenhouse. It worked well, even though it goes against many people's ideas and against the instructions on the seed packets. We'll do it again this year.

The last harvest

The last of our parsnips and leeks were harvested today, with some of them pictured in the sink ready to be washed. It clears the way for the winter dig ready for this year's plantings. A lovely stew is in the oven for this evening. The leeks were tiny compared to most of our crops - they were late plantings as afterthoughts. We had some raw at lunchtime with a salad and they were superb. The parsnips have mostly been stumpy like these, but they still have a lot of flesh in them. A few have been huge - all have been delicious. Leeks and parsnips are definitely part of this year's plans.

Claggy

We added the plastic panels to the green house and it is now a splendid thing. It is warm as toast on a coolish day and the space inside is drying out. I'm very pleased with it.

We have been trying to stay off the plot to avoid making the muddy morass that we created while we made the green house. After we finished Jean dug the ground over to bury the clag. Today we walked on it for the first time in over a week and it just sank underfoot. I still have the shelves to add, but to help preserve the ground I'll wait for a few weeks, we're not in a hurry to use it yet.

We dug some more leeks and parsnips. The parsnips are beginning to look a bit rough, with chunks out of them and blemishes on the surface. One of them was rotten. There are about a dozen left so in a couple of weeks we'll dig them all up, give away what we can and freeze the rest. The leeks have just got better and better, but sadly there are only a few left, some of which were the spare ones that we planted rather late and so are a bit small.

Greenhouse weather

Over the past few days we've popped up to the allotment a few times to rebuild the greenhouse. I wanted to make it bigger so I took down the existing, rather successful one and set about making a new one in the same style. I reused the front side panels and the door and made new, bigger sides. The frame above the door is a little higher now so the slope of the roof will be preserved. The water will run off into the gutter on the shed to add to the water in the tanks behind the shed. The floor area will be about the same as the shed and should give us enough room to grow all we want. The frame is pressure treated one-by-two, which is thin to be light weight and allow lots of light in. We will cover the side and roof with plastic sheets which are easy to cut to size and add a huge amount of strength to the whole structure.

There has been a bit of snow over the past couple of days, with a bit more forecast. There has been much less of the usual guff on the TV about arctic weather and yet actually this winter is earlier and colder than for many years. I've been slightly worried about the plumbing for the water system, but the lagging seems to be working. When I get the plastic sheets on the greenhouse that will restore the heating of the pipes to make that much safer again.

The parsnips and leeks are still going strong - some say frost sweetens parsnips, so we'll see next time we take some. The leeks are standing up to a bit of snow, but the main problem with the parsnips is that their tops have withered so finding where some of them are is getting harder, snow or not. They are also frozen in so digging them up without breaking the root is tricky too.

Gentle harvest

The wet and windy weather had a rest today, so we ventured up to check things out and dig up some parsnips and leeks. They were lovely.

All's well

We popped up today to check things over. The ground was nicely wet; it has rained over the last few days quite a lot. The tomatoes (in the greenhouse) needed watering - they always do. The first broad beans to be planted out have finished some time ago, but the last to be planted out have just produced the first few beans and probably their last too. Staggering the sowing didn't really work, so next year we will just sow them all at the same time.

The runner beans are doing well, we picked enough to make about four meals. We also pulled a couple of beetroot. We've had a few already. They take an hour to boil, but they are really good to eat as part of a salad. There are four large cabbages ready to take with many more to come.

The leeks look great. The stems are fat and lush. I think we will start harvesting them in a few weeks. The parsnips also look lush. I have no idea how big the roots are, but I'm itching to find out. I just hope our sowing and transplanting technique really has worked as well as it looks.

Spinach

The spinach was ready to plant out, so Jean planted two rows out in the newly prepared area at the back. We have some leeks still in pots but I don't want to plant them in the rest of this space.

Last year we planted some stuff here and there and it caused us some problems this year. Leeks stay in the ground a long time, so anywhere we plant them must be somewhere they can stay without causing a problem next year. We already have loads of leeks, so we might eat these from the pots as small leeks. The spinach will be grown and eaten before the autumn.

Get out

The plot looked very dry, so today I watered it from end to end. I also topped up the water butts since its about a month since we had any decent rain. I will try to use one first to empty it because I want to raise its stand a little to match its mate and level the base which has settled under the weight. It holds 210 litres which is a fifth of a tonne.

We took the plunge and planted out all sorts today. We looked through the greenhouse and made our choice. The biggest leeks went out into deep holes which were simply filled with water. The surrounding very fine earth was washed back in, but there is still a hollow which will love some more water over the next few days. The little spring onions were pricked out directly into the plot and watered in. The beetroot seedlings were just showing their first true leaves, so they went out too. The runner beans were bursting out of their pots, so they went into the plot already prepared with a net for them to climb. I soaked everything that was planted and I'll do it again tomorrow.

We have already sown some extra runner beans, though I'm not sure we'll need them, and some extra broad beans which we certainly have space set aside for. We will sow some more spring onions, some more beetroot and start our first fennel. We moved our pots with chilli seeds in to the greenhouse were they will be warmer and so might sprout.

All of the tiny tree saplings we planted have sprung into leaf. So now we have rowan, whitebeam, oak and hazel trees in the margins. I'd like a lot more.

Sweet peas, beans and pumps

We dodged the showers to do a bit more work on the allotment. The remaining sweet peas were getting very tall and floppy, so we planted them out. The last lot got eaten in a few hours, and I think that was rabbits, so this lot were planted inside the fence, so I hope they survive. These nine plants are the last of our sweet peas, so if they got scoffed we're sunk.

We also planted another fourteen broad bean plants. The first row we planted a few weeks ago now have flowers forming. We're holding off sowing the last beans to delay their growth otherwise we'll be overrun with beans all at once. You have to pick them when they're ready, except for the few we will allow ripen fully. These will be next year's seeds.

We have moved all of our leeks up to the greenhouse now. There are about one hundred little plants. I think we can just fit that many into the bed we've set aside for them. They are way too small yet, but the weather forecast is saying that the temperature should go up next week, so things will grow more quickly.

If the temperature goes up, so the need to water will increase. I'm still mulling over the best way to automatically water plants, but no firm decisions yet. I have found a pump from MUTR which is an outfit I have used before. It runs at 3-6v so, since I'm thinking about using a car battery, I'd need to step the voltage down. I think I'd also step the voltage down to a circuit board to time and switch things. This stepping down is worth it I think because a car battery is a big reservoir of energy, I have an old car battery to use and I have a solar powered 12v battery charger ready to use. I've looked at a few simple systems on t'internet, but they don't get any recommendations from people who have tried them.

We harvested some more spinach for a couple of meals which I can really look forward to.

Out they go

The first of our broad beans have been planted out. We have lots of spare seeds - more are already growing - so we decided o see how they do. Other plots have broad beans out on them, but they have mostly over-wintered.

We took some more leeks up to the greenhouse and also our first batch of savoy cabbage too. The greenhouse is working well, so I want to make the most of it.

Our major success is the first showing of parsnips. They are notoriously poor at germinating so we have put some on a wet newspaper to force them to germinate. so far about a third have sprouted roots. We potted them into fibre pots with sandy compost so I'll be very pleased when their leaves break through, but things look good so far.

Legumes brassicas and alliums

A fine afternoon tempted me up to the allotment. I wanted to build a simple frame to support sweet peas. I bashed a couple of short posts into the ground and screwed a long post to each. This way the long posts are not in the ground so they won't rot away. At the end of the season I can take them down and store them for next year. The short posts are old and can be discarded. I strung a wire across between the posts, anchored to the ground at each end. When the sweet peas are ready to plant I'll add some string supports from the top wire for each plant.

Earlier we planted savoy cabbage seeds and some more broad beans, both in individual pots, at home. The last broad beans have grown too fast and become leggy, so these new ones will go outside almost as soon as they show. The first broad beans, sweet peas and some leeks have gone up to the allotment, into the new greenhouse. The weekend is forecast to have very strong winds, so once they have passed the broad beans will go into the ground. The sweet peas will be a couple of weeks yet and the leeks even longer.

Jean planted a lot of flower seeds for our garden so space on window sills is tight. We tried to grow parsnips last year but not one came up, so we are trying something different. We have sown some seeds onto damp newspaper, covered with a propagator lid. If it works we will transplant each seedling into a fibre pot. When they are ready to plant out we will cut the bottom out and plant the whole pot. If you disturb the roots they split and don't grow well.

Take a leek

The leeks have sprouted. They push through the compost in a big loop and eventually they stand up. The tiny green spikes have the seed case stuck on top, like crinkled helmets. If you look very closely they are already perfect tiny leeks with white bases and a dark green stems. Jean potted them into small pots, fifty plants in all.

The spare room had trays of broad beans in the window. They have burst upward and and are in need of holding back to stop them growing too lanky, so they have gone outside. We can bring them in if they need some protection from frost, but otherwise they are hardening off before planting out. They could probably stand a frost, especially close to the house, but I don't want to lose them all.

Moving the beans outside has made space for the leeks. They too are quite tough and will go outside before long, making space for the seeds that will be sown in March

Wandering garlic

The garlic has moved. Not by itself you understand, it has been moved. It was happily growing scattered across many of the beds, planted without a plan. But now there is a plan and the garlic is in the way, so it has moved. I hope it's happy in its new home.

The shelves are in the greenhouse. They are removable wooden frames, to keep the space flexible, covered with wire mesh left from the fencing to stand the trays and pots on. The mesh will let light through and keeps the shelves lightweight.

The broad beans planted at home are romping away. Each pot had two beans in it just in case, and every bean has germinated. They were in pots that now seem too small - roots were bursting out of the bottom - so the strongest bean in each pot got potted on into bigger pots.

The leeks are sprouting, so the growing season really is under way. Bring it on!

The next few nights are forecast to have hard frosts, maybe -8˚C, so I have moved a pot with holly seeds in it into a very exposed spot. I want to frost them to help them to germinate, a process known as stratifying. A couple of holly bushes in the hedge would be very welcome, even if they will take many years to grow.