Plan for next year

In the past post I mentioned the plan for next year, so I thought I'd commit the outline ideas to this blog:

• Carrots, try different varieties, try planting plugs in tubes, but just get some to grow.
• Peas, certainly mangetout or sugarsnap but maybe peas too.
• Broad beans, pick early & don't grow too many.
  
• Sweetcorn, a modest patch.
  
• Courgettes, must grow a few 'Green Bush'. Need better spacing out.
• Spring Onions, sow in pots, not tubes. 'White Lisbon'.
• Beetroot, plant earlier than this year and plant in volume in early summer. 'Boltardy' and other varieties.
• Potatoes, a few earlies.
• Leeks, of course. Grow just the same. 'Musselburgh'.
• Parsnips, of course. Grow just the same.
  
• Onions, make sure they get more water to stop them bolting. Only white.
  
• Tomatoes, only grow cherries.
• Celeriac, maybe - depends on this year's crop.
• Spinach, grow it very early and only take very small leaves.
• Sweat peas, mixed variety again.
• Runner beans, don't grow, grow peas instead.

Permanent plantings

• Asparagus, full crop next year, need to water well
  
• Raspberries, only half the canes now. Water as the fruit swells.
• Strawberries, a few less plants now. Water as the fruit ripens.
• Blackcurrants, pick progressively when they are fully ripe.
• Gooseberries, pick progressively when they are fully ripe.
• Rhubarb, pick aggressively to encourage succulent stems.
• Plums, Not worth the trouble, so dig them out.

We are going to grow in patches rather than rows. Have a path down one side rather than the middle.

Winter onions

The end of September seems a good time to plant winter onions. We had bought fifty Japanese onion sets ready to go into a little patch, more of a rectangle than a single row which is how we plan to lay out the whole site. Jean had just finished planting them when Rob offered us some more sets. These were 'Electric Red' sets, so already we have not followed our ideas for next year which we said we wouldn't grow red onions because the bolted. Oh well ...

They got a good watering to get them on their way. Jean also added some blood fish and bone fertiliser that got raked into the top soil before pushing the sets into the soil. We covered them with a mesh frame to stop the birds pulling them up.

Water needed

There has been no rain at all for a few of weeks, and no real rain for much longer. It has also been breezy, so the ground is baked dry. We spent some boring time watering the plot. The leeks, celeriac, beetroot, squashes, courgettes and the recently moved strawberries all needed water. I watered the asparagus to help it for next year. The small heap of muck needs water to help it rot, so it got a lot. I also watered the dug-over ground that is ready for the winter onions. I want to plant the onion sets next week, but there is no prospect of rain, so I will need to water the empty onion bed again before I plant them. Garlic will follow soon after and once again its bed needs watering too.

The spring onions are finally going over, but the bulbs are still delicious. We pulled almost all that remain, with only half a dozen left in the ground. They have been a great success and firmly on next year's list although the planting methods will need a little change. The beetroot has also been a great success. We still have a lot of small plants in the ground. I hope some will mature with what is left of the season. There were ripe courgettes again today with more to come - another wonderful success. The squashes look to be nearly ready to pick and ripen on a window sill at home. I'm not sure that I will grow them again, they take a lot of space for not a lot of fruit, and it is not very interesting when it is ready.

I'm beginning to plan the plot for next year.

Muck and leeks

With the digging done we were ready to fetch some muck from the local riding stables. If I look over the hedge at the back of our allotment across two fields we can just see where the huge muck heap has been. I thought I could still see a huge heap, but when we got there the heap is a heap of soil. The muck has almost all been used and what remains is fairly fresh. We brought a trailerful back to the plot. I have been expecting to bring a few loads back and I was expecting it to be much more rotted. We'll leave the muck we brought back in a heap to try to encourage it to rot down before we spread it.

We took our first leeks of the season too. They are really great. They are various sizes which are useful for different things. We planted them in much deeper holes this year and it has paid off, with much more white stem which is the really tasty bit.

Parsnips

We finished the digging on all of the vacant areas. It all looks so big dug over and empty. Everything that remains was watered, that is parsnips, celeriac, leeks, beetroot, spring onions, asparagus, squashes, courgettes and the recently-moved strawberries. Then the suspense was broken and we dug up some parsnips. They were all big, but some were a bit stumpy. Once again our method has reliably produced a good crop which vary from big to huge. Parsnip soup is on the menu.

More digging

Today was warm and windy. We went up to the plot to do more digging over of the empty spaces. The back of the plot nearest the hedge had tomatoes and sweet peas in it. They have been dug up and the ground hand weeded. This part of the plot has the lightest, sandy soil although growing on it has improved the soil a bit. We plan to add lots of horse manure from the local riding school and I think we'll dump it here then spread it out a bit later. Jean dug this over with a fork and removed loads of bind weed roots. This is why I like hand digging, if we had used a Rotavator it would chop up the roots and multiply the weeds many times over.

I moved the strawberries from their old plot near the shed to be more in the heart of the fruit bushes. I planted a few of the runners from this year as well as the best of the mature plants. They are a bit closer together than they were which is what I was trying to achieve. The ground was very dry so I watered everything still in the ground, especially the strawberries of course. I think they will need more in a couple of days, with no prospect of rain.

Done for now

Weeding's done for now. Some more digging to do, then a few loads of manure as a mulch ready for the winter.