Season's Change

It may be me recalling things incorrectly, but it seems to have gone from late summer to autumn more quickly than usual this year. I seem to remember that we have had quite a few 'extended' summers in recent years with mild weather well into November and consequently longer growing/cropping periods for some of those less 'cold resistant' plants. I'm talking runner beans, courgettes, squashes and outdoor tomatoes. In fact a couple of years back I remember a Christmas gathering with summer hanging baskets still in flower! Well not to be this year.

After the strong winds of a couple of weeks back putting paid to the runner beans, it's curling and browning leaves (sweet potatoes above) or blighted tomatoes from the cold, almost frosty mornings and the incessant rain that we've been experiencing over the last few days.

The squash are just about hanging on, with the fruit now looking in better shape than the foliage (not that you can see any squash in the picture below, but honest, there are some in there).

But things can turn very quickly at this time of year in the cooler temperatures and this weekend it was a case of removing as much as I could from the plot, the grow bags and the greenhouse as leaves start to rot and all sorts of fungal spores and mildew start appearing in and around the plants. You can't compost these rotting leaves either as the winter heaps don't get warm enough to kill the bacterias which will transfer into next year's soil if you are not careful.

So after a morning's work suddenly I'm looking at one third of my plot empty - ready for the weeding and the preparation for the next crop...which won't be long. Next time, I'll be writing about the start of the autumn planting (yes that's right, sowing in October) but this week let's carry on wrapping up the summer growth.

So, still in the ground we have most of the brassicas - that'll be the white and red cabbages, sprouts, kale and purple sprouting broccoli, a lot of carrots and a few perpetual spinach plants.

The beetroot and sweetcorn have finished (disappointing year all round for sweetcorn, what with seedling issues, pigeon attacks and...in the end not that many cobs). I have a handful of parsnips growing and a few rows of leeks (more survived than usually do this year)...and successfully for the first time ever...swede. I have tried swede for many years and usually the seedlings, which I've grown in the ground, get riddled with flea beetle attacks and just die off. This year I let them establish as individual potted seedlings in the greenhouse before treating them like a brassica (planting them out with a lime and calcified seaweed boost) and below you can see the result. And there are a few more like-sized ones still to come.

Completing the allotment round up is a bed of courgettes and squash (butternut and green), which also look to have done well (exhibit A below) with a number so large I think we might be getting the stuffed marrow recipe out a few times this autumn!

Back in the home garden the tomato plants were also starting to die off. So I've brought in the fruit that I could (unfortunately, a lot of the outdoor tomatoes were blighted - brown marks that indicate the fruit is not edible) and the contents of the growbags they were growing in will be reused as mulch and soil improver around the garden beds. Still a pretty good harvest though this year - 3 months and counting!

A couple of the cucumbers also refuse to give up although the end is definitely in sight, but we haven't bought one from the supermarket since May,so they are a real success story this year. And there are still some carrots and lettuce scattered in between some of the flowers and shrubs too - so some protection from the local sparrows is still the order of the day.

That just brings us back to where we started. Sweet potatoes. I have 3 containers which as I have said are starting to die back in the colder weather. There's probably a couple of weeks left before I tip them out to see how they have done so another item for a future blog as this is the first year I've tried to grow them.

So there you go, still plenty going on, but the season's change will mean that thoughts start turning to preparing for the next growing year and everything that is left to harvest will be a lot greener in colour over the rest of the year as the vibrant reds of the tomatoes and chillies subside, and the sprouts and cabbages come into their own.

So, until next time...