Gardening blog

Week forty September 30th - October 7th

2022

8th October Youtube video - More onion sets planted, apples picked, cabbage cropped, and tomatoes ripening.
4th October Youtube video - Weeding and saving seed.
2nd October Youtube video - Weeding leeks (again!)

2005

Sunday 2nd October 2005 I picked the apples on the small tree near the bee hives. The lime that I applied to the ground under the tree (Saturday/Sunday 21st and 22nd February 2004) seems to have done the trick as the crop was excellent and there was hardly any sign of bitter pit this year. The apples are large eating apples that will store until after Christmas. Another dressing of lime probably won't go amiss.

2004
Saturday 2nd October 2004 The day started bright and sunny but the rain came over suddenly and hard in the afternoon. Luckily by that time I had planted out a row of spring cabbage, hoed and liquid fed the Japanese onions sets. Liquid fed the cauliflower. Weeded, earth ed up and fed the leeks. Weeded the carrot and rocket bed. Picked the spinach beet, beans and cabbage. Unlike the last few years there has been no problem with dry weather this year.

2003
Sunday 5th October 2003 We have had some more rain in the last 48 hrs, although we still need a lot more for the soil to be wet for more than an inch or two down. Bought some more seed garlic that I will sow separately to my saved cloves. One very large load of muck was delivered to the allotment today.

2002
October 6th - Planted out first spring cabbage in the ground that was occupied by potatoes earlier in the year. The weather has been extremely dry throughout September and it only in the last few days that we have had any rain at all - and even now we haven't had much.

I plan to sow some broad beans next week. This is at least weeks earlier than I have up to now but Nigel in the allotment across the track has had success in mid October sowing for several years now. I have to prepare land for broad beans and spring cabbage, (October) more beans, garlic and tulips (November) peas and shallots (December) more shallots and carrots (January)

2000
September 30th - October 7th The new ground that I took on and rough dug earlier in the year has only been a partial success. The tall peas, broad beans, sprouts and cabbages are robust enough to cope with a certain amount of weed if they are given a head start of clear ground. But many of the other lower growing vegetables soon get swamped if the weeds aren't kept under control to some degree. The end of the plot where I started digging had so much spear grass in it that it would have taken most of the spring to remove it and I wouldn't have managed to dig over the whole plot before the summer arrived. However it is now obvious that something has to be done about the spear grass situation and I have decided to double dig the whole plot over. Double digging involves placing the top spade depth of soil under the second spade depth. In my case half the bottom spit (spade depth) is pure sand and, it seems, has never been to the surface before. Although this sand doesn't contain any organic matter and little food for the crops it should be free of weed seed and may have brought some useful trace elements up to the surface.

I'm planting out spring cabbages in this newly double dug patch and giving them a bigger than usual dressing of blood fish and bone. As I dig down the plot I will plant as I go. Next it will be broad beans.