Barry Cuff takes a look back at his diary of what happened on the plot last month
I have been out of action this month due to an injured leg. Val, my wife, stepped in for me. She carried out any essential work, such as the last seed sowings of the year and some weeding of later-planted crops. As well as harvesting and collecting the fallen nuts from our hazel bushes, she has needed to water thirsty vegetables during the middle of the month. Well over five inches of rain fell during the period, giving a flush of weed seedlings on any ground cleared of crops. Not a major problem at this time of year, as long as they do not flower and produce seeds – in fact they provide good green cover. Later in October, these areas will be sown with green manure for overwintering.
The Kings Seeds catalogue has arrived – allotment association members get 40% discount!
Beetroot – Two varieties, Moulin Rouge and Cylindra, were pulled as required for salads and also for pickling.
Broccoli – Plants looking well for harvesting from January to March.
Brussels Sprouts – Good strong growth with buttons starting to show. We’ll harvest these from December onwards.
Calabrese – (Ironman) Cutting nice heads from the later plants, and good side shoots from the earlier ones.
Cabbage – The Red Drumhead are standing well, and we have cut heads as required: mainly for salads and stir fries.
Cauliflower – We’re cutting average heads of the variety Cheesy. Cendis, a later variety, will be ready in November.
Carrot – (Early Nantes) Still pulling as required
Celeriac – Looking well due to rain and a regular liquid seaweed feed.
Celery – (Golden Self Blanching) Lifting as required now. Good plants with some superficial
woodlice damage.
Chicory – (Witloof) looking well for lifting and blanching in November.
Chinese Cabbage – Cut our first head on the 24th September
Courgette – They never stop!
Dwarf French bean – Both varieties Nautica and Safari keep on producing a mass of pods.
Flowers (for the bees and for cutting) – Some late flowering echinops and also some orange and
yellow-flowered tithonia.
Hazel bushes – Another good harvest from the hazel.
Leek – Looking well now Val has weeded them!
Lettuce – (Little Gem) Currently cutting plants put out in August, and more were planted at the beginning of the month.
Parsnip – (Palace) We dug our first root on 24th A little early, but just for a taster.
Radicchio – The Rossa Di Treviso planted out from plugs at the end of August, and they have put on a lot of growth.
Runner beans – The variety Moonlight has more or less finished, but we have a lot of flowers on the Scarlet Emperor plants.
Squash – Now the foliage is dying back we can see good fruits of Crown Prince and Butterfly: they should be ready to harvest next month
Sweetcorn – (Swift) The last cobs were harvested on 24th. Tally this year: 74 good cobs and 20 smaller cobs from 70 plants
Sweet pepper and tomatoes (in the greenhouse) Everything is slowing down in the greenhouse,
though we are still picking tomatoes every third or fourth day, and a few sweet pepper plants
have new flowers.
Winter salad – Val has made two sowings of oriental mustards, mixed salad leaves and Chinese radishes.
If you are interested in an allotment in Sturminster Newton, get in touch on sturminsternewtonallotments@gmail.com
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