Page 52 - SV 3 2024

Flowers cut for Edenfields September show
your plants this month, both flowers
and vegetables, outside and plants in greenhouses such as tomatoes, as I have described before. Also, keep checking that all plants are tied to their supports, and keep dead heading your flowers.
Also in the greenhouse, pinch the tops off the tomato plants when they reach the roof, if not done before. If you painted shading on the greenhouse for summer, you can remove it now to
allotment I have three compost bays made of concrete. I keep one bay empty because every few months I transfer a full bay into the empty one to aerate it which helps with the rotting process. When I am filling the bays, I add a sprinkling of compost maker (it used to be called “Garotta”) every foot or so which also helps to rot it down.
Continue harvesting crops when they are ready, particularly cauliflowers and
they are easier to examine than if they were in bags.
It is also time to order seeds for next year. This is the month when most of the seed catalogues drop through the letter box. It is a job I look forward to every year. First of all, I make a list of all the seeds I have left from this year and then decide what else I need. Most seeds will keep two or three years if kept dry except parsnips which need fresh seed ordering every year.
You can still take cuttings of perennial flowers as I described last month. Another job you can do, if you grow herbs is to pot a few up from outside and keep them indoors on your windowsill for use in the winter.
You also need to keep looking for pests and diseases. I have written about most
of them in the last few months but a
pest that I haven’t mentioned before are earwigs. They will just ruin your flowers if you let them. One way of catching them
is to put a plant pot upside down on top
of a cane filled with straw. They feed at night and hide in there during the day, so you need to keep tipping out the straw to catch the pests. They also hide in hollow canes. I have a washing up liquid container containing paraffin and I put some drops of paraffin down the hollow canes and the earwigs crawl out and fall to the ground, dead.
Finally, don’t forget what I said last month about showing, have a go at showing yourself, but if not, make sure you visit some shows.
give the plants more light. You will need to keep increasing the length of
the blanching material on leeks and celery. I told you how to do it last month.
If you have marrows, pumpkins and squashes growing, you need to
Well made garden compost is the best soil conditioner you can get along with manure
beans which should be harvested when they are young and tender. I told you last month how to tell when sweet corn is ready. Courgettes should be picked when about 6 inches (15 cm) long.
Maincrop potatoes should be ready for harvesting. Don’t forget that potatoes need to be kept in the dark till you
put something under the
fruits to keep them off
the ground. Any suitable
material such as cardboard will do. I use pieces of builder’s damp proof material like I use for blanching.
need them. I put mine in large trays and keep them in a cupboard at the side of the house, which used to be the coal shed.
You may also have apples and pears ready for picking and storing. To test whether apples are ready, they should come away from the tree easily with a gentle twist if they are ready. I put my apples and pears in boxes and keep the under the greenhouse staging. Whatever crops you store, you must keep looking at them to make sure they are still O.K. This is why I put them in trays or boxes because
This time last year I wrote about composting. I am doing so again because it is important. Well made garden compost is the best soil conditioner you can get along with manure. All your spare vegetable material from the allotment and the kitchen can be rotted down to make compost. You can buy special bins for the purpose, or you can make your own. I used to use four pallets fastened together but now, on the
Chrysanths cut for the house
Vase of perennials at Edenfields September show.
Veg taken to food bank
52 Simply Vegetables