Page 19 - ALG Issue 3 2024

Fruit
• Harvest apples and pears as they become ready and pick the late season strawberries and raspberries to keep them producing fruit.They will keep cropping right up until the first frost.
• Complete the summer pruning of
soft fruit bushes, apple and pear trees. Continue with their training and tying in.
• Wasps are attracted this time of year due to the ripening of your fruit. Hang wasp traps in fruit trees and protect any grapes from wasps with netting or mesh. But also remember that wasps are the gardener’s friend because they are major predators of aphids and caterpillars at this time of the year.
Greenhouse
• Cooler days mean it is the perfect
time to sow the seed of the Oriental vegetables.They will germinate quickly and are hardy enough to withstand the cold of winter and will provide a steady supply of fresh leaves well into the spring of next year.
• Make a sowing of hardy winter lettuce and spinach.There is still time to sow an early variety of turnip to be able to use the tops as greens.
Flowers
• Leave any sunflower seedheads in place for birds to feed on.
• Fill any gaps with late-flowering perennials, such as sedums, to provide nectar for pollinating insects into autumn.
beans towards the end of the month to provide you with an early crop next spring.
• Plant out spring cabbage and overwintering types of onion and garlic. It is also a good time to plant rhubarb crowns.
Fruit
• Continue to harvest apples and pears as they ripen, taking care not to damage or bruise the fruits. Only the best should be set aside for storage.
• Any late grapes, which have some leaves that cover the ripening fruit, should be removed to allow in as much light as possible.
• It is the last window for planting new
•
strawberry beds, either from new plants or from runners rooted in the summer. Lift a root of rhubarb for early forcing; allow the root to sit on the soil and
be subjected to a few good frosts.The crown will then be much better for forcing, and some sticks may be ready at around Christmas.
Flowers
• Remove any pot saucers and raise pots up onto feet to prevent waterlogging over winter.
• Empty spent summer pots and hanging baskets, and compost the contents.
• Take hardwood cuttings from fruit bushes. It is very easy to do, and will give you a decent-sized plant in a few years.
Flowers
• Plant tulips and hyacinths in pots or in the open ground.
• Sow sweet peas and harden off any that were sown last month.The colder and harder the plants are grown the better; just keep heavy snow and winds from the young plants and don’t pinch out until after Christmas.
Greenhouse
• Sow a crop of your favourite variety round seeded hardy peas in 3” to 3”/9cm pot and transplant it later when the roots have reached the bottom of the pot.
• Transplant any pot raised broad beans sown earlier to somewhere sheltered and protected from cold, icy blasts. It is not too late to take a chance on a sowing of broad beans if it is done early in the month.
• Transplant October sown lettuces to grow on under cloches or frames; space them 6”.15cms square.
Allotment and Leisure Gardener | Issue 3 2024 | 19