Page 43 - Simply Vegetables Autumn 2023

Another job in the fruit garden that you could do is to take cuttings of blackcurrants and red and white currants. Cuttings should be about 9 or 10 inches long (22.5to 25cm ) from this years growth. Make a straight cut at the bottom and a sloping
cut at the top. This is to ensure that you get them the right way up. Plant them in a V shaped trench with sand in the bottom to three quarters of their depth and about 6 inches (15 cm) apart. They should be ready for transplanting next autumn.
Also in the fruit garden, check grease bands to see if any need renewing. Continue picking apples and pears when they are ready. Store them in a cool place, in boxes or trays so that you can keep checking to see if any are rotting. If any are damaged at all when you pick them, don’t store them. Use them as soon as you can.
In the summer months I have been telling you to dead head your annual flowers to stop them going to seed and prolong flowering. They won’t flower much longer now ,so if you wish, you could let some go to seed then you can collect and keep the seed to sow next year. See that they are fully ripe then collect them on a dry day . Store the seed in envelopes with the name written on them. When the plants have finished flowering, pull them up and put them on the compost.
Also in the flower garden you can still
November
This is mostly a clearing up month.
Most of the annual flowers and many of the summer vegetable crops will have finished so clear them away and put them on the compost, providing they are not diseased. When you have cleared crops, you should fork over the vacant ground and get rid of weeds if you can, providing the ground is workable, not frozen or too wet.
I explained my method of composting in September. You may have some compost which has already rotted and ready to use so you could spread this on vacant ground and it will do nothing but good. You could fork it in or let the worms do it for you.
The only seeds I think are worth sowing now are herbs on the kitchen windowsill and peas and broad beans in pots in the greenhouse for planting out later.
Onion sets and garlic can still be planted
Spray chrysanth Myss Goldie
lift and divide clumps of perennials as I described last month.,
If you grow hardy chrysanths , they can , of course, stay in the ground all winter. Just cut them down when they have finished flowering. It may be wise, as an extra precaution to cover them with straw.
Other varieties of chrysanths need lifting and keeping somewhere frost free over winter in a greenhouse or frame. You can plant them in pots if you wish , but I use deep boxes which hold about twelve plants ( they are now referred to as “stools”.), and keep them on a shelf in the greenhouse to take cuttings of next spring. Chrysanths suffer from a disease called white rust which affects the leaves. When the stools have been potted or boxed up, you should spray them with a good fungicide every few weeks in an attempt to prevent it.
You should have plenty to harvest again this month. I have told you before which need using as soon as they are ready and which will keep till you need them. You
can keep harvesting maincrop potatoes when you need them but you could harvest them all and store them if you want the ground for other crops. They need to be
left somewhere to dry and they will keep
a long time . Don’t forget that they need to be kept in the dark , or they will turn green, and unusable. You can store them in paper or hessian sacks , not plastic. I keep mine in large supermarket trays them I can keep checking them easier than if they were in sacks.
I have been telling you for the last two months to pick beans when they are young and tender , before the beans inside the pods are visible. Now that the season is coming to an end I let some grow till the beans in the pods are full size in order to save them for sowing next year. I put the pods in boxes on top of a cupboard in the kitchen till they are dry then take out the beans. I do this with both runner beans and climbing French beans.
Flowers cut for Whitefield’s November Show
but do it as soon as you can .I told you the varieties to plant last month.
Rhubarb can still be planted as I described last month and also, clumps dug
up and divided. Rhubarb can also be forced if you want early sticks next spring. Dig up a few clumps and leave them for a month or so to expose them to cold weather. Then
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