Page 20 - ALG Issue 1 2023

on the...
September to early November 2022
Kings plot
Every year, on the first weekend
of September, the Capel St Mary Allotment Society has its Village show. This year I entered 39 classes of vegetables and flowers, only missing a prize card from one class, a vase of mixed garden flowers. From the other entries, I got 27 firsts, 9 seconds and 2 thirds. This helped me win the trophy for Most Points in Vegetable Classes, trophy for Best Vegetable Collection, trophy for Most Points in Mammoth Vegetable classes, and trophy for best exhibit in flower classes with a nice vase of Dahlias. Plus, I collected my trophy for Best Kept Allotment. A very satisfying day and congratulations should be given to all exhibitors and the Committee for putting on a superb show in a very difficult year.
After show day, harvesting of remaining crops continued, and I was lucky enough to continue picking runner beans that had put on a second flush well into October. The sweetcorn was delicious and luckily, I harvested most of the cobs before the local badger climbed the fence of the allotment and decided to wreck mine and many other plotholders crops over the course of about a week, he must have had a very sweet tooth because beetroot, lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower kept on going into October also.
The very mild autumn has meant my dahlias are still blooming as I write in November, as to date, we have had no frosts to stop them growing. I am not normally someone asking for a frost, but one soon would help me clear up
this area of the allotment and lift and store the tubers for taking cuttings next year.
Once other crops finally finished, the big clear up began, pulling up old crops and chopping up in the compost heap. Beans were taken down and canes and poles stored away for another year. Once cleared away, the hoe was quickly moved through the ground so it kept
The very mild autumn has meant my dahlias are still blooming as I write...
20 Allotment and Leisure Gardener