Allotment update – 13/10/2024

Three weeks on from my last allotment post and I’m quite surprised at how much has changed, given that we’re approaching mid October.

I’d cleared space between my new tunnel and the end of the plot. On the 24th I planted strawberries that I took from my abandoned plot 3. The foliage was pretty skanky so I cut it all off. By this morning they were looking quite perky, with new leaves coming up fast. I’ve disturbed a mole, who has pushed up a couple of mounds of soil. The impression I have overall is that the moles have a sufficient network of tunnels for their needs and they rarely make mole hills because they’re not going into new areas.

In the tunnel the main change is from the amount of growth the plants in the ground have made, especially radishes.
I will need to move in some of the potted plants that are still outside the tunnel, and some that are still in the garden, but will leave doing so as late as possible. The camellias in plastic bags are just passing through.

Outside, the mix of Phacelia, ryegrass and buckwheat that I sowed as a cover crop is still making growth. It was sown late, on 12th September, so I wasn’t expecting a lot of growth before winter stopped it. I was struck this morning by the contrast between my approach, where I am trying to get growing plants covering as much of the surface as possible, and one of the other plot holders, who was just finishing rough digging almost all of his plot, so that it would be exposed to the weather over the winter. I want growing plants if possible and if not will cover the soil with a mulch.

Not knowing how the direct sown cover crops would fare, I’d given myself a backup by sowing the same mix in three small trays of cells. I didn’t want to waste them, so planted them through the mulch I’d applied in another area.

The rest of the plot is a mess of remaining crops, mulched areas and cover crops. The weeds that will be easily removed after the winter, without leaving behind perennial roots or lots more seeds, are welcome to stay. Bitter cress, nettles, spurge, annual meadow grass, groundsel, oxalis are the bulk of what I weed out. Dandelions stay but get their tops sliced off at regular intervals.
The row of runner beans that collapsed at the top of the plot is now yielding up next year’s seed crop so that’s one I shan’t need to buy.

I’ve begun to work my way through the fruit cage, weeding, tidying and planting. What I just planted were two plants of Camellia sinensis assamica, the tea plant. I’ve looked up how to prepare green tea and it doesn’t look too complicated, so I’m going to give it a go. The plants have been flowering in the tunnel for a couple of weeks and when I chose them, I picked out a couple with seed pods on them, some of which have been harvested and sown.

There are a lot of nettles in the fruit cage, which will not be fun to get out. I think I’ll work towards a solid groundcover of strawberries everywhere it is not convenient to lay Mypex, but the nettles have to go first and with their roots entangled among the roots of the blackcurrants and blueberries, that is going to be a battle.