Rooko's October Top 10 Tryouts And Tips!!

1. October is usually the best time to prune Climbing Roses cutting away any dead wood at the same time.

2. Sowing any/some of the following for overwintering in milder climates can be done in October. (Broadbeans, Round seeded Peas, Carrots, Winter greens, Onions). Some cloche protection may be required. Planting of Spring flowering bulbs can also be done in October.

3. Planting fruit trees/bushes should be done at this time of the year. Add plenty of organic material to the planting area prior to planting.

4. If you are harvesting your Cabbages for storage, check them for slugs hiding in the leaves. Rinsing the Cabbages with salt water should remove any slugs but ensure the Cabbages are dry before storing them in a cool place.

5. Rhubarb can be lifted and divided in October keeping root damage down to a minimum.

6. Remove yellowing/diseased leaves from Brussels Sprouts and check the heads of the plants for any caterpillars lurking within the younger leaves.

7. Have your Beans stopped production? Cut the stems off just above ground level and compost the foliage. Leave the roots in the ground over Winter to release their Nitrogen into the soil as they rot down.

8. Mulching around shrubs and border plants is a good idea in October. The mulch will help to keep nutrients in the soil over the Winter months.

9. Dig over empty vegetable beds (October/November) adding well rotted organic materials as you go along.

10. Start the process of cleaning out pots and trays ready for later use. Disinfect them at the same time using seed and plant friendly disinfectants. Ensure the pots and trays are dry before storing them.

Wintery Autumn

Cold wet and drab weather today is keeping me indoors with the morning spent preparing more veg for the freezer, (Runner beans, French and Borlotties), which were harvested yesterday as I enjoyed a few hours of warm sunshine down the plot.

Mixed Lettuce Borlotties and French Beans Harvested Yesterday

  Over the past couple of weeks "bus mans holiday" I have been occupied doing some decorating indoors and more garden maintenance. Despite these distractions and the colder weather I have still manged to get a few more Autumn jobs done down the plot. The area used for growing Potatoes on my second plot this year has been sown with Mustard seed with 1 other bed being forked over. This bed will be covered with black plastic sheeting, (hopefully this week) and left fallow until the Spring. Most of my greenhouse Tomatoes have been harvested now, with the outdoor ones still ripening slowly.

Runner beans Raspberries Swede and Rhubarb Harvested Yesterday

 On my main plot the over wintering Onions have germinated well, as have the Spring Cabbages. These were the out of date seeds which I mentioned in my last post. More Lettuce seeds have been sown along with over wintering Carrots (Berlicum). The Lettuce, Carrots and Cabbage are all underneath cloches due to the recent drop in temperatures.

Who Knobbled My Potato??

Runner, French and Borlotti beans are still producing well, along with an abundant supply of Sweetcorn, Cucumbers, Rhubarb and Raspberries. In fact due to the vast amount of Autumn Raspberries developing, I had to use some of them up with some more jam making last week. The last of my Cabbages have been harvested and for the first time in 3 seasons my Swedes are excellent in size and flavour, mainly due to the damper Summer weather.

I Think These Are Capsid Bugs Just Hatched On a Dead Nettle

 Last Monday was a sad day for our allotmenteers with the funeral of one of our fellow allotment holders, George B. George was a stalwart of our allotments for well over 50 years. His vegetable growing knowledge and expertise was second to none. He was well known around Somerset, Dorset and many other areas for his vegetable growing prowess and the excellence of his produce. George was always willing to share his knowledge and experience with others. He will be sadly missed. R.I.P. George.






 

Thursdays Top 10 Tryouts (Or Show Us Yer Tips 28)!!

Firstly my apologies to all my regular readers for the lateness of this post today. As you know my top 10 tips have been a weekly occurrence for the last 6 months. Unfortunately due to recent events on my "home front" I will now be posting the tips on a monthly basis, on the first day of each month, starting from October 2012. Thanks for looking in

Best wishes Rooko.

The Piece De Resistance

The Long Awaited First Sweetcorn

 Today my evening meal is special. This years trials and tribulations down the plot will be forgotten as I savour my first delicious mouthful of SWEETCORN, which I picked an hour ago. Picking the first 2 ripe cobs this afternoon made the long sunshine less rest of the year fade into insignificance. I had checked several cobs last week to see if they had ripened, no luck on that occasion. Maybe the fact that the cobs had old tights fastened round them, to deter earwigs, which seem to like my Sweetcorn every year, had something to do with them not developing 100%? Sweetcorn should have a full post just dedicated solely to it, but I'm far too busy at the moment, so I'll crack on with an update on what's happening down the plot lately.

Simple Sweet & Savoury

 A couple of weeks ago I was replacing my Strawberry plants on my main plot. That job took a little longer than expected, but is now completed, with 78 new 1st year runners planted out and the 3 year old plants removed. All the new plants have their own markers alongside them to indicate how old they are.

Strawberry Bed With New Runners Planted

Brassica Bed Main Plot Brussels + 3 Cabbages

 After the Strawberries had been replanted, it was time to lift the remainder of my main crop Potatoes on my 2nd plot. This took me a couple of afternoons but the effort was well worth it with a very good crop of large Desiree Potatoes only a handful of which had been affected by slugs or blight. I now have more than enough Potatoes to see me through this coming Winter. Potatoes are already selling at inflating prices in some areas of Somerset. Harvesting of Runner and French beans as well as Peas, Mixed Lettuce and Cabbage has continued when required. My Autumn Raspberries on both plots have been excellent in their taste and abundance recently, far better than the Summer ones were.

Legumes Bed Main Plot

 I took a break from the plot yesterday to concentrate on overdue work on my back garden which has been more or less neglected this year. The weather was warm and pleasant with a cooling breeze. After a full days work hoeing the borders pruning shrubs and trees and mowing the lawn it was 7-30 pm. A good days effort left me with 8 rubble bags and one of those collapsible canvas containers full of weeds, leaves foliage and grass cuttings, to be disposed of. Fence painting and patio cleaning can wait for a while.

This Beauty Settled on My Bird Feeder in the Garden Yesterday

 Today I was back down the plot by 10 a.m. After checking my Brussels sprouts and ridding them of Caterpillars, (an average of 2 Caterpillars per plant), using the traditional method of picking them off by hand, it was time to rotavate the top area of my 2nd plot where my early Potatoes had been growing. Hopefully I will be sowing Mustard seeds in this area tomorrow. That done I sowed 2 rows of over wintering Onions (Senshu and Keepers). I don't hold out much hope that they will germinate as both seed packets were out of date, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Remaining Carrots & Leeks Main Plot

 More areas of the plots are looking bare and empty at the moment a far cry from a couple of months ago. I still have a few more over wintering vegetables to sow within the next few weeks and any unused ground will be sown with green manures, rather than leaving compost or manure on their surfaces to rot down. 

Grapes Finally Starting to Ripen Main Plot

Pumpkins Still Developing on the Roof of My Manure Heap

There Are Quite a Few Cucumbers Under There Somewhere

Raspberries & Rhubarb Still Going Strong

Blighted Tomatoes Removed from Plot

 

There's always tomorrow.