SOIL IMPROVEMENTS

SOIL IMPROVEMENTS

As gardeners we do our best to grow top quality plants, whether it is trees, shrubs, roses, herbaceous borders, rock gardens, a beautiful lawn, flowers,

Kyle and Scarlet double digging

fruit and vegetables. Every plant has its own requirements for cultural needs, location, shelter and soil. If you want the perfect lawn, the soil must have excellent drainage, as this benefits the growth of the fine grasses and discourages diseases and moss. The best golf courses are often found on sandy coastal links ground.

Tares green manure

Roses prefer a deep fertile clay soil and rock garden plants need well drained stony soils. Fruit and vegetables grow best on well drained fertile soil, though root crops fare best when the land was well manured for a crop the previous year, otherwise the roots will tend to split.

Allotment gardens are usually a mixture of fruit, vegetables, some flowers to brighten up the plot, a compost heap, a wee shed for tools, storage and shelter, and a greenhouse for the tomatoes, a grapevine and bringing on the young plants from seed. We all have a competitive spirit, so crop size, weight or flower power is very important if we are to keep up with other plot holders. This is where soil fertility comes in as each crop has its own needs. We resolve this issue with crop rotation and dig, manure and use green manures according to crop requirements. Some people use a three year rotation with potatoes and roots followed by brassicas and these to be followed by the heavy feeders of onions, leeks, peas,

Ryegrass green manure

beans, sweet corn, courgettes and pumpkins. Rotation is important to keep ahead of diseases, but with so many new crops to try out, a four year rotation may be a better choice. I also incorporate my strawberries into the rotation as these get dug out every three years with new runners planted on new soil. Once you get the rotation organised you will know in advance what crops will receive the most compost (the heavy feeders) those that get a lesser amount (potatoes and brassicas) and those that don’t get any (the rootcrops.) You need this information in late autumn as you start the winter digging incorporating compost as planned. Retain some compost to add to potato furrows as well as extra at planting time for courgettes and pumpkins. I plan to complete digging by Christmas though sometimes weather has a say in matters and some areas may have a winter mix of green manures which can be left till the end of winter. Always leave the soil surface as rough as possible as

Compost heap needs turning

this will expose a large surface area for weathering by winter frosts.

Keeping a good compost heap is essential for adding organic matter to increase soil fertility. I add anything that is of plant origin though it gets chopped up first to help it rot down. Rhubarb leaves, disease free potato haulms, grass clippings, annual weeds, kitchen waste, autumn leaves and wood shreddings from pruned roses and fruit bushes. Having access to cow or horse manure is a bonus.

Some plants such as sweet peas will benefit from taking a foot deep trench out and forking up the bottom adding compost as you proceed. This double digging is also essential for permanent planting of roses, raspberry rows, new trees and other fruit bushes likely to be left for ten or more years.

Liming the brassica patch

The land allocated for brassicas, (cabbage, sprouts, cauliflower, kale) is normally given a dusting of lime as all of these plants prefer a higher pH value than most other crops. However it is better to buy in a soil testing kit and test the soil to find out what its pH value is then apply the correct amount of lime. Add the lime towards the end of winter but well in advance of planting.

Green manures sown in late summer onwards or in spring for late planted crops will add a huge benefit of organic matter, added nitrogen and other trace elements and help to break up a stiff soil.

Wee jobs to do this week

Geranium stock plants

As autumn begins to fade and winter weather arrives it is time to remove geraniums from tubs, borders and hanging baskets. Although we have had a few mild winters they seldom survive once the temperatures drop. They can be cut back and potted up with good compost as stock plants and kept in a cool but frost free greenhouse or windowsill. Once they put on some growth the tops can be taken out for cuttings as well as keeping the plants stocky. Then in spring and early summer as the young cuttings begin to grow upwards take out the tops to encourage them to branch and use these tops as another batch of cuttings to increase stock for the summer display.
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SCOTTISH GRAPES

SCOTTISH GRAPES

Most gardeners love a challenge. We do our best to grow a wide range of normal plants to a high standard, but then enjoy trying to grow the rare, the unusual or those deemed to be too exotic for our area, climate and soils. I have taken the challenge up

Sampling the wine

with outdoor peaches, figs, saskatoons and grapes. We like to think that if Scotland can get just a wee

Black Hamburg

bit of this global warming through climate change then those exotic plants normally associated with tropical climates might just grow in our gardens up north. Saskatoons were easy to grow and very soon adapted to our soils giving us excellent crops. Why figs are not more widely grown outdoors in Scotland is a mystery as I have had great success with Brown Turkey provided you gave them good drainage, fertile soil and restricted root growth at an early age. With mild winters becoming more normal the fig is happy to produce numerous ripe fruits for several months in summer. Hardy outdoor peaches are a bigger challenge as the problem of peach leaf curl disease is a huge set back with our colder and wetter climate. It is nice to get four peaches on a tree, but we really would like to get a few more before we consider them

Grapes fermenting

a success.

Brant grapes

2018 was a unique year as global warming stayed with us right throughout summer. The four summer months could not have been sunnier and temperatures were consistently way above our normal, but this came with a severe lack of rainfall. However as long as the hose was in use to keep plants watered all the plants were very happy. I have been growing a range of grape varieties outdoors in my garden and on my allotment to see if some of them could be considered worthwhile. This warm summer was brilliant for the vines giving excellent growth and providing numerous bunches. However the weather in late summer and early autumn was not in their favour. The bushes produced plenty bunches with good sized grapes, but lack of sunshine in autumn held back the conversion of sugars. Over several years many varieties have been tried and some fell by the wayside. Polo Muscat and Muscat Bleu just never got the wood ripened enough to produce a

Black Hamburg just picked

worthwhile crop of grapes. Solaris suffered the same fate so I transplanted a vine to the greenhouse and it just loved this protected environment. It is an early variety so was a good match for Siegerrebe, another early variety from Germany which I grow in my greenhouse. Both have a Muscat flavour so they were both picked in early September at the end of a glorious summer. I had enough for a good demijohn of wine and the juice from the crushed grapes had a specific gravity reading of sugars at 1086 which will give me a wine with 11% alcohol.

Solaris in August

Black Hamburg in the greenhouse gave huge grapes and was ready for picking in October. My two outdoor red varieties Regent and Rondo were also picked at the same time. These grow on a south facing fence and are fairly sheltered. However although together they gave enough grapes for three demijohns, the sugar content was a bit lacking with a specific gravity reading of 1070 which would only give about 9% alcohol so some sugar was needed to increase the strength to an acceptable level of  11%. My last grape to be picked was Phoenix giving me about twelve pounds of sweet white grapes, but only suitable for wine due to having too many seeds.

The only dessert grapes suitable for growing up north is Flame, a red seedless variety, and Perlette a white seedless variety. Black Hamburg does make a good dessert grape but needs thinning to increase grape size as it still has a few pips.

Lifting chrysanthemum stools

Wee jobs to do this week

Lift chrysanthemums stools and dahlia tubers for storing, now that

they have finished flowering. Shake some soil off the chrysanthemum stools then box them up into seed trays with fresh compost and keep them moist but not wet over winter. They really need a cool greenhouse or cold frame that is frost free. Cut back stems to about six inches and make sure they are all labelled. With dahlia tubers you need to remove all the soil and dry them off for storing in an airy but frost proof shed and keep them totally dry. Both will produce shoots for cuttings next spring.

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A DREICH DAY ON THE PLOT

A DREICH DAY ON THE PLOT

Storm Callum brings more wind and constant rain in the middle of October, but then the sun returns to allow a few more days of happy gardening on the allotment plot. Way back in the long hot summer the weather was perfect for weed killing so now I am only left with those that have germinated during our wet September. A couple of days hoeing

Anna brings home the pumpkin harvest

and picking up sorted these out, so now I can continue my autumn harvests, whenever the rain stops, or in between showers.

Brussels Sprouts Crispus

Mixed lettuce leaves

Autumn strawberry Flamenco is giving a great crop of large berries, but cooler nights and misty mornings is allowing botrytis to affect quite a few, so they are normally consumed the same day as picking before rot gets a chance to take hold. Autumn raspberries Polka and Autumn Bliss suffered from Storm Callum but I am still getting a few small murrly berries. I pick out a few of the best for the table, but Anna uses the others to make a raspberry sauce by adding a splash of Ribena or apple juice with some sugar in a pot simmering for a couple of minutes. Once cool this can keep for a few days in the fridge. Brilliant added to home made yogurt and with breakfast cereals.

The figs had a great year, but now cooler nights have sent them into dormancy and all the leaves have fallen off. No more figs for this year, but Anna has made both fig jam and fig chutney to keep us supplied for a few more months.

Geraniums in October

Cabbages Kilaton are having a great year, but I have had to find homes for quite a few as they are huge, but at this time of year they can stay fresh in the ground for several weeks. Brussels sprouts Crispus is also very strong with large sprouts forming but I will wait for a few more cooler nights and a bit of frost to firm and sweeten them up before picking. Last year I lost all my sprouts when they all blew up without forming buttons, and I notice other allotment plot holders are having the same problem this year. Not yet found out what the problem is, though another problem has been plagues of caterpillars as my nets keep off the pigeons but the

Leek Musselburgh

cabbage white butterfly manages to squeeze through. These are regularly picked of from the growing points at the top.

Swedes and parsnips are now both ready for lifting. Swedes are a fair size, but I have seen bigger and parsnips are also a good size, though some are forked, which could be down to the dry summer and frequent watering. Beetroot has been very successful this year with plenty of baby beet and larger roots for pickling, fresh beetroot recipes and a delicious beetroot soup.

Strawberries in October

Leeks are now big enough for lifting for the kitchen, though they needed frequent watering during the long dry summer weather.

Pumpkins were harvested, cleaned and put into storage a few weeks ago. They are a brilliant bright orange colour and the thick skin suggests they will keep for many months. I normally wait till a few days before Halloween before cutting, but the hot weather combined with frequent irrigation made them grow fast, then mildew arrived and they lost all the foliage.

Cabbage Kilaton

It has been a good year for salads. Lettuce, rocket and spring onions have all been plentiful, and winter lettuce and late sown rocket will keep us supplied well into winter.

Flowers and especially geraniums, poppies and red roses in my allotment front border have kept the plot looking good from spring onwards. As these begin to go over they will be replaced with some home grown wallflower and pansies. The pansies were sown a couple of months ago from seed saved from some of my best colours. I will then find out if any have come true to their parents or if they have all been cross pollinated, but hopefully still to put on a good display.

The freezer has struggled to find space this year for all sorts of produce due to regular surpluses.

Clover and beans green manure

Wee jobs to do this week

Green manure crops of tares, beans, rye and clover sown after harvesting onions, broad beans, sweet corn, potatoes and summer cauliflowers as well as an old strawberry bed which got dug over after its three years of cropping have put on a lot of growth. These areas can be retained with a good vegetative cover into winter before trampling and digging in, but if they start to flower dig them in before they set seed and later next year become a nuisance.
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RENOVATE LAWNS

RENOVATE LAWNS

The end of October was traditionally the time to give the lawn its last cut, but with the prevalence of milder winters the grass often continues to grow till the end of November. If your lawn is firm enough to take the mower without causing any damage then continue to cut the grass. However for these later cuttings raise the blades to leave the grass a bit higher to help it through the winter. Local authorities have the same problem, but as they

Raking out moss and thatch

use large heavy ride on mowers the weight can do serious damage to the surface so they are more likely to stop cutting earlier if the surface is too wet.

A couple of weeks after the grass has recovered from cutting the autumn renovation works can proceed to put back good health into the grass sward.

When the grass is dormant we can carry out some serious repair and renovation works. Lawn edges often break down but can be repaired easily, with a wee bit of hard work. Bare areas (dog and cat damage) can either be returfed or prepared for a spring sowing. Moss control can now be tackled and surface aeration can be given to help drainage. Any weed problem will have to wait till spring as most chemical weed killers require the weeds to be actively growing to absorb the weed killer and translocate the chemical to all parts, especially the roots. Always read the labels when buying lawn weed killers as most broad leaved weeds respond quite well to chemical eradication, but clover is a lot tougher and needs chemicals especially formulated to act on these weeds.

Surface renovations in autumn

Where ever there is poor surface drainage often after a lot of compaction if the lawn is used a lot, moss can take hold and grow rapidly. This can also weaken the grass especially in winter as the moss continues to grow and smother the grass.

Spiking the lawn for surface aeration

This is another good reason to leave the grass higher than normal after the last cut. This is where the springbok rake is used to rake out as much moss as possible from the surface as well as thatch built up over the year. The debris raked up can go on the compost heap. If you have a large lawn you can hire or bring in lawn specialists with machines to scarify the surface. It is faster and more efficient than the springbok rake.

This is usually followed by spiking or hollow tining the lawn. You can buy a hollow tining hand tool or on a small scale use the garden fork, but for the folk with large lawns a machine will carry out this work fast and effortless. Hollow tining removes a complete core, whereas the garden fork creates a hole without removal of soil. Cores left on the surface need to be brushed off and again added to the compost heap. These holes require filling with a lawn autumn top dressing of sand, sterilised soil and a slow release lawn fertiliser which often has a moss killer added, (usually sulphate of iron). Brush this in until it all disappears. These lawn top dressings can be purchased already made up to assist drainage, feed the lawn and control moss.

Small bare patches can be scarified and top dressed with compost or sterilised soil, but do not sow fresh grass seed till early spring.

Attention can now be turned to edges, if any damage has occurred over the year. Repair edges by cutting a turf one foot by one foot and one inch or so deep in from the damaged edge and lift and turn the turf around so the new straight cut is on the edge. Firm it down and make sure it is level.

Now the lawn is sorted turn attention to the mower. Winter is the time for cleaning, repairs and maintenance to make sure the blades are sharp and the rollers the correct height for the next year.

Wee jobs to do this week

Cleaning and sorting the Bramley apples

Although the Bramley apple tree had a massive crop of huge apples a lot came down prematurely in the September gales. However these windfalls and the rest of the crop need cleaning and sorting for storage in a cool airy shed or garage. Fruit that is only slightly damaged can be kept separate for immediate use, or it can be cored and sliced after removing bruised or damaged bits, then rinsed in salty water to stop browning, washed again, then bagged for the freezer. Undamaged fruit will store well into next March if kept in a dark, cold but frost free and airy shed or garage. Lay them singly in flat boxes lined with clean newspaper.
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AUTUMN IN THE GARDEN

AUTUMN IN THE GARDEN

The garden has now gone into its autumn phase. Long hot summer days are now a pleasant memory still widely under discussion, but cooler nights and more frequent showers are normal. Autumn tints are seen on numerous trees. In my garden the

Anna prepares apples for storage

Japanese maple Acer Sangokaku has turned a brilliant orange scarlet and many others are on the turn. The fruit bushes of saskatoons, chokeberries and blueberries have all put on their autumn tints as well as deciduous azaleas.

Japanese maple

Trees and shrubs grown for their berries such as the rowans and cotoneaster have been very prolific, although the recent gales in September have brought a lot down and shredded many leaves of plants all over the garden. A trip out in the country foraging for my elderberries for a good home brew of elderberry wine was a waste of time as the gales not only blew all the fruit off it also shrivelled up all the foliage. Birds which need a good supply of berries to take them into winter will be in short supply this autumn. Even the cotoneasters have lost a lot of their berries.

Cotoneaster exburiensis

Back home on the allotment autumn raspberry Polka and Autumn Bliss both suffered badly, ruining the crop which still had to ripen, and my grape Phoenix broke in half, but a quick repair job might just work to last a couple of more weeks before harvest. Other outdoor grapes were well tied in, so did not suffer, but they still need a few more weeks for the grapes to sweeten up.

Mahonia mainly grown for an evergreen ground cover and spring scented yellow flowers also fruits very well and this year they seem to be just fine. However my Fuchsia Mrs Popple which normally fruits so prolifically that in some years I have gathered up enough berries for liquidizing into a healthy sweet fruit drink. This year the hot dry summer was not in its favour and I have not seen a single berry from over six large bushes.

Calluna H E Beale

French Marigolds

Flowering plants in October have to be tough, so geraniums which started off with numerous huge flowers in late spring slowly gave up flowering with lack of any vigorous growth in the hot summer sun. They are now bouncing back with good growth and plenty of flowers. Begonias were at their best when the gales arrived blowing off the flowers and shredding a lot of leaves. However French marigolds and Calendula are having an autumn burst of colour, and Calluna H. E. Beale is now in full flower and a gorgeous site. Definitely one of the best heathers for flowers,

Mahonia berries

though once the frosty nights prevail it is the golden foliage of Calluna Goldsworth Crimson that catches your eye. Nerine bowdenii is slowly losing its leaves as the flowers will soon open up with a bright splash of pink. Roses have mostly gone over, but there is always some that flower well into winter.

Apples, pears and plums are now mostly harvested, cleaned up and boxed for storing. However there were too many lost from damage as the gales brought large quantities down. Many bruised and with only slight damage are retained for immediate use in the kitchen as well as prepared for the freezer. Bramley still has half the crop on the tree and Red Falstaff on a dwarf rootstock has survived the gales. They should start to colour up and be ready to pick by mid October.

Dave growing Shark Fin Melons

Autumn leaves will soon be falling. Now is a good time for the final session of weed killing while there is still some warm sunshine, so we go into winter with clean ground. I pick off any big annual weeds for the compost heap then hoe the rest, but on paths I use a spray of glyphosate while it is still legal. It is the only chemical weedkiller left but is under threat so for chemical free gardeners, I’m afraid it is back to the hoe; but just think of the benefits of all that exercise.

Wee jobs to do this week

Shark skin melons have had a great season up at City Road allotments. Someone had bought some seeds and passed the plants around as a trial. They are very vigorous and tend to run riot expanding over the soil at speed unless some pruning is done. They have enjoyed the summer and are now ready for harvesting. It will be very interesting to see who can come up with the best recipe for using the new Shark Skin Melons which are more savoury than sweet.

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THE AUTUMN HARVEST CONTINUES

THE AUTUMN HARVEST CONTINUES

There are definite signs around that autumn has arrived. First it was the return of Strictly, then followed by The Apprentice, and then after

Pumpkins ripening up

the cool wet end to our tropical summer the sun returned as it always does for the tatty picking season. I hope this is a one off period of weird weather, though it would be nice to have a bit more of those long hot summer days. Garden plants are quite bewildered. Just when everything was coming

A few windfalls after the storm

along perfectly, and we made up the three weeks lost when spring never arrived, they had really enjoyed the great summer, especially as John, the head gardener was always around with the hose to prevent anyone drying out. Harvesting held great promise with first crops giving high yields, then in came the storms with severe gales. Autumn raspberries got shredded, berries were blown off the plants and apples and pears got such a fright that they just about dropped all their fruit. Even the late maturing Red Devil landed on the ground.

Good crop of beetroot

Pears on Beth all came off, but Concord held on. Christie and Beurre Hardy got picked the day before the storms arrived, but only to find more than half suffered extreme deformity as well as codlin moth damage. The deformity could be down to the dry summer or it could be the dreaded stony pit virus, which would mean the trees would have to be dug out. I will have to wait till next year to see how they perform. Heritage apple varieties Pearl and Park Farm Pippin all got blown off the trees so not sure how much crop I have for each of them.

Apple Pearl

Dahlias and Cosmos both had to be dug out as neither seemed to have any intention of flowering. Cosmos grew huge at well over four feet tall and spreading but not a flower bud in sight. Chrysanthemums fared a bit better, though again some early varieties have still to flower.

Pears ready to pick

Potatoes were all lifted earlier than usual. First early Casablanca gave a good crop but only as they were well irrigated. Main crop Setanta lost all its leaves through drought by end of August so lifting got underway early September. Crop was light with very few large potatoes.

Carrot crops were a complete disaster. Even those hiding between

Swedes

rows of onions and leeks were found by the carrot fly. Not even one for the table and my experiment with a row of salsify never produced a single usable root as every one had forked. However a row of parsnips is looking great with loads of strong foliage, but I will wait till the first frosts before I start to dig them up.

Swedes and leeks have both loved the summer and should keep me well supplied with fresh vegetables in winter, supplemented with kale, sprouts and cabbages which have all grown superbly. Beetroot are another success story as the first thinnings of baby

Codlin moth damage on pears

beet were plentiful and large roots of both the round Detroit and longer roots of Cylindra have given very high yields.

Pumpkins have never been better, but ripened well ahead of their normal season, then lost all their leaves to a devastating attack of mildew.

Figs just keep coming. Picked over 140 so far, starting at the end of July and with more to come.

Grape Phoenix

Grape Black Hamburg under glass is looking great with numerous bunches of large grapes which should be ready by early October. Outdoors, Regent, Rondo and Brant are all having a fantastic year with great potential and hopefully sweet enough grapes for wine brewing without the need for adding sugar. However Phoenix was so heavily laden down with crop that when the storms arrived the support could not withstand the winds, so it broke and the vine main stem split in half. It has now been tied back into place and I will just have to wait to see how the crop is affected.

Wee jobs to do this week

Impatiens (Busy Lizzie) and geraniums can now be propagated from cuttings taken from outdoor

Rooted geranium cuttings

plants in tubs, baskets and borders. Impatiens cuttings need to be taken soon as the plants die down quickly as soon as the weather turns colder. I take shoots about four inches long and put four together in a small glass jar filled with water. Place it on a light north facing windowsill. The cuttings will root within a month. Geranium cuttings are best with the top four inches of shoots snapped off just above a leaf joint and placed in compost on a light windowsill. Keep them growing till late winter then pot up.
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PLAN NEXT SPRING’S FLOWERS

PLAN NEXT SPRING’S FLOWERS

As summer draws to a close the display of bedding plants begins to look a bit tired. Now is the time to look forward to next year’s spring flowers.

Allotment flower border

The spring this year was wet cool and lacked sun, but this allowed spring flowers to last a long time, giving us the chance to review the show and make plans for the next year. At the moment my tubs are still flowering as tuberous begonias and geraniums continue to flower well into autumn, but hanging baskets

Drift of Aconites

with petunias, impatiens and lobelia are finished. These will be the first to get planted up with spring flowers, and most likely with pansies. I had some terrific colours in my mixed pansies so I saved the seed and sowed it in August. I now have well over a hundred strong plants in cellular trays ready for planting out. Each hanging basket takes about a dozen plants with six for the top and six inserted around the sides as I hope to achieve a round ball of greenery covered in flowers. The rest of the pansies can go in other tubs and flower borders as well as areas of spare land where shrubs have been removed. One

Mixed tulips in rose bed

Ceanothus was fine for nearly twenty years, but then started to die off so it got removed. The pansies will give us flowers while we decide what to replace it with.

Last year we bought some really good polyanthus which got lined out once their spring display finished, and now they can be replanted back into some tubs. I also have a good batch of wallflower grown from seed on my allotment for planting in larger tubs and underplanted with tall tulips. My favourite tulips are the Darwin Hybrids Apeldoorn (red) and Golden Apeldoorn (yellow) but another border above a wall will get the tall

Mixed Fosteriana tulips

Fosteriana tulips Red Emperor and the white scented Purissima. This border is also planted with tall scented Oriental Lilies flowering in mid summer. We keep the soil bare, remove the old tulip leaves six weeks after flowering then sow some fast growing annuals such as Candytuft, Cornflower, Godetia to grow underneath the taller lilies.

More lilies are also planned for a summer display of large scented blooms amongst the Cornus in my coloured stem winter border. This border is attractive from autumn till the end of March when I then cut back all the shrubs to ground level. This gives the drifts of crocus space to flower followed by tulips before the Cornus starts to grow again. However there is a lack of interest in summer so a batch of the tall Oriental Lilies will get planted in this border.

Narcissus Dick wilden

Up on my allotment I keep a flower border at the front to add colour and impact and detract the eye from the rest of the plot just in case there may be an odd weed that has escaped my attention. This has been known to happen from time to time. Last spring there was a brilliant display of tulips, but very few white ones so I will buy some of the Fosteriana Purissima and plant these into the border. This border starts with snowdrops, then the yellow aconites and some narcissus ahead of the main tulip display. This year I will plant up the border with my spare pansy seedling plants to accompany the tulips to give two levels of flowering plants.

Over the years I have added Crocus all over the garden and allotment front border, so no need for any more, but they are perfect amongst tubs of pansies and polyanthus. Then after flowering I can always manage to find a spot to plant them out for future spring

Narcissus Replete

flowers. The herbaceous border is always a favourite for spare bulbs as the permanent plants are slow to grow by which time the dwarf bulbs have flowered, produced their leaves before the herbaceous plants need more space.

Drifts of daffodils and narcissus make a great show amongst deciduous trees and shrubs and although the garden is not short of these, you always find another variety well worth trying out. Growers can always breed something different to catch your eye. Last year it was Westward, Sir Winston Churchill, Dick Wilden and Replete, and this year it is White Lion, My Story and Decoy.

Wee jobs to do this week

Plant strawberry plants from runners taken from older but healthy

Strawberry runners of Flamenco

beds. As they will be down for three years dig over the soil before planting and incorporate compost to feed the growing crop. Space plants out at a foot apart in rows three feet apart to allow for easy picking and give new runners a chance to grow along the row as these young plants will give extra crops.

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PRESERVING THE AUTUMN CROPS

PRESERVING THE AUTUMN CROPS

Autumn is the traditional time to harvest many crops such as potatoes, apples, pears, plums, sweet corn, pumpkins and grapes. Soft fruit is used for immediate use (strawberries, raspberries, brambles and tomatoes) with surplus for the freezer

Anna cooks fig jam and chutney

or jams and chutneys. In the past, although I was getting bumper crops of figs, picking was done over several months so they were all consumed as fresh fruit. This year however the tropical summer has brought on the ripening so fast that surplus figs had to find a home as two people could not consume

Fresh picked tomatoes

forty figs over three days. Anna found some great recipes for both fig chutney as well as fig jam. The fig chutney has apples, onions, sultanas added with brown sugar, cider vinegar and some salt, ginger, a clove and some ground nutmeg.

Apple Discovery

The jam is pure figs and sugar in equal weights with a vanilla pod and some lemon juice.

Potatoes harvested in autumn and onions in late summer are all dried off and stored in a dark cool but frost free shed or garage. Beetroot can be lifted and stored dry in boxes of sand or dry soil, but with mild winters mine have been happy outdoors where they are growing, and if frost threatens they get happed up with soil for protection. Some beetroots however are continually called for in the kitchen for a delicious beetroot soup, or in a borsch dish, as well as the traditional pickled beetroot. Leeks, Swedes, parsnips, cabbage and sprouts are all happy left in the ground and used as required. They will all happily survive till the end of winter.

Brewing fruit wines

Pumpkins in a normal year are harvested at the end of October, but this year mine are ready in mid September. The leaves suffered mildew then some damage as I harvested the sweet corn which shared the growing space as an experiment as they are happy together growing at different heights. The pumpkins will now be brought home to brighten up a shelf in the house. They usually last well into the next year, but are very popular when sliced and roasted as well as an ingredient in soups.

Summer crops of gooseberries, black and red currants are either in the freezer or converted into jams. Surplus raspberries and strawberries are also in the freezer to be used for jams, compote and summer puddings. In summer the gooseberry crop was huge,

Roast pumpkin slices

so a fair bit got frozen but some got combined with mint to make a savoury but sweet gooseberry jelly, and still enough for five demijohns of vintage gooseberry wine. Sweet corn gets harvested in one task once ripeness is at its best. Sampling is started ahead to see how the crop is progressing. Some are kept in the fridge for immediate use over a couple of weeks, but then the others are frozen. Preparing them for the freezer starts on a sunny day outdoors where we strip off all the leaves and remove the tip if it lacks corn. They are then blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes, removed and plunged into cold water before laying out to dry and then bagged up for freezing. The freezer space

Setanta potatoes

gets filled early with the gluts of soft fruit and vegetables like the broad beans, dwarf French beans and peas, but room is needed for the surplus raspberries and strawberries as well as the sweet corn. This is where my wine brewing helps out as I can utilise the previous year’s surplus of saskatoons, chokeberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. Once they are defrosted they are perfect for a homebrew and release space in the freezer for the next crop. At this time of year there is no shortage of produce.

Pears do not store for very long, so surplus can be peeled, cored and diced then slightly cooked with a dash of water and some vanilla. Once cold they can be frozen for future use in sweets, with yogurt, custard or with breakfast cereals. Tomatoes have had a brilliant year, but now there are huge surpluses for freezing to be used later on for soups and pasta sauce.

Wee jobs to do this week

As autumn weather brings down our temperatures our greenhouse tomatoes and grapes come to the

Solaris and Siegerrebe grapes

end of their season. No need for any more feeding but keep watering if required. Tomatoes can hang on the vine for many more weeks, but pick them as they ripen. If you have a few grape varieties, the early ones like Siegerrebe, the seedless Flame and Solaris will have been picked but Black Hamburg ripens slowly over many weeks so just pick those that ripen and be patient for the later bunches as Black Hamburg can continue to ripen up to the end of November.
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