Allotment Diary–Sunday 21 August 2016

I’m starting to prepare the allotment for Autumn now, clearing out the summer crops, thinning and removing rotten leaves etc.  I pulled out every other red kale and planted them in pots hoping that they will survive and be moved to the garden at home, I also cleared a row of summer spinach that was bolting and replaced it with carrot and perpetual spinach instead.

I’m sowing these autumn carrots exclusively now.

This is my preferred spinach for the autumn/winter, I’ve loads of it that I bought in bulk on amazon for a pittance, but I keep it in this packet.  Although in theory it’s possible to keep on top of spinach by cutting it back, or picking leaves, in practice I find this only works for about a month and then it needs to be started again.

I also cleared the Miszo which was overpowering the spring onions and the beets as well as being a little tough and bitter now.  That was replaced by radish

The highly varied weather’s not been very friendly to the radish, I’m hoping that these do better than the last crop, which only provided about 20 out of two hole rows!

Finally I popped in a couple of rows of rocket, another crop that bolts too quickly, although the ones I pulled today had been cropped most days for a month.

I’ve also pulled up half a row of peas and started to crop the secondary runner bean bed.  Pretty much everything is now cropping on the plot, all at the same time, so no shortages and plenty of surplus and lots still to come in September and October, with the November/December salads being planted soon too.

I’ve decided to leave the hot bed prep until January, to be planted in Feb, as I think I have plenty to keep us going right now.