Planting Raspberry Canes

The main job at the allotment this weekend was to plant out some new Raspberry Canes that I'd ordered. First I dug a trench in the soil that was about 2 spades wide by a spade deep (see above). I then filled this trench with manure, as apparently Raspberrys like a good rich soil to grow in. I then raked the soil back over the top of the trench so it was level again.


I ordered 10 canes of Polka Raspberrys from Kings Seeds (although I only got sent 9 canes!). They are an Autumn variety, so they should compliment my existing Summer Raspberrys that I already have on the other plot. The idea being that it should extend my growing season of Raspberrys, giving me a supply of them for a much longer period. The canes were delivered as bare-roots (see above) bundled in a large brown paper sack.


I planted them in a row into the prepared ground where the manure-filled trench was, with their roots spaced out as best I could. There is some weed suppressing material next to them (on the left of the photo above), which will form a permanent path.


This is how the back half of the newer plot looks now, with several piece of black plastic covering the ground for the winter. The courgette plants are just to the right of where the above photo was taken, and they are still producing courgettes - picked another 3 this weekend. I also picked some more Rocket, Broccoli, Raspberrys (from the summer varitety!) and finally pulled up the last of the carrots.

The Autumn

Despite it being well and truly Autumn, mid-October, the Summer Raspberries which had practically died off a few weeks ago have had a new surge of life and started fruiting again! (see above). I suppose that wouldn't be surprising if they were Autumn Raspberries, but this is exceptionally late for a Summer variety. Further evidence of a milder than normal Autumn is shown by the Strawberry plants, which are also starting to develop new fruits again! (see below left). The Onions that I planted last weekend have already started to send up shoots (see below right) which is a good sign.


I gave the Leeks a well-needed weed this weekend (see below). I haven't picked any yet, but a few of them are a decent enough size now, so I will probably pick some soon. I picked a load more carrots, nearly pulled up all of them now, and had probably the last of the spinach and spring onions.


The Winter Cabbages are doing really well (see below) so I picked the first one. They're a strange almost cone-like shape, but look great. I'm keeping them netted over to prevent the pigeons eating them.


Over on the new plot it was time to start putting things to bed for the winter. I picked the last remaining squashes and then pulled up of all the dead squash plants and added them to the compost heap. I also pulled up the dead tomato plants and then covered all of those areas with black plastic to stop the weeds growing over the winter (see below).


This plot still has courgette plants in it, and they're still slowly producing courgettes. Yet another strange sign for this time of year is a pumpkin plant that had completely died, now growing again, sending out new flowers and even forming a new tiny pumpkin! (see below). I doubt it will come to anything as it will get attacked by the frost before long. But I didn't have the heart to pull it up just yet.

Planting Onions, Shallots, Garlic

The main job at the allotment on Saturday afternoon was to get the Onions, Shallots and Garlic planted. I dug the soil over and added some manure last weekend, so this week I just had the planting to do. I put in 2 and a half rows of White Onions (Swift) and 2 and a half rows of Red Onions (Electric). Then 2 rows of Shallots (1 row of Griselle and 1 row of Springfield) and 3 rows of Garlic (1 row of White Pearl and 2 rows of Pink Lady). They were all ordered from Marshalls Seeds. I then covered the area where they were planted with netting, which is to stop birds pulling them out of the soil or cats walking over the ground and disturbing them.

All that planting took longer than I expected, so I didn't get much else done. I did manage to strim all the grass edges and paths though - hopefully for the last time this year. I picked what I think will now be the last of the tomatoes, as the plants are very much passed it now and the remaining tomatoes have gone bad. I picked a few more courgettes - the plants are still healthy and producing more. I also pulled up an a huge amount of carrots - trying to get them all out of the ground now before they go past their best and get eaten by bugs. There are still more to pull up, but gradually getting them all out. Also picked some more Spring Onions and Spinach and probably the final Cabbage (a red one).

Sowing Broad Beans

Last night I sowed some Broad Beans (Aquadulce Claudia) into small pots made out of recycled newspaper. This is the first time I've used a Paper Potter to make my own biodegradable pots. It's really easy and seems like a great idea. You just cut lengths of newspaper, use the Paper Potter to form minature pots, then fill them with compost and add a seed. The idea is that when the seedlings are ready to be planted out, you just bury the newspaper pot in the ground and the roots will push through the bottom and the pot will disintegrate. That way you don't disturb the roots when you plant them out. I'm a little worried that the newspaper will just get too wet and collapse before I get around to planting them out - but we'll see how it works. If it's successful I will probably use these kind of pots for all kinds of seeds next year.

I sowed 60 beans, one per pot, and then placed the pots in seed tray inserts - just as a convenient way to keep them upright. I've then placed the trays in my plastic mini greenhouse on the patio, zipped up to keep the cold off them. Assuming they succeed - I will plant the seedlings out on the allotment in a few weeks time when they're big enough. Hopefully this will give them a good head start and provide some early Broad Beans in the Spring.

Manure

Yesterday I had two large tractor loads of Manure delivered by a local farmer. One load on each of my two plots. It has been dumped on an empty patch at the end of each plot (see above and below) until I'm ready to use it.


While I was at the allotment I also picked 6 pumpkins that were fully ripe. They are now stored in the garage at home (see below). There are another 3 pumpkins still on the plot which aren't quite ripe yet, so hopefully there will be enough sunshine over the next few weeks to ripen those as well. We've already picked and eaten 2 pumpkins this years, so that makes a total of 11 pumpkins from four plants.


Unfortunately I discovered that somebody had pulled up several potatoe plants and a couple of leeks. Thankfully there are still pleanty more of both, so I'm just hoping I don't get any more damage or theft.

The Onions, Shallots and Garlic I ordered a few months ago have now arrived (see below). Although I didn't have enough time to plant them this weekend, I pulled up the french bean and sweetcorn plants and dug over that area ready for planting out the onions next time I visit the allotment. I also added the last of my previous years manure to the ground in the hope that I might get a better crop on onions next year.



Also in the garage at home are the squashes that I picked last weekend. They look fantastic on the shelves and we've already eaten several of them.

I've already started looking in seed catalogues to find some different squash varietys to try next year. We'll definitely grow the Festival (orange/yellow stripe) squashes again, and some kind of Butternut variety, but won't bother with the Sweet Dumpling (green/white stripe) ones as they're not as nice as the Festivals. I was also pleased to discover that although some of the Butternuts had blemished skins, they were absolutely fine inside.