Monday, October 31

We had a little quince tree

Back in 2010 we planted a young quince tree. I wrote a blog post about it here.
Twelve years in and our little quince tree now looks like this.

This year it has provided us with a bumper harvest. Lat week, we decided to pick as many fruits as we could as we didn't want to leave fruit to rot on the tree. We knew that the tree was loaded with fruit but what we didn't expect was the fill our barrow and several buckets with fruit. This was on top of the several buckets that we had already picked.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Monday, October 24

Has the window closed?

I've mentioned before that our clay soil can move seamlessly from too hard and dry to dig to too wet and claggy.

After having had a lack of rain, for what amounted to eight months, the weather has turned wet. On Saturday, our soil was just right for digging and we had hoped to dig over more beds on Sunday. The problem is that with our weather it seems to be all or nothing and more rain fell on Sunday. Once the ground becomes wet in winter it tends to stay wet. Hopefully the moisture will soak into the ground but if the top layers stay wet and sticky our digging may have to be put on hold once more.



Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Monday, October 17

More winter preparation

Visits to the allotment are becoming fewer and when we do head to the plot we spend a shorter time there. Digging is hard work on our soil, especially when the ground is hard as it still is, so the principle of eating the elephant bit by bit applies. (Not the I would ever consider eating a real elephant). 

We have now picked off all the tomatoes from the garden and the plot greenhouse and the plants have been cleared out. This year has been a really good year for tomatoes especially as they have not had their lives cut short by blight.

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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Monday, October 10

Trying to beat the weather

It's ironic that we spent the entire growing season bemoaning the fact that we needed rain but now we are in a race to get the allotment ready for winter before the ground becomes too wet to work on. We like to get beds cleared and dug over so that we are in a good position to start planting in spring rather than, as sometimes happens, having to wait for beds to be prepared.

The ground is now fairly damp on the surface but, in some beds, the ground is hard and dry once you dig down to a spade's depth. In the photo below you can see that, when the bed was dug, the soil that was turned over was still very dry. The hard lumps will need to be left open to the elements in the hope that any rain and frosts will break them down.


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Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

Wednesday, October 5

September in pictures.

Monday, October 3

Last planting of the year

We didn't do much gardening at the beginning of the week for a number of reasons. One welcome reason is that we have had  a few wet days. A less welcome reason is that I have had a painful shoulder. Thirdly we have been shopping for new carpets and once we had chosen carpeting someone needed to visit to measure up and  price our order.

Martyn, cleared the tomatoes from  the garden greenhouse which will make way for everything that needs to be kept in there over winter. The temperature is already dropping over night.



Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett