Allotment Life: October 2022

October has been delightfully gentle and quiet in comparison to September, and I’m really pleased with how things are looking and shaping up. I have done a few smaller jobs and am plodding onwards with buying compost to finish topping off all of the beds.

October to do list:

·       Buy peat free compost and start filling the beds up ready for winter crops

·       Sort out the polytunnel. Old cover off and cut up, new cover on

·       Make a gate for the compost bin and hang it

·       Plant garlic cloves and maybe onion sets

·       Plant more bulbs

 

So far I have:

·       Bought 7 bags of compost and topped up 3 beds with it all

·       Planted 90 garlic and 6 elephant garlic cloves

·       Made the gate for the compost bin, hung it, added two clasps top and bottom to keep it shut, and also stapled some mesh at the base to stop stuff falling out of the compost bin and under the gate

 

I have been busy collecting 2L pop bottles which isn’t difficult in this house as D only drinks diet coke, so I have a near constant supply. I am going to use them as cloches and watering tubes next year. I have started using some them as cloches over the winter peas, and I am going to use a few more for the baby kale plants that I have started at home.

 

I planted lots of bulbs but still have lots more to go. One small bed now has 60 alliums, a mix of white, blue, purple, and drumstick which are a bit crimson-y. I also planted anemone, liatris, and aconites near the pond.

 

Seed sowing has been weirdly a mix of spring things – radish, peas, salad leaves. They’re all growing really well. Salad prefers cooler weather so autumn is a good time to do it.

 

I prepped the onion bed but then filled it with garlic. Hey ho.

 

Over the next two months my priorities are filling the beds up with compost and sorting out the polytunnel. There isn’t actually very much left on my original autumn/winter master to do list so that’s good.

My ass fee & rent is all paid up for another year, that's always good.

 

I still have LOADS of flowers (but of course it could be more – next year I plan for more). I still have cosmos, calendula, and cornflower blooming. I have been eating raspberries all month and still have lots more flowers to come. The nasturtium are taking over but they’ll all die when we get the first proper frost. I am leaving them for now, though.

 

I spent some time detangling a clematis – I hadn’t realised how much it had grown as it has been a jumbled mess in amongst everything else in the bed. Sea holly, thistle, beans, nasturtium, calendula, feverfew, raspberry… Lots of things. Anyway, the clem is now tied in against the back of the shed where it can grow up and over. This bit is south facing so it should be very, very happy.

 

I positioned the wildlife camera overlooking the pond and got lots of pics of rats and the foxes. And a badger! And a woodpecker!

 

The allium seed heads that I picked earlier in the year and have had hung up to dry at home have now been repurposed as ART.

 

November to do list:

·       Sort the polytunnel. Get rid of the cardboard that is slowly rotting away (it is soaking wet), stake the raised beds properly, have a good ol’ clear out and sort, dig out the chamomile and replant it elsewhere, AND THEN replace the cover with enviromesh.

·       Keep topping up with shop bought peat free compost. I’ve done 3 beds, I have lots more to do.

·       Plant onions. I’ve got loads of seed so I am going to direct sow some now, and then more in February.