September plots – what’s going on?

Well, if you had the kind of night we had last night, frost is going on! Autumn has come in with a vengeance, hasn’t it?

Assuming you’ve got your winter greens into the ground already (we’ve got ruby chard coming up nicely, although it had to be covered with bubble wrap last night) then you can still be thinking about sowing winter lettuces such as Arctic King and winter hardy spring onions (also called winter hardy salad onions) and, of course, thinking about broadcasting a green manure to enrich your soil and prevent weed growth over the winter. Come early spring, you simply dig in your green manure and let it rot into the ground for a couple of weeks before spring vegetable sowing.

Some people are setting out spring cabbage plants now and even garlic in suitably sheltered areas.

It’s hardly worth feeding most of the veg now, as everything will be heading for dormancy, although liquid feeds are still important for tomatoes, peppers, chilis and cucumbers. Squashes and pumpkins will be slowing their growth now – they respond to frost (even if it doesn’t touch them) by becoming dormant, so watch the stems and as they start to slim down (meaning the plant is no longer feeding the fruit) cut through and move your squashes and pumpkins to a cool airy and above all dry place to store.

Compost bins can be emptied out now, spreading the stuff that’s ready onto your plot and piling the partially rotted stuff back into the bin.

Labels: allotment-crops, allotment-tasks, autumn-allotment