Time to dig in and prepare for winter on the vegetable plot

On the allotment in the autumn months.

While the weather is still good and the land is dry enough to walk on, we are preparing it as much as we can for next years vegetable and fruit growing.

The autumn raspberries are still fruiting so I am holding back on cutting them down and mulching the area. As soon as the last berry is picked then that job  will be a priority. The rhubarb has bid us goodbye until next year, it has shed its leaves and has gone in to its stage of dormancy. We have enriched the soil around it with a generous helping of rotted down muck, as a thank you for all the effort it puts into providing us with plenty of rhubarb in the growing season. You can move or plant rhubarb crowns now. Put a stake in the soil where the crowns are so that you do not lose sight of where they are planted as you work in the vegetable garden.

Work is also being carried out on tidying and weeding areas, bits of the vegetable plot that were cleared of main crop potatoes are needing constant hoeing to keep down the emerging weeds. If you use a sharp hoe to take the tops of the young emerging weeds then you are less likely to find that the area has become become infested with established weeds.  This will need to be a regular job until the weather becomes to cold for the weeds to germinate and grow. Looking at it in one way what is cut down now will be less to deal with later.  Of course some weeds such as the  perennials can only be dealt with by being dug out of the soil, but at this time of year it is easier than when the soil is dried out or frozen.

That's it for this post, allotment clothes need laundering frequently at this time of year, especially when you have been moving compost between the two compost bins.