The Gold Rush

Monty Don advocates that any gardener worth their salt shouldn't need to purchase a gym membership. After the number of wheelbarrows I carted to and fro over the past week, I don't think I'll need the gym in a hurry.

We had a delivery of manure yesterday at the allotment. As it never lasts more than a week after it's been delivered, I had to work quickly to secure my haul. I dutifully put several beds 'to bed' for the winter all tucked up under a thick blanket of manure and mulched the raspberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries and rhubarb. All in all, I made it about 24 barrowfuls that got put down.

I know putting down a manure mulch is a contentious issue...but ours has a lot of wood shavings in and isn't too concentrated so I go with it. It keeps the weeds down over the winter, adds humus and nutrients to the soil and the fact I get a good harvest the following year means it can't be doing that much harm.

Now it might have been OK if my barrowing ended there, but there was also an autumn clear up taking place on the site which I got roped into. After digging, riddling and spreading 12 barrowfuls of topsoil it was most definintly time for a well deserved slice of carrot cake and a coffee in the hut.

As if that wasn't productive enough, 400 onion sets are now in. In true allotment style, I worked out how many onions I would use at home each week, added a few for any failures, checked the catalogues for the best value combinations and then placed my order. Did I heck? By my reckoning, that should give me about 7 a week for the next year! I'm thinking red onion chutney. Garlic is in now too. I didn't get anywhere with the Red Sicillian so I'll have to see how the Bella Italiano goes instead. It was apparently a misprint on the website unfortunately. To make way for the garlic, I had to pull up 3 rows of carrots. I've got away lightly this year with both carrot fly and wevills. They were remarkably intact which made preparing them for todays roast much more pleasurable. All the veg for the roast came from the allotment today - spinach with fried onions, roast potatoes and the carrots.

The strawberry bed is now all neat and tidy. Only three weeks after I planned to get it done. Runners are potted up and plants all back in their neat rows. My other smaller strawberry bed still needs doing, but that shouldn't take too long next week.

I managed to lose the broad bean seeds I brought so didn't get them in this weekend. Of course they have turned up this evening in the bottom of the allotment bag, but they definitly weren't there yesterday. I'm only overwintering one double row of Aquadulce Claudia this year. I normally do more, but going to spring sow the rest for a change. I'm not overwintering any peas either this year. Even under cloches my autumn sown peas haven't come to much for the past couple of years so they can wait until the spring too.

Believe it or not, my outdoor tomatoes were still going well until this weekend when I decided to call it a day and clear them. I harvested a large bag of ripe red toms, and a similar quantity of green ones. I'm goignto keep the green ones for my green tomato chutney. I'm hoping to be donated a few more to bulk up my harvest so that I can make a big batch of green tomato soup for the freezer as well.

I'm pretty much up to date on the allotment now and am feeling quite smug that for the first time in a long time, I'm getting ahead. I missed out on sowing my Swiss Chard for the 'hungry gap', but I've done everything else I wanted to do. I hope to move a couple of fruit bushes before it gets too cold, and need to tidy up the grass paths but that's almost it for the season. Hoepfully it will now just be harvesting - the best bit! I've got kale (both curly and red) as well as turnips and swede in my brassica bed. And am waiting for the first frosts for the first parsnips of the season. Spinach is holding up well, and there are plenty of carrots and beetroot to keep me going. Am I boasting a little too much?