October 2007 News Update
As our harevests end and time down the allotment is taken up by winter chores we here at lottieblogs have decided to complie our weekly updates into a regular bumper edition until the more productive spring months of 2008 arrive.
To summarise our progress during october we begin by once again drawing attention to the abnormal weather we seems to be experienceing. Although the nights are definately beggining to draw in, leaves are on the ground and a chill is sweeping accross the country, we have experienced some very pleasant and sunny days which resulted in the final of our fruit harvests. Surprisingly however, this was not a late autumn raspberry or blackberry, but a solitary and still astinishingly tasty strawberry plucked from our rather disorganised fruit patch. Just wierd!!!!!
Another testament to this mild weather is the continuing flower display to be found in our border area. Although the remaining laveteria and marigolds do look a bit straggly from a distance, they are a very pleasant reminder that although summer is now officially gone, its is definately not forgotten.
There are still significant ammounts of produce tobe had frmo the allotment at this time of year however. We have certainly not gone without and have regularly had baskets containging celery, sweetcorn, letticues, courgetts, rhubarb, fennell, parsnips and carrots to take home and cook or store and whilst some of it is now past its best it can stil be used sucessfully in more substantial and wintery dishes than thier tender summer predecessors.
We are also continuing to be impressed by our later maturing crops on the plot and at home, we have had further finr specimines of squashes and pumpkins retrieved from the now cleared pumpkin patch. Hopefully with careful storage these fleshy beauties should sustain us and many other family members with warming soups etc right into 2008. Whilst from our conservatory at home we ahve had some spectacluar sweet peppers and chillies for use in our culinary adventures.Although the Monolith on the plot failed to produce much of anything eddible on the tomatoe or pepper front we look forward and are already planning for a more sucessful crop next year.
New life is an important part of this season too, as now is the time to be planting and protecting overwintering crops such as cabbages as well as regular checking and inspections of brassicas to prevent bolting and infestations of pests which could otherwise ruin a very important harvest to fill the "Hungry Gap" in the new year. Protection for these crops is as important now as it has beenthe whole rest of the year, as other food sources become scarce the vandalous wood pigeons will doubtless home in on your young and exposed plants so it is definately worth the deployment of nettings and bird scarers to make them think twice.
This seasons work is not yet finished though, there is muck to collect, store and distribute over some of the soil, along with other loam conditioning additions such as compost and lime. There is also rotorvation and possible covering of the seedbeds to prevent waterlogging to accomplish, as well as the planning of crop placement and collection of seed to complete. Some tasks which were slightly overdue have been managed over the past few weeks, in particular the additions of a few new compsot bins for the storage of waste and soil enriching products and the collection of our own runner bean seeds for use by ourselves/family and other plotholders in the coming season.
Stay in touch to see how things develop over the winter and get a sneak peek at our plans for the growing season 2008.