I’m busy tidying up and taking cuttings
Prize-winning veg from the allotment and a smaller garden in greater Manchester with impressive summer bedding.
We’ve had a few dry days recently so I’ve made the most of them, tidying up the allotment and forking over and weeding the vacant beds. We’ve had some strong winds though, so it’s been quite a job keeping plants securely-staked and tied.
All the beans, courgettes, sweetcorn and tomatoes have finished now, but we still have plenty of cabbages, sprouts, turnips, beetroot and a few marrows, squashes and swedes for tasty winter meals.
I’ve put winter onion sets in spare ground on what is now the brassica bed. This is because this is the only bed that won’t be manured in the winter, as next year it’ll be the root crop bed, which doesn’t need manure.
By the time you read this, I’ll have entered another show with some of the veg, and also potatoes, onions and shallots that I kept from the September shows. Potatoes have been kept in the dark, wrapped in kitchen roll and aluminium foil.
Chrysanthemums stools have been dug up, labelled, boxed up and put in the greenhouse.
Many of the plants in the front garden have finished and have been taken to the compost heap on the allotment. Many of the hanging baskets and other containers are past their best, although some are still nice. Begonias in a tub near the front door are still colourful, as is a basket of diascias. I had cut the latter back and it put on more growth for a new lease of life. I’ll replant all the baskets with winter and spring plants soon.
When I empty the baskets and tubs I pot up some of the plants that I want to keep to take cuttings from in the spring, such as surfinias, diascias and bacopa. I also have some daffodil and tulip bulbs to plant in some tubs.
In the greenhouse, all the rooted cuttings of fuchsias, geraniums and streptocarpus, which were taken in August and September, have been potted up into small containers. I’ve also been through all the other plants in the greenhouses, tidying them up, removing dead leaves and flowers and cutting them back if needed. I’ve also removed the covering from the glass, to give the plants more light in winter.