Terry Walton relieves his plot of pumpkins!
The compost heap is relieved as my crop finally goes off to charities!
Late October is a good time to reflect and analyse successes and failures. What did well and what didn’t? Was the effort to improve the soil good enough? It’s always worth trying something new and growing different vegetables, but never lose sight of the fact they’re supposed to feed you. From our failures we learn more and our successes give us a warm glow of satisfaction.
Gardening is a learning process and there’s no substitute for experience. Ask the long-time gardener for advice and you’ll be surprised how freely it will be given.
We’ve reached that time of year when the clocks are put back. It brings an abrupt end to any evening activities in the garden and it’s curtains closed, with a good gardening book for some inspirational ideas for next season!
It’s also approaching Hallowe’en, which has become more Americanised with ‘trick or treat’. What happened to the good old days of ‘ducking apples’, as it was affectionately known in my youth? This was a time when all the kids gathered in one house and amused themselves for hours trying to eat apples hanging on a string while blindfolded and hands behind your back. In some cases the apples were in a large bowl of water and you had to try to bite them without using your hands. It was a real time to enjoy the apple harvest!
With Hallowe’en in mind, the first task of this week is to say goodbye to my large pumpkins, which have taken ownership of a large area of the lower part of my allotments. These big orange balls have lit up the plot for some weeks and have been the centre of attraction for my neighbouring plot holders. They’ll soon wing their way to local charities to be used to raise funds for Bobath, which assists children with cerebral palsy. They’ll be missed on my daily trips to the allotment but it’s great they’re being used for charity.
With the monsters gone they’ve left in their wake a huge amount of foliage to add a substantial amount of green waste to my compost heap. They took a lot out of my compost to grow, so their leaves will now replace some of that goodness.
One of my new experimental crops this year has been scorzonera. This was overwhelmed by the mass of foliage from my nearby marrows but has still managed to send up some decent leaves. It’s the moment of truth and, using my fork, I reveal what’s below the surface. Hopefully there are some unusual black-skinned roots to test my wife’s culinary skills!