Perfect peas but beastly blight!
level leave the roots in the soil due to the fact they trap nitrogen from the air in nodules on their roots and this can help feed your next crop. There won’t be a huge amount of nitrogen in the roots as the plants will have used a lot of it, but what little there is can be worked into the soil by chopping the roots up with a sharp spade and working it into the bed.
As shallots become ready to harvest you’ll notice the leaves begin to yellow and droop, while pickle them for Christmas. As we had quite a lot of cool, damp weather over the last few weeks before the sun finally came, I’ve been checking my potato and outside tomatoes for signs of
blight; this can decimate plants within 24 hours of first noticing the dark patches on the leaves.
Potatoes can be salvaged by removing the foliage at ground level as soon as you notice the problem as the tubers will be fine, but it’s ‘game over’ for outdoor tomatoes if they aren't ripe. You can register on www. blightwatch.co.uk for free and they’ll alert you if blight could be around in your postcode area.
There's still time now to plant out late varieties of Brussels sprouts and leek seedlings, as well as sowing and planting lettuce. I like to sow a few seeds into modules every other week so I have a constant supply of seedlings to plant.
I sow into modules as pigeons and slugs decimate any germinating lettuce
seedlings that are directly sown at this time of year.