First frost of winter can be an important milestone
The first frost of winter is an important milestone. It often follows a brilliant sunny day and cloudless night sky, but whether or not it is welcome really depends on what you are growing.
Overnight some tender plants such as dahlias can and will keel over spectacularly.
For me these first frosts marks the end of the autumn raspberry pickings.
Average dates of first frosts are easily available for different areas. My plot in Musselburgh can expect its first frost some time around the end of October.
In inland mountainous parts of Scotland that date can be a few weeks earlier.
It's time to look out some thick socks, rediscover last year’s thermal gardening gloves and get down to the plot.
It is said that parsnips and sprouts taste better after some frost but I never find an opportunity to make that comparison as I’m far too busy finishing off the last of the summer crops.
That done, I’m going to start on the parsnips.
Parsnips are one of the first seeds to be sown in spring and one of the last to be harvested.
Those who grow them for shows will have plotted their progress through the year but for me there’s a glorious moment of surprise when they come out of the ground.
They can be so muddy that it’s hard not to think longingly of ready prepared ones in the supermarket, but the taste of homegrown ones is in a league of its own and it’s worth every bit of the effort.
Germination rates tend to be poor from old parsnip seed, so now is the moment to remember to add a packet of them to your shopping list and discard any already opened ones.
Garlic and shallots thrive on cold weather.
I know some allotmenteers have success with planting cloves of supermarket garlic, but I prefer to play safe.
Garlic in the greengrocers may have been grown somewhere much warmer than Scotland and not perform well in our cooler, wetter climate.
Garden centres should be selling garlic grown here at the moment which is better adapted to our conditions.
My choice this year goes by the Scottish name of “Doocot”.
Planted now, it will have the benefit of frosty weather which prompts the bulb to split into individual cloves and they’ll be ready to harvest sometime towards the end of June.
Shallots can be planted a bit later. Traditionally, they go in on the shortest day and are harvested on the longest day.
Overnight tender plants can and will keel over spectacularly