Finished crops are all cleared
The last few days have been showery, but before that we had a lot of dry weather, so I’ve finished clearing all the finished crops on the allotment, including all the annual flowers that I grow for showing, and put them all on the compost. We still have plenty of Brussels sprouts and some more cabbages, turnips and beetroot to harvest.
My compost area has three equal-sized bays. One of the bays contains material a year old and ready for use, so I’ve spread it on to some of my veg beds. The other two bays are full. All the finished veg crops, dahlia stems and annuals have been put into them. After a few months they’ll have partly rotted down and will fit into one bay, which will be left until next winter when it’ll be ready for use.
The dahlia tubers have been dug up and are now in storage and the chrysanth stools are boxed up and being stored on the greenhouse shelf.
I’m giving up half of my allotment. The half I’m keeping is approximately two thirds veg and one third flowers (dahlias and annuals). I’ll lose my spray chrysanth bed, my main dahlia bed and gladioli bed and an area where I grow annuals.
There are also two small herbaceous borders and a row of 12 floribunda roses. I don’t want to lose the roses so I’ve dug them up and am trying to find room for them in my garden at home. I’ve already planted six!
There were some herbaceous plants as well that I wanted to keep, some rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’, phlox and Japanese anemones. I’ve replanted these at Blackleach Country Park in a border that I look after alongside the visitor centre. I’m going to slightly reduce the size of the veg beds to make room for more flowers, in particular a spray chrysanth bed, and more annuals, and I intend to grow more dahlias at home on my chrysanth bed and grow a few less chrysanths. At home, I replanted five of my hanging baskets, which are now hung up in front of the house, two for my daughter, Heather, and two for a friend. I’ve also re-planted my tubs. I used plants that I grew from plugs and daffodils and tulips bought from my local garden centre.