Hi all fellow community gardeners,
The Autumn is just upon us so time to do the October work in the garden,have a read for the jobs to be carry out.
Regards
South Circular Road Community Garden Sept.2012
There will still be some vegetables to harvest
and store, but your plot will be emptying. As the ground become vacant, dig it
over and apply manure over the surface.
October is a good month for double-digging to
increase the depth of your topsoil and incorporate manure. If you don't need to
dig over the plot, why not plant a green manure to overwinter.
Harvest
By now the maincrop
potatoes should be ready. As the foliage dies back you can cut this off and
leave the potatoes for a couple of weeks. This will prevent any stray blight
spores from infecting your crop. Wait for a sunny dry day and dig up the
potatoes, brushing off excess soil and letting them dry before storing in
hessian or paper sacks in a frost free, dark shed.
The last of the beans
should be picked now, compost the foliage but leave the roots with their
nitrogen full nodules in the soil as a fertiliser.
Carrots can come up to be
stored in sand or peat through the winter but leave the parsnips in the ground.
They'll be sweeter after a frost.
Cabbages should come up now
too, they'll keep remarkably well in that frost-free shed but beware the slug
that may be lurking under the leaves. Sprinkling the outside with salt will
deter them from eating away through the winter.
Any green tomatoes on
outdoor plants may as well come in now before the frost gets them. You can make
a green tomato chutney or ripen them up
indoors. Green tomatoes will actually store quite well in cool conditions and
slowly ripen or you can hasten the ripening process by popping them in a tray
in a sunny windowsill with a ripe banana.
General Jobs in the Garden
As ground becomes vacant
you can dig it over and spread manure over the surface. Leave the soil roughly
dug in large clumps and the worms will break these up as they get the manure.
The freezing and thawing of water in the soil will cause the soil to break up
finely so becoming easier to handle in the spring.
October and November are
good months to undertake double digging, incorporating manure into the bottom
of the trench and deepening your topsoil.
With finer soils where
digging each year is not necessary, you can plant a green manure crop to
overwinter such as field beans.
Dig in any green manure
crops such as mustard that you planted earlier in the year.
Your compost bins will be
filling up as the last of the crops come in so now is a good time to give them
a turn to help even decomposition and cover them to keep them warm and damp
rather than soaking wet. If you've got a comfrey patch you may as well take the
last cut and add to the heap to activate it.
The leaves will start to
fall very shortly and these are a valuable resource. Prepare for them by
building a leaf mould cage. Very simple to do, you just drive four stakes into
the ground and staple chicken netting around to make the cage. Pile in the
leaves and leave them alone for a year. You will find the pile reduces by two
thirds at least, so keep filling the bin as more leaves fall. If you have one
those marvellous garden vacuum mulchers that suck up leaves and chop them, you
will find the leaves rot down much more quickly. Watch out for council
sweepers, they may just drop you a load of leaves when they call to collect a
few veggies off you.
Sowing, Planting and Cultivating
It's not too late to plant
out Japanese onion sets, these are hardy and will overwinter producing a crop
about a month earlier than the spring planted onions. A cloche or fleece
covering will get them off to a good start and stop the birds from pulling them
out.
You can plant your garlic
now although this job will hold over into November easily. If you have time and
the weather is fine, it's worth doing it when you can because who knows what
November's weather will be?
You can sow broad beans now
to get them off to an early start next year, but in colder areas it may be
better to wait until spring as germination is more patchy on winter sowings.
Better late than never.
Remove any yellowing leaves
from over-wintering brassicas, they are of no use to the plant and will
encourage botrytis to develop.
Fruit
When the strawberries have
finished tidy up the bed, cut off the tops, remove dead leaves, rotting berries
you missed under the foliage and remove self-planted runners.
Fruit bushes such as black-
and redcurrants should be pruned, as should the gooseberries. Now
and November are good months to attend to the raspberries, blackberries, etc.
It's also a good time to plant new canes, adding some compost and 8oz per
square yard or 250 grams per square metre of bonemeal to keep them well fed.
In the greenhouse
If you've not already done
so, now's the time for a good clean out. Take out all those pots and bits
you've left in there and put them in the shed – you can tidy that up later!
Next it's time to wash the
greenhouse down, a little detergent and disinfectant and a scrubbing brush.
Getting the glass clean will allow more light through in the dark days and
cleaning the frame will remove pests looking for a good spot to spend the
winter.
If you are going to be
using the greenhouse through the winter, you can now insulate it. Bubble wrap
is good or heatsheets will do the job. Don't forget you will still need some ventilation
or mould will run riot in the house.
You can also sow a hardy lettuce
like Arctic King and grow them on in your border to give you a salad whatever
the weather.
The
season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, with the growing season coming to an
end. The temperature is dropping, the days shortening with the clocks going
back at the end of October. By November we'll have seen the first frosts.
·
Harvest and enjoy your fresh, home-grown
fruits and vegetables. Store your root crops carefully and freeze or make jams
and chutneys with gluts of other vegetables and fruits.
·
As you harvest and the ground is cleared,
start soil preparation for the following year, digging and adding manure as
required.
·
Clear up any fallen leaves and either make
leaf mould or compost them.
·
If you will be using your greenhouse over the
winter, wash it down inside and out before adding insulation.
·
Plant fruit trees and bushes to give them
time to establish before winter starts.
·
Make sure that all trees are securely staked,
to avoid root rock and damage during winter storms.
·
Remember to check your stored vegetables from
time to time and remove any that show signs of rotting before the damage
spreads.
Growing in a Polytunnel in October
October
is the month for clearing and tidying. Your cucumbers and courgettes are likely
to be finished and many other plants are getting exhausted and diseased, but
hopefully you have a batch of new salad crops ready to plant out now. I always
enjoy this time of year becomes the tunnel or greenhouse becomes completely
transformed and rejuvenated again.
Sowing in the Polytunnel
Direct sowing into beds There
is now plenty of space again for sowing directly into the beds. Any salad crop
can be sown directly into the ground now or sown into modules for planting out
later. The decision is yours.
Planting into beds
I
always look forward to planting out the garlic cloves into the beds in October.
If you plant them in early October they will be ready and harvested in May just
in time before your tomatoes need to be planted. You can also plant
overwintering onion sets.
Sowing into modules/pots (18-20˚C)
The
best time for your overwintering salads was really in September, but if you
have missed that date you can still sow them now. They may not be ready before
the end of the year but will produce well in late winter until early spring.
·
Claytonia (or Winter Purslane) – 5 seeds per
cell
·
Chervil, Coriander, Dill – 5 seeds per cell
each
·
Oriental brassica salads (all types) – 5
seeds per cell
·
Scallions (Ishikura Bunching) – 10 seeds per
cell
·
Spinach (annual) – 4 seeds per cell
Harvesting from the Polytunnel
In
October the summer crops are fizzling out and their quality declines. You may
still harvest some:
Aubergines,
basil, calabrese, coriander, Chinese cabbage, courgette, cucumber, dill,
Florence fennel, French beans, lettuce, melons, oriental brassica salads, pak
choi, parsley, peppers, salads, scallions, spinach and tomatoes.
General Polytunnel maintenance
·
Hardly water at all - once a week at the
most.
·
Ventilate as much as possible.
·
Clear all remaining summer crops. Don’t leave
any of their crop residues in your tunnel or greenhouse otherwise their relevant pests and diseases will be
carried over to the new crops.
·
Start chitting your first early potatoes
indoors.
·
Continue harvesting your winter salads.
·
Prepare the soil for the early spring crops
by incorporating compost or composted manure into the soil.
·
Tidy and clean the tunnel or greenhouse: wash
the plastic or glass, clean and tidy away the pots and trays.
·
Clean your tools and rub boiled linseed oil
onto the handles and a mixture of old oil and diesel to get rid of rust on
metal blades.
·
Order your seeds, seed potatoes, onion sets
and garlic bulbs
Turning the sod in the Community Garden
Our stand in the Family fun day.
The crew getting items ready.
Marion,Susann
All the ingreadents for making seed bombs.
The start of the interest.
Starting small,never too young to learn. 
Learning from the Master.
Even adults are interested.
The childrens drawings on display,which they did on the day.
Home composting information and booklets on Biodiversity,Pollinators in the garden how to encourage them in.
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