Changing seasons on the Allotment
A wee reminder of the changing season with a chilly wind blowing and intermittent showers.
The day was spent in finishing off the pruning of the fruit after the workshop last Sunday and there is now a large pile of branches waiting for the first bonfire of the autumn.
Autumn raspberry in full production
We thinned out of the apples and plums so more to give each fruit room to develop fully. Another reason to thin the crop is because all of the fruit is on dwarfing rootstock and thinning helps to keep the trees on an annual fruiting. Too heavy a crop one year can exhaust the energy of the plant and lead to little or no fruiting the following year.
Stepover apple ‘Jupiter’ before thinning.
The shaws of the main crop potatoes are dying down and were cut off at the base. The potatoes will be left in the ground for a couple of weeks to allow the skins to harden.
The sweetcorn is looking good this year but a check on the cobs showed they are not yet fully ripe.
As well as the fruit there are still plenty of veg to be picked each week – beans of various kinds, beetroot, carrots, peas, as well as the potatoes and onions.
Bundling up the fruit cage netting.
Jobs for next week
- Tie on all the new growth on the soft fruit
- Weeding round the edges
