Autumn jobs: harvesting, clearing away (and still planting!)

 

After working at the allotment (that's me), September 2025

This past Saturday I cut down the tall artichoke growth at the allotment, in preparation for moving some of them to the back;  they have been taking up about a 2m x 5m bed near the front until now.  They made a very fine privacy screen!  But they can do the same job at the back of the allotment, shielding me from the view of the houses beyond.  I would rather have that front bed for annual vegetables and keep the (lower maintenance) perennials to the back;  also to the rear:  raspberries (trying to get them a little more orderly too) and newly planted asparagus.

The son came with me on Sunday and we planted the garlic in one of the squash beds;  I'd just picked all these squashes and cleared away the vines and weeds.  This bed had been sheet mulched just before the squashes went down in May (and we topped up the mulch after the garlic went down) but was still somewhat grassy and had new bindweed too.  I've not seen bindweed until maybe last year but the whole site suddenly has it, not just my own plot.  I don't know how it was introduced but we've all got it now.  I'll try to keep on top of it;  I've been pulling it out where I can.  I still have a few squashes growing in two other beds, ready to pick now too.

I'm regularly picking fennel bulbs from the allotment and the second small batch of kohlrabi.  Even the tiny beetroots that I left after picking the main crop are big and ready for harvest now (that surprised me!  I'm now glad I left them);  the self seeded achocha are coming in now too.  There are also a few tomatoes left to come:  I have the plum toms in the ground and a few more cherries in planters at the front.

At home I cleared away all four zucchinis plus weeds and replanted with the last lettuce batch of the year;  I put down some netting over it, mainly to deter my own chickens and ducks but also to keep pigeons off.  The Chinese cabbage and pak choi I planted in the next bed over look very happy under their own net, and they are right next to my strawberries, producing a second crop.  I still have some spring cabbages to put down somewhere; these are the final seedlings of 2025 (at last).  They look a bit spindly--I hope they grow a bit before winter.

I'm still picking the last few salad cucumbers at home, along with some lettuce;  there are still plenty of early leeks which I'm picking every other day or so as my onion substitute.  And we're still eating our apple a day!

From tarp to asparagus

How is this grass still here?  September 2025

We had a nice autumn day on Sunday--equinox I think?--and so the whole family went to the allotment to plant out the asparagus at last.  I grew them from seed in the spring and they have been waiting patiently in their pots until now.  

First we pulled out the cherry tomatoes from their planters at the top of the allotment:  all the remaining (mostly green) fruits came home with us to make fermented green salsa.  Then we moved the planters back down to the bottom of the allotment where they will stay until spring, possibly planted with overwintering onions (haven't decided yet).  

Then it was time to pull up the tarp and carpets where the planters had been, revealing a lot of worms and surprisingly a strip of green grass.  The daughter "rescued" all the worms while I dug out the grass;  the husband helped me prepare three rows and plant out while the son pulled out bramble vines at the back of us (not shown).  

I mulched with some wood chips (from a pile near the stables on site) and the son helped me pull the carpets back, to keep the weeds/grass from resprouting.  We moved the tarp onto the path at the side (again, not shown) and weighted it down with bricks.  The path is between us and our allotment neighbor and we generally keep it covered with pieces of carpet to keep the grass from growing--however, sometimes I need that carpet elsewhere.  I don't have enough pieces for both the path and the beds, and it's handy to cover really grassy beds with carpet over winter.  However, I'll be sheet mulching in places too, having collected some large boxes from my work in the summer.

There are still a few jobs to do as we wind down towards winter:  harvesting and clearing away the last of the in-ground tomatoes and squashes, planting out the garlic, and moving the artichokes to the very back of the allotment.  The asparagus are close to the back, but there is a disused space between them and the boundary fence, full of pieces of wood/pallets/wire/other allotment detritus.  It's mainly growing brambles and nettles, but I think it would be much better to grow artichokes. 

A family affair:  asparagus finally planted, September 2025

Still life with fruit and vegetables

 

All homegrown/allotment grown, September 2025

Still eating our apple a day (and salad a day with no end to the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers yet)--I'm currently experimenting with low carb apple desserts, such as an apple "pie" this weekend with a coconut shortbread top crust (no bottom crust).  We bought a low carb sweetener which is a blend of stevia and erythritol;  I've been using it every Sunday for a special fruit dessert, usually a fruit crumble using ground almonds instead of flour.  The plum crumble was especially good;  though the harvest was small and mostly out of reach, I was able to pick enough to make it on two consecutive Sundays.  No sweetener needed in the fruit, it tasted almost like cherry pie filling:  delicious.  

There are still some Sparta apples left on the tree but the Laxton Fortune is now completely cleared.  It's a surprisingly good harvest this year.  The apples pictured are the very last of the Laxton Fortune.

Not quite so successful for the runner beans though;  I decided to try them again after a hiatus and will probably put them on the back burner again.  Not productive enough:  lots of vines, fairly good flowering, but not enough turned into beans.  I think they need a cooler, wetter summer than we've been getting.  I have French bean seeds which hopefully aren't too old to germinate next year;  these have been much more reliable in a hot summer, and do well in a cool one too.

Although my harvest has been acceptable, it was not a zucchini summer again (though it was a cherry tomato summer!  The son has already made some excellent tomato sauce to go on his homemade pizza).  The above photo shows a massive marrow from someone else's allotment;  the giver said to me, "want a courgette?" and I said, "I never say no," and then he came out with this monstrosity!  I said, "are you sure that's a courgette?" (because in my book that is definitely a marrow).  It's still on my countertop, biding its time.  My own reasonably sized actual zucchinis (aka courgettes) came in at a modest one or two a week from each of about a dozen plants, most of which are now completely finished.  There's still a patty pan making little fruits but I'm going to pull it up anyway, as it's cold and rainy and nearly equinox.  I need a space to plant out my spring cabbages.

And I think we finally got to the end of the season's figs, two of which are pictured with the apples above.  A lot went into the dehydrator, and a lot got eaten.  I don't really know what to do with them otherwise;  I gave some away, but most people around here aren't familiar with figs--I had to teach the recipient how to peel them to eat (but they were well received after tasting). 

Pak choi, cabbage, onions and leeks

I thought I'd be planting out my Chinese cabbages* in the kitchen garden and sheet mulching over the failed beetroot bed;  I changed my mind and instead transplanted the cabbages into that bed at the allotment.  The son helped me re-weed the bed (recall it was matted with couch grass roots after I pulled the new potatoes), digging out grass once again and pulling some small weeds.  It looks like only about a dozen beets actually sprouted--probably old seed after all.

I managed to get a tray of pak choi in the kitchen garden along with six extra Chinese cabbages.  That bed held my very first early leeks which I pulled, washed and put into the fridge last week, and the long green leaves got chopped and frozen for later stews and stir fries.  I let my two ducks have several days of free range in the kitchen garden ("We're Going On a Slug Hunt");  and after planting out my tender little plants, not only did I net them (sorry lettuce, but you are now big and pak choi is small) but I very liberally covered the ground with crushed eggshells.  Here's hoping the slugs are a) not willing to cross, or b) not there at all.

It's about time to empty the pots of cherry tomatoes at the top of my allotment--I may move them back to the bottom (close to the water supply) over winter and replant with onions, now sprouting up in a pot at home.  I've tried growing onions over winter once before, without success--actually onions in generally have never been a winner for me, winter or summer.  Still, I want to be self reliant in all vegetables we eat and onions are a staple:  I'm not giving up just yet.  

Unlike my onions, leeks have always been a reliable crop for winter and spring harvest for me;  this is the first year I've grown an early variety (Lyon) in addition to my usual late one (Musselbrugh);  I started picking them last month.  I expect the earlies to last until winter before I move onto the lates.  I've been using them as an onion substitute with tasty results:  the long white stalks are very similar to onions in taste and the green leaves are mild like spring onion tops, though a different texture.  The only downside (and really only a slight one in my opinion):  they aren't as easy to clean as an onion, with sand and compost trapped in between the outer layers.  

*First it was going to be cauliflowers, then Chinese cabbage--now I'm aiming for spring cabbage!  Something will go there, I promise.

Finishing and starting

Although it was so much work at the time, I'm sorry my cherry tomatoes are just about finished.  My plum tomatoes are also nearing their end, but while the numbers may be few, the sizes are great--at least ten pounds left I would guess.  And while my pickling cucumber vines are nearly all dried out, the very tips of them are still making small cucs--a couple ounces a week (I'm still topping up a 2.2 L jar in the fridge, not quite full).  I think I should make a second sowing of pickling cucs next year:  the first in mid spring and another in late spring/early summer.  I luckily have two overripe ones ready for next year's seed, and am leaving one of my salad cucumbers on the vine for seed too. 

I'm kind of amazed at how quickly my new fennel and kohlrabi are getting on, transplanted at the beginning of August;  these followed on from my spring kohlrabi.  I wasn't sure if this second (small) batch of kohlrabi would succeed as they were a bit spindly when they went in, but like the fennel they're looking very luxurious.  In fact the fennel itself is already swelling into bulbs;  can't wait to start eating it.

However, my newly seed beetroot bed looks mainly grassy--I can't see many beet seedlings and it's getting a bit late now.  Old seed?  Slugs?  Not sure, as the other newly seeded bed of turnips and winter radishes is growing well--all were sown on the same day.  If it turns out to be beet-less I'll sheet mulch it over winter--I might even drag one of my big pieces of old carpet down from the back of the allotment to try and kill off the grass.

I had originally planned on growing my spring cauliflowers in the kitchen garden over winter, but the plants were getting too big in their pots and rather than potting them on yet again, I put them down in gaps at the allotment.  I hope I don't regret this, as the last time I overwintered them at the allotment they were full of slugs--lots of large slugs wedged in between the inner stems of the heads.  I guess they got in there as little slugs and couldn't get out:  I did not enjoy washing those cauliflowers!

Instead of cauliflowers, I'll transplant out my Chinese cabbages and pak choi in the kitchen garden, though these will have to wait a little while longer until the zucs, salad cucs, early leeks and lettuce are finished.  And of course I have some more lettuce to go out too.