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!