Bringing home the squash, harvesting and clearing away for winter, the last apples

It was time to pick all the squashes at the allotment:  13 in total, though possibly I missed one or two;  I picked two from the chicken yard which in addition to the squash vines, is overflowing with nettles so I didn't investigate very closely.  That big green one is certainly a monster!  The yellowy/creamy one is the next biggest in size, but doesn't feel as heavy as the third biggest one (orange).  I offered to lend my biggest one to my coworker for her Guess the Weight contest but she was already given one by someone else.  My largest is larger than that one! but smaller than The Big One in my estimation.

Too much to carry!  The son wheeled this very heavy burden home (four blocks away), September 2026

It's a little earlier than I usually pick squashes, but the leaves had mostly died back and I was worried they'd go moldy on the vines if I left them.  It's happened to me before.  They easily snapped off the vines without cutting, so I know they were ripe enough.  There are still two self-sown squashes growing in the kitchen garden with green leaves and vines--I'll pick them later on.  In the meantime, the allotment ones are on a mat in my living room to cure;  they'll either remain there for winter storage, or possibly move to the windowsill for display purposes.  I expect to eat them over the next six months.

After pulling the squash vines, I then cleared away almost all the zucs aka courgettes and have been forking over that large bed for grass and bindweed roots.  It was newly sheet mulched in the spring and I plan on getting some new garlic into half of it and remulching the whole thing with more wood chips.  After I've at least done one full pass with the garden fork for unwanted roots, that is--it's pretty grassy.  Can you see my compost heap at the middle right of the photo below?  It's in front of that gray shed and behind a white box (it looks like a big pile of vines);  I should try turning it to get it to break down quicker.

Cleared away the courgettes and squash;  still working on the grass, September 2026

Still so many cucumbers!  I've missed a couple too, now going orange;  these will be saved for seed.  Actually this variety, Marketmore, is still good when a little overripe, though it needs peeling and deseeding by that point.  I'm still picking a few at home (the earlier sown vines), and a few pickling cucumbers too.

The last of the apples came off my two trees at home:  Laxton Fortune and Sparta.  Only a few Sparta apples this year, and unfortunately quite a lot of fruit dropped off both trees.  Still, we got several large baskets worth and what is left will keep for a few weeks more.  I've made a couple of apple crumbles, the son made himself a jug of juice, and we've all been trying to eat our apple a day. 

Is it slowing?

There is a definite decrease in light now we're a week away from equinox.  Still fairly warm and dry but things are slowing down, with a noticeable downturn in tomatoes, zucs and pickling cucs.  The salad cucs however are still producing pretty heavily--I've resorted to giving them away at work, in addition to eating them every day.  However, I expect a sharp drop off fairly soon, with lower and lower light.

At the allotment I managed to make a second pass with my fork for grass roots in the now harvested kohlrabi bed;  the son then piled on four wheelbarrows of wood chips.  I'll leave this bed deep mulched and unplanted until spring:  it's the first time I've had an empty bed since last winter.  Hopefully by the end of October I'll have finished clearing away the other summer/autumn beds:  squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, onions, fennel.  

But don't worry, *I still have a lot of veg growing for winter and spring.  My overwintering beds have Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, komatsuna, leeks, beets, carrots, parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, winter radish, Chinese cabbage and pak choi.  I even have an experimental mange tout pea bed for overwintering (I left the vines on the chicken house roof to dry the pods, but they got rained on and sprouted).  In fact, only a few will be cleared:  most of my beds at the allotment will carry on growing throughout winter.  

Thankfully my hard work is also on a downturn, at least until next spring.  Winter crops are mostly harvested as needed, not all at once like a lot of summer crops (though I had to pick all my early leeks after first frost last November).  The one crop I'll harvest all at once--squash--simply stores as is, without any extra effort.

*And have I mentioned that my fridge, freezer, cupboards, countertops and floor are also all full?? 

Only a few plums, keep on harvesting and preserving veg

After all that hoping and waiting, I just didn't have the physical (or mental, let's be honest) capacity to process our plums.  I gave a sackful to a neighbor and made a batch of unsweetened puree for crumbles (I was able to squeeze most of it into the freezer):  I estimate about 8-10# in total.  I didn't weigh it.  The daughter managed to eat a couple dozen too.  But the rest has gone to the birds/wasps/worms:  maybe about 20-30#.  

I had 2.8 L of kilner jar space to make some cucumber refrigerator pickle slices last week, but I'm really down to the wire for jars now.  A couple small ones, like 250 mL each, and one more 1 L kilner jar.  I mainly use the kilner jars for fermented veg, or fridge pickles.  And did I mention how full my fridge is of pickles and fermented veg?  There isn't a big tradition of canning/bottling in this country so jars and lids aren't easily obtainable.  I have to make do with what I have.  

I managed to clear my kohlrabi bed at the allotment, pulling all the usable kohlrabi and digging lots of grass runners--I have a monster compost pile at the front of my allotment now, next to my five full compost bins.  I've left the bed unmulched for now, as I plan on making one more pass with the garden fork first;  maybe I'll win against the grass one of these years.  After trimming off all the leaves and roots I stacked the kohlrabi in a box (on my kitchen floor!  I have no space!);  I'm trying to use one every day or so:  I like to shred them (peeled first) and marinate for salad.

Still picking toms, cucs, zucs, French beans, onions.  Soon:  lots of squashes, komatsuna (regrowth after flea beetle damage), beets, early leeks.  Maybe in the future (not very close):  carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, winter radish, cauliflower.  Looking good for a spring harvest:  hardy leeks, purple sprouting broccoli.  

Feed the soil

I was talking to a fellow allotmenter, just two plots away from mine, who complained it had not been a good growing summer for her.  I certainly tried to not to show it, but I had a rather self satisfied feeling at that.  True, it's been far too much work, but at least I've earned a fleeting moment of superiority about my yields this year.  I gave her a cucumber.

Why has mine in particular been so productive?  Here's what I think:  

• The inordinate amount of sheet mulching I've done over the last eight years, involving copious amounts of straw and horse manure
• Additionally, the very thick mulch of wood chips covering nearly every bed this year

The annual (or even twice annual) addition of all that organic material when sheet mulching has made my soil incredibly rich and moisture retentive.  Even though I've been fighting (and not winning) against couch grass this whole time, my beds have been gradually getting more and more productive, as documented on this blog.  I've been using sheet mulch as a strategy against the grass:  to knock it back long enough for my transplants to get a foothold.  Then do it all over again at the end of the season when the grass takes back over.

Wood chips have been a game changer;  until last year I would cover my bare soil with straw from the horse manure pile on site.  It served its purpose of keeping in the moisture but also had some drawbacks:  enhanced slug habitat, quick to decompose (needing regular top ups), and full of weed and grass seeds.  When we began getting free wood chips dumped at the site last summer, many people spread them on their paths;  I went a step further and started deep mulching my beds, starting with just a couple as an experiment.  Truly, it's been pivotal.  It keeps in the moisture like the straw mulch did, but has no seeds.  It also lasts much longer before needing a top up, and slugs don't hide in it as well.  Maybe the woodlice hide in it, but I had woodlice when I used straw mulch too.  

I suspect if I had access to wood chips and not horse manure/straw at the beginning of my allotment journey in 2018, my soil might not be as excellent as it is now (I still have access to both).  I'm also a more experienced allotmenter than I was then, even though I had already been gardening for years by that point.  Growing veg in a couple small beds is far different from keeping a full allotment ticking over year round, and I've learned how to do this little by little.  My overarching goal has been full self reliance in vegetables:  I've never been so close to achieving this, and as well as my hard work and experience, the vast improvement in my soil has been a key factor, in my opinion.

The son was very impressed when I went up to show him (it's a single bunch!), August 2026