Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
October 14, 2008: warm spell beguiles plants
We may have the odd day of glorious weather but it's time to concentrate on preparing the plot for winter, advises Terry Walton
What a pleasant weekend of weather has just graced the Welsh hillside. Close your eyes for a moment and the warmth of the sun would have fooled us into believing it was June again. It is only the autumnal colours of the leaves on the trees that tell us where we are on the calendar. This summer type weather is completely fooling the plants and some of them are expending their precious energy to producing new tender shoots. These plants should be taking time out and becoming dormant. They could be in for an unpleasant shock if Jack Frost pays a surprise visit.
The constant downpours of summer ruined many a display of annual bedding but the French marigolds and begonias in particular have found a new niche in life in this October sunshine. They are putting on this unexpected display of beautiful blooms to light up the shortening autumn days. Although this strange phenomenon is becoming more commonplace I welcome this show of summertime whenever it appears.
These brief interludes of glorious weather must be used wisely and the clean up on the plot continues. Remove all those perennial weeds and dispose of them well away from the plot, no compost heap for them! The annual weeds on the other hand are on pay back time and these can be dug into the soil where they will decompose and give a little richness back to the soil. So at last they are put to a useful purpose.
Pick up all those empty pots and trays that are lying around the plot. These are the ideal winter home for those snails and they will soon gather together in these safe little havens if left around. Don’t make life easy for them.
For those of you who sow late varieties of winter lettuce, rocket and chard - and I am not one who does - a little cloche protection will come in handy and give them a shelter during those horrible, miserable days that might lie ahead.
We are all aware that gardening is a lifelong learning experience and every day in the theatre of life along comes something new to enrich our knowledge. I learned a new technique of winter growing only last week and was reliably informed it was widely used in Victorian times.
If you dig a trench about two feet deep and line it with fresh, strawy horse manure you will have a ‘hot bed’. When you have heaped your soil back onto this bed of fresh manure, as it starts to rot down it creates a process which gives off heat. If you plant hardy crops like kale or winter cabbage on this trench they will benefit greatly from this gentle warmth at their toes and will enhance the speed at which they grow. It is a bit like your electric blanket in your bed during those cold winter nights. So it is off to find a source of fresh horse manure and put the theory to test.
It is never too late to try something different and are there any readers who have tried this technique?
Winter vegetables have traditionally been harvested after the first of the autumn frosts this is alleged to turn the starches to the sweeter sugars and enhance their flavours. But where are these autumn frosts in this changing climate? So no longer do I wait for these frosts to arrive but gather my parsnips and brussel sprouts when they are ready. To me they still taste delicious and I can not detect any difference in their flavour. So is this a myth or is it my need to harvest them that has overcome this difference in taste.
Do any of you reading this see the difference in the benefits of frosts on the flavour of these winter vegetables? Let me know.
In the meantime I will continue to harvest them and use them alongside my stored summer vegetables.
This is yet another effect on our gardening habits of this changing climate.
More from Terry Walton
My Life On A Hillside Allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon
