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September 30, 2015
October veg garden 2015

Another year of stunning growth, helped by a balance of fair and wet weather. The current sunshine shows the importance of light for healthy growth. Also the recent dry weather has been good for hoeing weeds, although in my undug garden there have been very few germinating since April: one of the many virtues of surface composting as the only soil preparation.

Homeacres late September,


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many beds have second plantings made in summer,


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and only a few beds have wooden sides.

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Mulching

From now until year’s end you can mulch beds, after any final harvests. For most vegetables and in damp climates I recommend you use well finished compost, though it may not be perfect. I use a manure fork to break up lumps into small pieces before spreading, then find that winter weather continues to make the compost more crumbly and softer by spring. Here a lot of the compost I spread is animal manure, at least a year old.

Before mulching I clear all weeds as I am spreading no more than 5cm (2in), sometimes less. Or if clearing weedy areas, use a polythene cover as in the photo below where I had spread horse manure with wood shavings last Christmas, over weedy pasture with couch grass and bindweed. Then we planted squash through holes I cut in the polythene in May. All weeds have perished except the bindweed, and its a good harvest.

Sept. 30th before harvesting the squash – Kuri, Hokkaido, Blue Ballet


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After harvest, stems & leaves cleared to compost, clean ground under the polythene


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Compost this decomposed is ideal but often one is spreading it less perfect

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Chilli plants can be perennial

You can keep chillies alive in a light, frost free place. I have some in pots which I move into the conservatory in winter, with many chillies on, then I cut them back hard after the last harvest.

Bishops Hat in its second summer


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Jalapeno in 3rd summer

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Comparing growth, dug and undug beds

A year of steady harvests from both dug and undug beds has seen each bed give nearly 70kg of vegetables already. Harvests between the two are mostly similar but recently I was amazed to see so much difference between carrots, with the undug bed’s roots much cleaner and bigger. other carrot harvests have shown smaller differences.

September 20th with dug bed on left, undug on right


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40cm of two rows from east side of the dug bed


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40cm of two rows from east side of the undug bed


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Undug carrots top weigh 3.1kh, dug carrots below weigh 1.5kg

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Harvests

Meal times now offer so many choices of vegetables to eat. Also some current Β harvests are to store, for example I pick Czar, Borlotti beans every week as the pods yellow. Then after shelling out the beans, I lay them in trays on a sunny window.

Many great harvests such as Florence fennel, celery and broccoli will finish at the first frost but that looks a way off. So winter squash can stay outside if their skinns are still soft For how I planted the potatoes see this link. Flavour comparison - both good!and texture is creamy, shame there are so few Gemson!

Autumn sprouting broccoli Santee F1, many seditious also


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Czar runner beans and Borlotti in middle, the first pick off 36 plants


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Potatoes planted August 8th, only Nicola survives unblighted


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Harvest of Gemson left, and Charlotte right, on Sept. 30th, Nicola leaves on left

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Propagation

For winter salads its now about planting under any kind of cover, whatever you sowed in September. My plants are a little too forward as I was not expecting this warmth, and tomatoes are still ripening where I want to plant them.

You can propagate tomatoes from side-shoots, I have a three year old Rosada plant. Simply put a small side-shoot into moist compost in October, keep it light and frost free.

Salad seedlings for winter harvests in greenhouse & polytunnel


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Lettuce Grenoble Red, my own seed, was sown Sept. 8th so is 22 days old


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Side-shoots of tomato put into horse manure in August, to see!

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Plantings outside

Outdoor planting in October is limited to garlic and onion sets, although I am trying November garlic-planting as I noticed that it resulted in less rust last year, see also . Except for northern regions, wait until November before sowing broad beans, otherwise they grow a bit tall before winter and then succumb to wind and frost.

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Undercover

The tomatoes in these photos have had no water for three weeks, though clearly there is moisture in the soil. Being dry encourages ripening. My greenhouse tomatoes have almost finished ripening all their fruits, it is warmer than in the polytunnel where there will be a few green tomatoes when I remove plants in mid October.

Polytunnel tomato plants Sept 30th


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Greenhouse on Sept. 30th, tomatoes right at top


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Sakura F1 is giving big harvests of good flavour

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Basil

Basil likes dry warmth and this summer it has often been a little cooler than it prefers. As with tomatoes, it has been better in the greenhouse where harvests may continue for another fortnight.

Sweet basil sown April 2nd, picked regularly since June and kept tidy


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Lemon basil sown at the same time, picked weekly, in the greenhouse

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Pests

Everyone has different ones… on the forum we heard about cockchafer grubs (thanks Pete Budd), which eat some plantings at the stem. Here I suffer occasional damage from badgers, and my neighbour had a whole bed of kale dug up, so he is well demoralised. He has tried fencing and feeding but to no avail, they are powerful animals.

Badgers dug up these endive, I think for slugs in their leaves though there were only a few


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Then they dug holes in a mosty empty area of this bed


Then they dug holes in a mosty empty area of this bed


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