By Anne Akers
Remember those hot, heady summer days when the hosepipe ban had us repeatedly schlepping watering cans the length and breadth of our allotments and gardens as plants dried up before our eyes?
At the time, I said to myself that come winter, I’d look back fondly on those sun-soaked watering can trips while wading through standing water and thick mud to check on the Christmas sprouts and red cabbage. Yes, I was right.
On my recent brassica-inspection trip, I confirmed the water butts were overflowing and so filled every can I had to make more space, well, you can’t let it go to waste, can you? I’ll be needing that in the spring when the next drought may be just around the corner.
Folk with plots that have less claggy soil than mine, have raised beds, or an absence of rodents and larger mammals (cute though badgers are) have already planted garlic, broad beans, winter peas and onions which over-winter quite nicely.
I won’t be doing any of that, the time I sowed broad beans in November, the mice ate them. Every. Single. One. Garlic is in the ground a long time, and doesn’t like getting its roots too wet, so that’s another crop I’ll not plant.
However, the sprouts are looking splendid, there’s been a frost so they’ll be ideal to pick from now on. And especially for Christmas Day, maybe even in the morning before parkrun! The red cabbages are looking good too, although the larger lower leaves need to come off, as they’re acting as puddle-catchers.
When weather permits, I’m down there preparing for the next season. This usually involves pulling up a few weeds and cutting back perennials such as the thornless blackberries, raspberries and Japanese wineberries, which have ferocious spines.
I’ve also started another round of no-dig beds. Those I did this year worked well and kept the weeds at bay. It was incredibly easy to plant in them and to harvest, they saved me a lot of backbreaking work, though I did have to buy more compost to mix with my own and with the horse poo given to us by the local stables. I couldn’t afford to no-dig the whole of the plot, but I’ll certainly be doing more each year.
Finally, a word about green potatoes. After harvesting my main crop, I managed to expose them to light. My fault entirely, I’d popped them in a sack under the staging in the greenhouse while they cured.
Unfortunately, I left them too long, and they went green. Green-skinned potatoes are a bad thing, especially if they are green all over (guilty!) The blameless potatoes think that the light is a signal to grow, so they do. This produces a substance called solanine, which is toxic, causing a bad stomach and vomiting.
Affected potatoes can be thickly peeled and eaten, so all is not lost. But if in doubt, or if the potato tastes bitter, into the compost bin it goes. Another lesson learned!
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