Kitchen Garden Forum

Have you seen the joys of the weather forecast today? Showers, thunder, lightening and general doom and gloom for the next two weeks. Bang goes any plans for digging the allotment in half term.

I'm two miles inland but I can hear the waves roaring onto the south-west shore this morning.

Who's got their plots up to date for the winter and who (like me) still has a lot of clearing and digging to do?

Motherwoman

Hi MW

Plot up to date I am still lifting my spuds,which hopefully weather permitting I will do today lets hope we get a dry November/December as I am determined to get it all sorted before the new year as I have plans for next year

Regards

Arnie

My veg border and veg patch pretty well up to date now. Whilst frustrating I don,t have the space of an allotment, growing veggies in the garden does make it possible to make use of the odd 15 minutes to nip out and get a particular chore done without wasting time travelling to an allotment. So I've been using my time between showers, even if it means just pulling a few tomato plants. up at a time and getting them chopped up for the bean trench.
The mild and wet weather means that the grass is still growing fast so can't hibernate the mower permanently to the garage yet. Still, it does provide some more clippings for the compost heap although I often dig them into whatever bare freshly dug soil I have at this time of year to rot down over winter.

After a vaguely promising Thursday-Friday rain has returned both yesterday and today with Traffic Police warning of standing water on the A10 and puddles visiboe all over the pkace this morning.

So I'm definitely not up to date on my plots.

Just ordered my autumn planting onions and garlic from Edwin Tuckers.

Its strange this topic should appear today..

I was just looking at my plot with a friend this morning and telling him that I was a little bit behind with my winter digging.
Although the clearing up is well under way the digging part has only just started...only a few weeks ago the ground was too hard to get a spade in.

The chap I was with pointed to his neatly dug plot and said that he had dug his plot too early and the weeds had started to grow again... he had a point... promises to be a very healthy crop by the look of it

So when is the right time?

I'm behind but being surprised by what is actually surviving & still giving a harvest so feel a little smug with all the other plots around all bare but I'm harvesting salad, beans & toms plus of course what expected this time of year! Today I got soaked but I had to go down as was getting withdrawal symptoms as last weekend was also a washout! The showers were sharp but quickly passed so managed to get a few jobs done as well, so have that satisfied feeling that only lottie can give!

Westi

A pleasant day here with occasional showers but also some sunshine and feeling quite unseasonally warm. On Friday, our michealmas daisies were covered in small tortoiseshell and red admiral butterflies and even today, on a slightly damper day, they were still around and resting on the sun-warmed house wall!

The recent rain was very welcome and has brought our ponds up to almost normal level - they were really low after the long dry spell in September/early October.

.

It has been a really nice warm weekend here and I've got lots done and been for a long walk. The heavy rain started at about 9.30 this evening so hasn't been a problem.

Picked lots of apples, Newton Wonder and Bramleys the last of the russets and more pears. In the supermarket I noticed they were selling cooking apples for 45p each. Might need Securicor to guard the hut!

I was driving home from work last night at around 9.15pm, it was horrendous! Spent most of the journey in second and third gear as I was having trouble seeing anything through the downpour. It was like driving in a stream and under a constant waterfall... with lightning thrown in!

It did bring down the rest of my walnut crop though, picked another whole carrier bag of them, half are now in the dehydrator. We will look like walnuts by December.

Roaring weather for certain sure.
Here in my part of the Chilterns, the clay soil stays damp for days after rain. It's been raining and on several days it has been monsoonal.

Up to date? I'm not sure I know what up to date is!

It's the first nice day all week here, and I cant go up the allotment because a) my car is still at the garage
b) my friend is coming for lunch
c) I cant find the packet of garlic I bought to plant

It'll be somewhere safe Wicky...

Weather doom-merchants predicting bad things for Monday in Herts and Essex. Worst storm since 87!

Nope not upto date with lottie, but thyen again I never am. tend to catch up in the spring. I have, however, covered 2 beds with weed barrier stuff that comes on a roll but it's not very strong. 1 bed has green manure growing on it. everything thing else either still has veggies in or needs attention.
Jane

something always comes up and throws a spanner in the works doesn't it? last 2 Sundays have been a washout and then some twit piles into the side of my car, so I have a brand new shiny hire car, which I am terrified of damaging, and they have written off my car, so I'll have to spend my weekend looking for a new one, and I have whiplash, so I wouldn't be able to do any digging anway. so that's 3 weeks without any attention, apart from my mum getting there on a dry (ish) afternoon to pick the tommies.