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Plough
Field Allotments at Amerton
Gardening
Tips
By Mrs FM
Hartley.
Unusual
& Old
Fashioned Fruit
Trees.
Unusual
Vegetables,
Herbs & Other
Edible Plants.
Environmental
Issues And Going Green.
Vines
And Other Climbing Plants.
Fish
Ponds
Books
By
Alan J Hartley
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Summer Is Ending.
As August was coming to an end
I decided to turn over all the fresh rubbish that had been added to the
Compost Heap in the previous few weeks, and give it a good mix before
covering it up and leaving it to mature for a while before using it as
an Autumn Mulch on some of my beds at home. I will also save a little of
it in old recycled compost bags to be used in potting some of the plants
for the sales day that the Committee want to have next Spring.
As Autumn approaches a lot of things will come to an end and go on to
the Compost heap including the Runner Beans. It will be a simple job to
clear mine up though, because I always use soft string to tie up the
canes and tie in the bean plants. That means that I can just pull the
whole lot off the canes and put it all into my compost bin to start of a
fresh pile, as there will be no plastic string to fish out. However, if
you cut the tops off the bean Plants and leave the roots in, they say
that they will put more Nitrogen into the ground as they rot. Also of
course if you leave a few of the bigger, tougher pods, on the plants for
a while after you have finished picking, before clearing up, you will
find that the Seeds inside the pods can be dried and saved for sowing
next year.
I did cut down and shred my Summer Raspberries as they had finished
fruiting by the middle of August. Unlike Autumn Raspberries though, you
don’t cut down all of the canes – just those that have fruited and gone
brown. The bright green Canes will need tying in over winter and will go
on to fruit next Season.
My Logan Berries had been picked some time ago and their canes were
turning brown and going woody as well, so those that had fruited were
carefully cut out and also chopped up, and again next years canes were
tied in.
Also on my plot I have Jerusalem Artichokes which are the newer Fuseau
variety and they develop a little earlier than the older, traditional
variety. As we started going into September they were showing signs of
starting to Flower which meant that they had finished growing and were
ready to be harvested as and when I wanted. Indeed they can be left in
the ground all over Winter until they are wanted. The Stems of the tall
plants seem segmented, almost like Bamboo, and are very tough, but when
chopped up with strong Secateurs, or Loppers, they will rot down
surprisingly well. Because the Stems are so thick, they don’t go through
my Shredder though, so I have to cut them up by hand every year. It is
time consuming, but I find it quite therapeutic to sit in the sunshine
on the wall of my Compost Bins and quietly Chop them up.
Along with more Vegetables becoming ready for harvest, my Autumn
Raspberries started fruiting in about the middle of August and the
earliest of the Apples started ripening soon afterwards. However, the
Figs didn’t really start until the end of August and really got going in
September.
On the subject of Figs – the cuttings I took last Autumn were rooting
well, so I took them to work where the Team Members could pot them up
and grow them on. I also potted a few for our Spring Sales Day next Year
and with the Fundraiser in mind I dug up and potted some stray Kerria
shoots from the pretty, yellow, flowering Bush in my Back Garden. On my
Back Yard, at home, I have two nice big Pots of Mint, one variegated and
another one an Apple Mint, so I took some cuttings of those as well to
grow on. In my garden, I have several Dwarf Bamboos and recently decided
I could remove one to divide and pot up to go with the other plants for
the Spring Sales. Most Bamboos are very vigorous growers and spread
badly making them difficult to contain and hence they make a nuisance of
themselves. Quite a few of them will grow to 8-12 feet or more at which
height they can also cause a nuisance by shading out other plants. A few
are less rampant though and are clump forming with some being much
smaller altogether in their growing habit. Mine is a true dwarf variety
at only about 3 feet and is quite civilised being slow growing and very
compact in nature.
After both of my Black Currant Bushes finished fruiting and had been
picked clean, as was my lovely Red Gooseberry Bush, I put in some Semi
Ripe cuttings of those. Semi Ripe Cuttings are taken before Autumn while
the plant is still in growth and the “Wood,” hasn’t thickened or fully
hardened ready for the coming Winter. As the plants are still growing,
the Cuttings should root quite quickly and hopefully, will put on a
little growth before Winter. Whereas, Hard Wood Cuttings won’t really
root properly and start growing until the following Spring and Summer.
Other Cuttings that I have taken recently include some stray shoots from
my Summer Raspberries that were growing where they shouldn’t, some
straggly Kiwi Vine shoots and some “Slips,” from my Sea Kale plants that
again were growing where they weren’t wanted. As with all of the other
cuttings, I completely stripped the leaves from them to reduce
Transpiration and thereby give them a better chance.
Many Allotmenteers grow Dahlias, Gladiola and Chrysanthemums, but I have
never seen anyone else grow Alsromoerias which is a shame as they
deserve to be more popular. They easily cut into ready made bunches and
last well in water, although they do shed a lot and fallen petals need
tidying up every day. Alstromoerias produce quite a stunning display of
flowers and there are a number of different coloured varieties, but most
are in the orange, red, pink range. Among the other plants, my Cut
Flower bed contained one particularly large Alstromoeria that needed
lifting, so I decided to rip everything out of the bed and start again.
As with a lot of Herbaceous Perennials, Alstromoerias occasionally need
dividing, to reduce their bulk and refresh them, so I split the root
mass with a trowel and potted up some of the pieces. One large piece
also went in front of my shed and another large piece went back in my
Flower Bed to grow on again and give more cut flowers in the years to
come. The chunks of roots did not have any stems on them, but they will
soon shoot up again as they settle in because there is still a bit of
growing time left before the Autumn ends and they go dormant for the
Winter.
On a different subject, I seem to have put in a lot of new posts through
the last few months and have just put in a couple more, one for my new
Apricot tree that is doing very well now, after a late start to it
leafing up, and an Apple tree that is starting to get established also
had a new post. Unusually, we have had a lot of strong winds throughout
this Summer, so I have been continually tying in my trees, but as Autumn
comes they will have to be secured more thoroughly in preparation for
any proper Winter storms that we may get.
Other jobs that will need doing as Autumn comes and the leaves drop,
include putting Grease Bands on the trees to prevent crawling bugs from
infesting their over wintering buds and thereby getting into next
seasons fruit. If you can’t find them as Grease Bands, they often go
under the different name of Glue Bands.
As things start slowing down there will be more time to do maintenance
jobs such as tidying up Paths and refreshing the Wood Chip. Indeed,
being well up to date with my jobs, I had a little free time recently,
so I decided to put a few more Slabs down around my Bench. Not wanting
many, I thought that I might as well buy them rather than trying to
scrounge some old ones for free. Going to a local Builders Merchants, I
was pleased to be offered a few damaged Slabs at a very much reduced
price. They were a good quality Slab, but I guess as they were more
expensive, people wouldn’t accept them being slightly damaged and would
only buy perfect slabs. This meant that any damaged ones were just so
much waste rubble to the merchant and he would have to pay for them to
be taken away. So selling them, very, very cheaply was an efficient way
of clearing them. The chips were only little nicks and couldn’t really
be seen in the rough environment of the Allotments with mud and dirt
constantly being walked over them, and for just a few pounds, for half a
dozen slabs, I was quite happy. A few more bargains like this throughout
the coming Winter will help ease the cold, Winter maintenance jobs.
 
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