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Wellington Fields Allotments - Hixon.

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Wellington Field Allotments Hixon

Gardening Tips
By Mrs FM
Hartley.

Unusual & Old
Fashioned Fruit
Trees.

Unusual
Vegetables,
Herbs & Other
Edible Plants.

Environmental Issues And Going Green.

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Alan J Hartley

Last Minute Harvests.

The Leaves finally went down on the Rhubarb, so I got stuck into them and dug up 3 Crowns that were growing in the wrong place on my Plot. They were quite well developed, but I was careful and didn’t break my Fork, or Spade! It is so easy to do that when digging up Rhubarb Crowns because the roots seem to run and are soft but quite thick. After getting them home in large Buckets, I put the Spade through them to divide them up so that I could get the pieces into pots of a reasonable size. I did about 2 dozen Pots of Rhubarb in the end, although sometimes you get one, or two that don’t take. Hopefully, there will still be enough though for next Springs’ Sale and maybe the Autumns’ as well.

With things slowly starting to shut down for the coming Winter, in about late October, I also harvested my Yacon. The tops had been caught by an earlier chill, so I decided it was time to dig them up. I dug up a good Potato Sack and Bucket full of edible Tubers, from about 8 Plants. I didn’t wash them, or even rub them too hard when cleaning and drying them as I think leaving the skin intact helps them to keep. Unlike Potatoes you don’t need to worry about the Light spoiling them in storage, but like Potatoes they do prefer to be kept cool, but not chilled as in a Fridge as this can make them go black inside, and they need to be free from damp and frost. Then I divided and potted up some of the Crowns into about 40 Pots of a Soil/Compost mix which went under the Staging in my Greenhouse for the Winter. In late February, as they start to shoot, I will give them a drop of water to properly encourage them back into life.

Another harvest that I made recently was that of my Crosne. They were a bit small and I think they would have done better with a longer growing season as they went in a bit late, but there was quite a lot in terms of volume from such small plants. They are too small to peel, but they wash easily and look like pearly white Maggots. They are even about the same size!!! Eaten raw they are a bit like a very mild, but fibrous, Radish. Apparently, you can use them in Stir Fries and the like. They don’t take much cooking though as I found a few minutes steaming was quite enough to soften them, but they were a bit bland and needed some kind of sauce. I did have a bit of fun with them though as I took some to Work with me in a little tub and passed them around. One Girl said that she would be happy to munch on them raw as a snack - like you might with Carrots. My thought was that they might be better in a dish with some spices sprinkled on them! I have never grown them before but will definitely do so again next year.

Apparently, you can propagate them from an individual little tuber, so I put in a couple of dozen Pots of them. Again, they went under the Staging in my Greenhouse, although as they are said to be hardy, I may get some come up where I grew them! I have found that some supposedly Hardy Tubers do not survive in Pots if they get frosted hence putting them in the Greenhouse. This is true of Jerusalem Artichokes and Alstroemerias to name but two.

My Egyptian Onions had died down, but the Bulbils, that had formed on top of the now dead stems, had dropped to the ground and were ready to root in so I potted up a number of little clumps to add to the Spring Sale. The Welsh Bunching Onions will be best left until the Spring to divide and pot up as the Bulbs themselves will disappear over Winter. Another oddity that I will be sorting out is my Oca, which I will pot up and put under the Staging to go with the Jerusalem Artichokes and Mashua.

The number of edible Tubers that my single Mashua Plant produced was impressive, but I was very disappointed with the Bunium. Both Plants were new to me this Season and I only really grew them for a bit of fun. According to the instructions both are tender perennials that can be saved by taking them indoors over winter to protect them and then they can be used to start off the next year’s crop, but I won’t be bothering with the Bunium again. From a single Plant there wouldn’t have been an Egg-cup-full of edible Tubers whereas there was quite a crop at half of a full-sized bucket, of smallish, parsnip sized, white tubers from the Mashua. Having said that, wherever the small, but rampant vine touched the Ground, it rooted down and produced another little clump of Tubers! I haven’t tried cooking them at the time of writing this but intend to do so shortly. Apparently, they are quite strongly flavoured being related to Nasturtiums, but cooking them, especially boiling them, is said to soften their flavour.

I haven’t dug up the Chrysanthemums on my Plot either yet as there are still some flowers that might open, but we are forecast to have a cold spell, so it won’t be long before they come out. Plants will stand a bit of frost, but flowers will spoil as they did whenever we have had heavy rain and Wind earlier in the Autumn. The Staff at Work dug up theirs the other week, so I scrounged a few in exchange for a small Donation. These were then roughly Potted into about 4 inch Pots and put into my Greenhouse to Over Winter. As Spring comes and they start to shoot they will go back outside to make room for things like Runner Beans that will need more warmth to get them going for the upcoming Sale. I always keep the old Stools from one year to the next, but a lot of people, including professional growers, take cuttings in early Spring which they grow on for the new Season and they then throw out the old Plants. They do this because there is always a risk of Diseases like Wilt and Rust affecting old Plants. I reduce this risk of disease though by planting them somewhere different each year.

By now Dahlias should already be inside but a lot of people have still got them flowering as at the 4/11/24. These will not stand any Frost and really should be inside and dried off for storage by November. However, if you have very Sandy Soil and are in a sheltered spot such as a Town Garden, you may well be able to leave them out with the milder Winters that we seem to be getting of recent years. Perhaps a covering of some Membrane topped with an insulating layer such as Straw, or Wood Chip would be advisable. We have one Plot Holder on our Exposed Site who always leaves his in the ground like this and he has a lovely show of them each year.

One thing that does put on a show at this late stage in the year is the Kaffir Lily with its lovely red Flowers that make a bold splash of colour. They are easy to get established and multiply up quite quickly, but you don’t see them on sale very often although I don’t know why. Other than those, things are really beginning to look a bit sad with the Leaves falling and things dying off. One little tip is to put your Lawnmower over your Leaves as you rake them up before Composting them as this speeds up the process. With the Leaves dropping, I have carefully removed all of the undeveloped Figs from my various trees and left them on the Ground for the Animals, if they want them.

With the Leaves off all the Fruit Trees, I also decided it was time to put on new Grease Bands to replace the old ones that had lost all of their sticky. This used to be a nightmare of a job – at least cleaning the sticky off my hands afterwards was until I found out that simply rubbing them in dry, dusty, dirt, before washing with ordinary soap and water, made the task simple. While working on my Trees I tied in a few loose branches and started training some young branches on one, or two of the newer Trees. It is so much easier to Train them Espalier Style if you start them when they are young. If you leave it you will need to put in Posts and Canes everywhere to pull them into shape which can be done, but it is not easy. My Grape Vines needed some Posts replacing, although I did manage to just hammer some in a bit more to make them firm again. That made them rather short, but as the Vines only needed to be about 3-4 feet high it wasn’t a problem. I also replaced 3 posts supporting my Sausage Vines and decided to cut them back very hard to make the job easier. They were getting far too big anyway and needed re-training to keep them in shape and stop them from sprawling all over a neighbouring Plot. I have had some of their unusual flowers on them this last Season but still haven’t had any Fruit. I am hoping that now both Plants are established they may fruit as they need two Plants to Cross Pollinate each other.

The Herbaceous Perennials are also dying off and a lot of people like to leave on the old flower heads with their Seeds, for the Wildlife, but I like to have a good tidy up and fill my Compost Bins with the Waste. This gives it chance to rot down over winter so that I can make use of it in the Spring.
As beds have been cleared, I have covered several of them with Membrane to keep them tidy over Winter. I didn’t do this in the past but have started doing it in recent years because it gives you such an easy start in the spring. You just pull back the covers and start Planting without any last-minute digging to tidy them up. There are other tidying up jobs as well that I need to do, so even though Winter is just about upon us, I will still keep busy on the better days.