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Field Allotments Hixon
Gardening
Tips
By Mrs FM
Hartley.
Unusual
& Old
Fashioned Fruit
Trees.
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Alan J Hartley
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End Of Season Round Up.
Right from the start of this growing Season the weather has been a
little out of the ordinary. The Season started early and for the most
part was mild and dry allowing a lot of Blossom on the Fruit trees to do
its thing with the insects. This resulted in an absolutely bumper year
for fruit of all kinds. Hedgerows were dripping with Hawthorn Berries
and Apple Trees became so heavy that branches were breaking under the
weight. It wasn’t just Apples though, because the same happened with
Pears, Plums and indeed everything. Even my Apricot Tree, that has never
done very much in previous years, had over a Kilo of lovely, ripe, juicy
Fruit.
However, the long, dry Summer that followed the dry Spring didn’t
suit all things, because my Cinamon Vine and Root Artichokes only put on
about half the growth of a normal year and it was similar for some
people with Potatoes that are normally OK with a bit of dry weather. The
dry Spring meant that there was less Sea Kale to cut, but what there was
did not have a problem with Slugs as it was just too dry for them.
Runner Beans and other Beans that were watered did OK, but where they
were not watered, they didn’t do so well either.
When I had picked enough Beans, I tried to let the remaining pods
overdevelop so that I could dry them off and harvest the seeds that they
contained which would then mean that I would be able to plant them next
Season. In the case of the Borlotti Beans I normally dry them anyway to
produce a crop of dried Beans that will store and can then later be used
in Stews and the like. However, we had several unusual Summer storms,
and one, Storm Amy, came from the wrong direction smashing my Bean stand
down and breaking many of the 8 foot canes in the process. Normally, the
“Stand of Beans,” will just collapse, concertina fashion, but I had
obviously put them in a little more securely than usual and they
actually broke under the weight of the plants and force of the winds.
However, after clearing everything up and a couple of weeks to dry the
Beans further in my Garage, and I had a reasonable number of each type
of Seeds.
With the length of the dry Summer, I have to admit that I did water some
things which I don’t usually do. I normally water the young Vegetable
plants well when I first put them in, and then maybe for a week
afterwards, if it is dry, before letting them get on with it, but this
year I watered several patches of vegetables including the one
containing my Squashes and Courgettes which then both did well. The Pati
Pan, or “Flying Saucers,” did very well yielding a great number.
They
are a bit like Courgettes to cut into and cook when they are young, but
the skins become very, very, tough when they get older which means they
should keep well, but against that you have the almost impossible
problem of cutting into them. My Butternut Squashes and Courgettes that
went in late, were not bad producing a goodly number as well. Elsewhere,
my Yacon tops looked good without additional watering and the number of
Tubers looked quite good, although some of them were perhaps not quite
so big as usual. However, from 5 big Plants I was able to harvest about
10 Kilos of their red skinned tubers. My Cape Gooseberries went in late
as well, but seemed to do alright, although a cold spell in November
took the tops. Hopefully, the berries that have formed, and are
protected in their paper cases, will be OK and will go on ripening for a
few weeks yet. Sometimes, in past years, I have picked ripe berries on
long dead plants on Christmas Day!
The harvest from my Mashua Vines wasn’t bad with nearly a Bucket full of
usable tubers from just 2 Plants. They even flowered this Season which
is the first time I have ever seen that happen. The Flowers were short
lived though, because a few days after a profusion of bright,
yellowy/orange Flowers started to open, in Mid-November, we had a few
quite cold nights that took the tops completely.
We did previously have a few unseasonably cold nights though, very early
on in September, with a light Frost, but it was not really penetrating
enough to do any damage. However, I did then put my Bananas, Cannas,
Palms, Citrus, etc inside my Greenhouse for protection. But, it was not
until November, that I put up the Insulation in my Greenhouse after
cleaning it up a bit and wiping down the glass to help prevent over
wintering pests and increase the light levels as the days become duller
with the coming Winter.
Into November and it was still very mild for the
most part, but the leaves dropped and things started shutting down
anyway. (I intend to use the leaves as a Mulch to suppress weeds on
various parts of my Plot and also on my Garden at Home.) Weatherwise, it
was a very odd Autumn though and after the dry Summer, seemed quite wet
at times.
As the weeks went by, I picked the last of my Apples, over 40 Plastic
Crates full, in total, each holding a couple of dozen Apples. After that
I made a lot of “Friends,” for a couple of weeks as I gave away as many
crates of Apples as I could with a lot going for juicing mixed with some
Pears to sweeten them.
However, I did leave the Medlars to pick later as
Medlars are not usually picked until they have had the first of the
Autumn’s Frosts on them which starts them ripening. This process is
called “Bletting,” and in other fruit would just produce an unpleasant
Fruit, that is an inedible, soft, brown, mush. The flesh of Medlars,
does become soft and brown, but the process actually sweetens them
making them quite tasty and somewhat different to any other Fruit.
They
can be used as a paste on Cheese and Biscuits, different Meats, or even
boiled up with Sugar and made into a type of Cheese! Quite early on I
was contemplating putting some Medlars into my Domestic Freezer to try
to ripen some of them as they were dropping off my tree too early due to
the strong winds and not ripening because of a lack of cold weather.
However, by mid-November we had a few more cold nights and that did the
job on the Fruit which I was then able to pick and a couple of crates
full went in my cool Garage. However, although they were kept cool, they
then continued ripening - too quickly for me to eat them all! I think I
will try processing some and freezing the resulting Paste in lumps, in
bags, in my deep freezer.
With the cold spell and the Leaves dropping from my Fig Trees, it was
time to clear off all of the small, old, part developed Figs from the
Trees. If you snap them back carefully between your fingers, they will
come away easily leaving a clean wound that quickly heals enabling the
Fig to put on new Buds in their place in the Spring. If you leave the
undeveloped Fruit on your Trees, it will often just drop off with the
Winter, but if it doesn’t it can rot on the Tree and cause harm
preventing new Buds from forming.
With the Leaves dropping from the Apples and Pears, etc, I decided it
was time to put some fresh Grease Bands around the main Trunks of my
Trees. The old ones from the previous year lose their stickiness and
therefore become ineffective so have to be replaced. If they are taken
off a couple of weeks before replacing them it allows the Trunk, that
has been covered for nearly a year, to breathe. If you put fresh Bands
on when the Leaves are still falling, they may well get stuck on your
expensive new Grease Bands and spoil their effectiveness!
In late November I also decided it was time to dig up and bring in my
Chrysanthemums. As the various Storms had come and gone I had previously
cut off a lot of damaged Flowers in the hopes of getting more, fresh
ones, but after a sharp frost in late November, I decided it was time to
put them to bed for the Winter. They were roughly Potted in poor Compost
and stored in my Frost-Free Greenhouse at home.
After harvesting my Mashua, I also divided and potted some of the root mass that came up
with the Tubers.
The Crowns of my Yacon were also divided and potted in
much the same way that you might divide Rhubarb Crowns. The difference
is that they are much smaller and need to be kept frost free over
Winter.
A little later in the Winter I will start harvesting my Oxallis,
Root Artichokes and Crosne, some of which will also be potted and kept
in my Greenhouse to over Winter with the aforementioned and give me some
new Plants for our Spring Sale. With the Spring Sale in mind, I also
divided and potted a number of other Plants. The TV Gardeners always say
that Spring is the best time to dig up and divide Herbaceous Perennials,
but if they are not done too late in the Autumn they can be done then
while there is still a bit of warmth in the soil which will encourage
the roots to heal and develop. I divided my Pink and Blue Asters, some
Linaria, the taller Lysimachia and some Golden Rod. I also dug up and
removed a Dwarf Bamboo from my front Garden that was no longer dwarf and
was starting to spread slowly, but surely, towards my neighbours Drive.
A few weeks earlier I had seen him eying it up and had spoken to him
promising that I was going to remove it entirely before it got any
bigger. I don’t think he really believed me, but eventually I worked up
the courage to tackle it. The same as when I dug up my Pampas Grass the previous
year, it was difficult to get started, but once I had cut into it, it
came out without too much of a fight. Like the Pampas Grass, my Bamboo
was fairly shallow rooted which made the job so much easier than it
might have been. It was too big to be potted as one Plant, but divided
up giving me quite a few big pots-full that just needed settling down
over winter before they would be OK to sell in the Spring.
At about the
time I dealt with the Bamboo, I was given a couple of big Pots
containing very large Hardy Fuchsias. When I tipped them out, I managed
to divide them up giving me something else for our Spring Sale.
With the colder weather coming I turned from potting things off my
Allotment to maintenance jobs and one regular job that I have is to
replace the small wooden Pegs that hold my Edging Boards in place. They
never seem to last more than a year or two before rotting and breaking,
so when a Friend offered me some old Farm Fencing Rails to cut up for
Pegs, I jumped at the chance. Hopefully, being a lot chunkier, they will
last longer.
Other Winter jobs that will get my attention over the
coming weeks are tidying up the various Paths, turning my compost Heaps
and Manuring and covering my numerous Beds. No doubt I will also have
numerous Branches to keep tying in on my Fruit Trees as the Winter
Storms loosen them and sometime during the Winter, I will cut down my
Autumn fruiting Raspberries. These jobs should keep me active on the
better days and keep me interested in my Plot throughout the coming
Winter.
 
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