It only seems like yesterday we were on holiday in Cornwall. September went by in the blink of an eye, mainly because my wife and I got married. We are now in the middle of October, and we have started putting the allotment to bed for the winter.
Prepping the Allotment for Winter
We have emptied most of the beds and begun mulching them with homemade compost and well-rotted manure. There are still a few things left; we need to pick and harvest loads of beetroot, the runner beans are just hanging on, and the pumpkins are ripening up and will be ready for Halloween.
Unfortunately, the weather battered the leeks, and they don’t look great. We’ll start harvesting them soon, as I doubt they’ll make it through the winter.
We picked the remaining apples and pears from our fruit trees, and I’m happy to say we had a decent crop this year.
We harvested and froze the remaining sweetcorn. It’s one of our favourite crops, and we look forward to harvesting it each year. We’d quite happily fill the entire plot with sweetcorn if we could.
The tomatoes in the greenhouse are still producing fruit and thriving. Normally, by now, we would have harvested all the fruit and composted the plants, but this year they are doing exceptionally well. I really want to have fresh tomatoes in December, so we’ll see how it goes.
As we wrap up the allotment for another year, it’s satisfying to see the results of our hard work, even though some crops thrived while others struggled. We always learn something new from each season, and we’re already thinking about what to grow next year (in fact, our onion sets and garlic just arrived today).
Until next time, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our labour—both in the kitchen and in life.
It finally feels like summer is here. We’ve been harvesting plenty of fruit and veg from the allotment and took our first holiday of the year to Cornwall.
We managed to have our first dinner where all the vegetables on the plate were picked fresh from the allotment just hours before. There’s something satisfying about knowing where the food comes from and the effort it took to grow it.
We had chicken cooked in sweet chilli sauce, accompanied by a medley of freshly harvested potatoes, courgettes, carrots, spring onions, and sugar snap peas. It went down a treat and reminded us why we love our allotment so much.
Onion harvest
A couple of days before heading to Cornwall, I spent some time at the allotment to ensure everything was in order while we were away. One of the jobs involved harvesting some of the onions. I pulled up half my onions and left them to dry in the greenhouse. There’s something so wholesome about the smell of freshly pulled onions; it’s one of my favourite times of the year. The remaining half was pulled up when we returned from our trip, and they are currently drying out in the greenhouse, waiting to be stored.
Our Cornish Adventure
Cornwall was a breath of fresh air. We stayed just outside Lizard and spent a lot of time exploring the local area and Cornwall itself. I’ll let the pictures do the talking here:
Mullion Cove
Sunset at Lands End
Fishing Boat at Lizard Point
Lizard Point
Kennack Sands
Back to the Allotment
When we arrived back from Cornwall, I popped down to the plot for an hour; first to feed the chickens and second to see if there was anything to harvest. To my pleasant surprise, the allotment had thrived while we were away. I harvested runner beans, more peas, beetroot (one of my favourite vegetables), raspberries, tomatoes, cooking apples, and some of the onions that had completely dried out.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time, so I had to head back home, leaving quite a bit still to harvest. This week, I plan to spend more time at the allotment to gather the remaining crops.
It’s time for a July 2024 allotment update. Things seem to be growing ok; some plants are loving this weird weather while others are taking their time to get going.
