Autumn has arrived

It was officially the first day of Autumn yesterday and boy don’t we know it! I’m one of those people that get cold easily anyway, or maybe I’m just being a big wimp but it’s starting to get very cold, as a matter of fact I woke up to a thick layer of fog this morning and left the house wearing a coat and a scarf! Oh Summer I miss you already!

The allotment is also showing signs of Autumn with a few plants starting to die back. The pumpkins for instance have already been harvested and the munchkin pumpkins look a little sorry for themselves with their large wilted, brown leaves trying to cling onto my archway but failing miserably. I’ll be alittle sad to see my archway all empty and naked, maybe I’ll have to decorate it with bunting and fake flowers once the pumpkins and borlotto bean plants have all gone! The climbing french beans have also come to an end and I will have to take down the supports later this week. The tomatoes came down with blight and were removed a few weeks ago and the strawberries, gooseberries and blackcurrents have started their hibernation.

On the other hand, I am a little pleased with how my allotment looks so far. I look around at the site and see that quite a few neighbours have dug over their plots and left nothing but a blank canvas of soil. My plot on the other hand is still full to the brim with crops and flowers and I’m managing to use nearly every inch of it, if you’ve got the space then you might as well use it right? The dwarf purple french beans which I sowed back In August are starting to crop like crazy, I’ve already had 2 large harvests from them and they keep producing more perfectly shaped, purple pods by the minute. I have 4 rows of swiss chard in the old root bed and 3 rows in the fruit cage (I’m realising now I sowed too many!) and they all goot lovely and bright on these cold Autumn days. There’s also the carrots that are either still growing or being stored in the ground waiting to be eaten, and the leeks are starting to bulk up now. The brassica bed is a little weedy but very productive, the kale is ready for harvesting, the flower sprouts are growing bigger every day and I’ve already eaten one red cabbage (which was delicious!)

Fingers crossed there will be plenty more harvests to come, I’m just trying to hang onto the gardening season for a little while longer. I’m not sure what to do with myself otherwise! 🙂