October Blog

Well the skies have opened and the rain has poured! It may not be ideal gardening weather but my soil really needed it. After a dry year and little water at the allotment, everything still growing down the plot needed that rainfall. Now it is all looking very lush indeed and incredibly full of vegetables still growing perfectly well. I love this time of year in the garden, as plants become more architectural with seedbeds forming and the evening light glistening through cobwebs.

My Christmas potatoes are growing nicely, and the chard is in never ending supply as usual! Unfortunately the leeks have succumbed to bad leek rot so they will all need disposing of. The allotment is currently a bed of Pumpkins, mainly ‘Jack Be Little’ as I prefer to grow the smaller, easier to carve varieties. Plus the salad beds are still thriving. It’s been an incredible first year on my new urban plot.

My Rhino Greenhouse is now home to some tender perennials and herbs, as I am away for most of October a lot of what wouldn’t be inside yet, has already been moved to its winter home. The staging has been cleaned and the microgreens put on hold until I get back. I grow microgreens all year in the Rhino as they are the perfect way to keep on harvesting fresh, nutritious goodness over the winter months.

I love the fact that Dahlias still bloom long into October and if the temperature remains mild, they may even make it into November. At the moment I still have Dahlia ‘Boogie Woogie’, ‘Cafe au Lait’ and ‘Creme de Cassis’ in full, bright bloom along with Sunflowers, Cosmos and the Chrysanthemums are now starting to come into their own. I hope they are still flowering when I get back! Will you be lifting and storing your Dahlias this winter or leaving them in with a good mulch? I am going with the latter to save time, but may regret that decision if we end up with another beast from the east! I’ll be finishing off any weeding, clearing and mulching when I get back outside in November.

So, as we move well and truly into autumn start dreaming of what you’ll be doing in the garden next year as you flick through the many seed catalogues that we all swoon over!