Anyone with an allotment?

I bought a little mesh butterfly cage off ebay in the end as the original jar got a bit gross. Will aim to try it with nettles/peacocks next year.

Closed off my bottom shelves with a bit of left over insulation and velcro.
Not expecting it to add much warmth but hopefully reflect a bit of light if nothing else.
Onion and garlic sets have started popping up in earnest as well.

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Emptied out my last bags and buckets of main crop spuds, one row left. Bags outperformed buckets by some way. Found some real discrepancies between some bags which were bursting with huge spuds and others with really quite pathetic harvests.

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Also found a little mini cob while clearing the sweetcorn and some beans still growing nearly in November. Anyone know why my apples look so knackered (this was the worst example by some way, but quite a lot have this sort of thing on them)

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Finally put my onion and garlic in. About 5 weeks late but just didn’t have the space to put them until now.

I need to get some onions in.

I will do mine in a few weeks. Moved a few rogue onions & leeks today into the beds on rotation.

Also cleared down some other beds and shifted 10 barrows of muck, 7 minute round trip per barrow as we're in a far corner.

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T'other space & plot latest view.

I've also used sunflower & asparagus stems to help make a better defined boundary between my beds and one of the fences as an experiment.

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Our onions and garlic are mostly up now, foxy ripped a few up but reinforced the netting a bit. Got given some funky looking chillis today by a neighbour which I’ll grow next year.
Some of the Xmas spuds look like they’ve died back which is a real shame, might dig one up and see what’s going on.
Sown tarragon and shisho at home. Anything else I should be getting on with at the moment?

Anything else I should be getting on with at the moment?

Winter Broadbeans for earlier harvest next uear, Aquadulce a good shout iirc

I’ve got 50 red and 50 white onions going in at some point this weekend.

Any advice for growing peas? I’ve never grown them before. If it best to start them off in the green house or straight in the ground?

Planted garlic a few weeks ago to overwinter, some of it is 10cm high already. Am I going to have to put something over it to protect it from frost etc? Fleece, earth up like potatoes? Wasn’t expecting this.

Any advice for growing peas? I’ve never grown them before. If it best to start them off in the green house or straight in the ground?

Start in green house in guttering then slide into situ after last frost

Should be ok as it is hardy, but I keep mine under fine netting until the spring either way.

Thanks for the reassurance, I’m sure I haven’t had it come up this early before.

More manure today, moved tayberry too so it'll grow along fence.

Bought garlic bulbs (appx 20 cloves to plant), 36 onioms & a pack of broad beans today but ran out of time to plant any of them.

Shed feels spacious without bike boxes in it.

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My gloves got quite wet today... with consequences.

Usual plot views too. One day I'll timelapse all these.

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Back at allotment after dark for bonfire and various neighbourhood fireworks.

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If it’s an autumn planting Garlic it should be fine. They just slow up growing when it’s cold. We’ve had unseasonably warm weather this November, great growing conditions.

Thanks, yeah it has been warm and it is an autumn planting variety. I’ll leave it to do its thing. Haven’t put in broad beans this autumn, going to stick to spring planting. Picked the last tomatoes out of the greenhouse today too.

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Those gloves look good for allotmenting. And getting a tan.

Great haul. We’re just getting to the end of our outdoor grown toms.

They're really good gloves except on wet days. Daughter said my hands would have made a great Halloween zombie killer look if I'd done it the week before...

25mins at the plot today, got 18 Broad bean, 12 Garlic and 20 onions in the ground and covered of sorts. Need to replace the hooped mesh thing, very tired, the white mesh has got a bit weathered too..

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My elderly neighbour has finally had to concede his plot due to ill health but he’s passed his favourite rotavator on to me. It wasn’t the time to discuss no-dig raised beds…

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