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VEGETABLE GARDEN
Sow: spinach and lettuce for harvesting in spring. This is
the last month in the year to sow radish. Sow green manures if not
done last month for digging in during the winter or spring. Sow
main crop or Japanese onions seeds.
Plant: over-wintering onion sets in late September.
Harvest: Keep picking runner beans to prevent a decline in
the yield. Harvest sweetcorn. Cut globe artichoke heads for use
in the kitchen. Pick remaining outdoor tomatoes by the end of the
month to ripen indoors. Dig potatoes before slug damage becomes
a problem. Only store sound tubers and store in paper sacks or boxes
Jobs:
- Keep up with watering winter
squash and pumpkins to prevent a check in growth;
- Remove and bin blight infected
tomato and potato plants;
- Cut down asparagus foliage
and add to compost heap;
- Cover leafy vegetable crops
such as cabbages and Brussels sprouts with bird-proof netting
to keep off the pigeons;
- Leave the roots of pea and
bean plants in the soil to increase fertility;
- Trim parsley to encourage
fresh shoots;
- Earth up celery, leeks and
winter greens;
- Stake plants of Brussels
sprouts and sprouting broccoli exposed to wind.
FRUIT GARDEN
Plant: Continue to plant strawberries.
Prune: Complete summer pruning of apples and pears. Prune
plums and damsons immediately after cropping. Complete the pruning
and tying in of summer fruiting gooseberries. Prune blackcurrants.
take cuttings from healthy plants. Cut off mildewed tips of gooseberry
shoots and dispose of, take cuttings. Cut off old canes of blackberries
and hybrid berries after fruiting and tie in the new..
Harvest: Pick perpetual strawberries, autumn fruiting rasps,
blackberries, blueberries, plums, damsons, and early and mid season
apples, pears. When the fruit is ripe, apple pips are black.
Jobs:
- Order new fruit trees and
bushes.;
- Prepare for fruit storage,
clean wooden trays and boxes;
- Outdoor vines protect ripening
fruit from birds by covering by netting, fold back leaves to
also assist ripening;
- Remove any damaged or mouldy
grapes; check 2 or 3 times a week.
UNDER GLASS
Sow: lettuces, chervil, parsley and early vegetables.
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