Phew, what a summer. First we have a drought, and then it rains and stays damp for ages! It's been a busy busy time, in fact I've really struggled to spend any time down on my allotment except the odd saturday afternoon. The thing I like about allotments, is that it becomes a community in it's own right, and many's the time I put the kettle on to share a cuppa. Lovely.
So what went well? Mmm, I think I'm most happy with the unusual things - the fenugreek seeds, lentils, physalis, squash, and the range of peppers I grew. I actually got a crop of grapes this year which I am very happy about. I grew celery and celeriac in old tyres and they were and are fantastic, the celery in particular. I love it and use it in soups and stews and veg roasts. Love the dark green stems, and never really did understand the blanching thing.
Things that didn't go well are few, but I need to keep them in mind for next year. Firstly, the badgers got every single carrot I sowed - it's like they went down the row with a claw to dig them up, ate them all and left me the tops!! They even got under a metal frame I put over the carrots, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year. I may have to think about an electric fence but I'm not happy with that really. Then because of the rain I cropped my Amaranth and Qinoa a bit early as they were starting to rot. They're spread out on newspaper to dry out so I'll see how much of a crop I get. Also, I planted some aubergines in the greenhouse alongside the physalis, but the latter grew so big that it completely shaded out the aubergines which need a lot of light. Oh and this year I had leek moth caterpiller - never even heard of it before but it's been rife. I ended up cropping my leeks early, salvaging what I could and freezing. Also, my florence fennel and pak choi bolted because of the heat. And I did it again - let the self-seeded nasturtiums completely take over! Isn't it funny how we find it easy to notice the things that didn't go well? Helps with learning I suppose.
Winter crops are coming along nicely now - the purple sprouting and sprouts look great, and the cabbages are tasty - I've decided to only grow leafed ones next year rather than hearted ones. I tried my celeriac and hamburg parsley in roast veg a couple of days ago, and although quite small (bit disappointed) they were tasty.
So, clearing and tidying up is a priority now before the ground gets too frozen and wet. I'm a compost nut, and absolutely thrilled with what I got this year - about 15 bags of leaf mould and around 40 bags of compost. I'm not a huge manure fan (mainly because of the aminopyralid issue - check out the RHS website because it's back!), but appreciate the benefits of applying it, as I did last year. So I think this year I'm going to just apply compost once I've weeded and if needed turned over the top layer. I'm definitely into the no dig method - it's so easy and relies on nature to do the work which sounds good to me. I've put cardboard weighted down with large stones on top of the compost I've already laid, to stop nutrients being washed away etc.
And so on to thinking about next year. What do I do about the badgers?