24/9/25 - I Carried A Watermelon
Harvest Continues
I've had a few days off work recently, so I've managed to get on top of things on the plot again, with the exception of a little bit of weeding. Slowly but surely, the beds are giving up their crops, and for some of them, it won't be long before they will be tucked up for winter.
Following on from last weeks very pleasing results from the first row of Sarpo Mira spuds, this week, I've pulled up the second row which completes the potato harvest for this year. The ground where they were is now really crumbly and relatively weed free, although I expect the resident bindweed will still find it's way to the surface again. Before the bed is fully left for winter, I'll be mulching it down with either some manure, or digestate which the worms can work in over the winter.
More news on the harvesting front, and as the title to this entry suggests, I did indeed, carry a watermelon (although did not take part in any shady dance moves). And let me tell you, this afternoon, we tucked into a piece of it and it was AMAZING! I am so going to grow watermelon again next year! Along with the watermelon, some leeks and carrots have also made their way into the harvest box ready for an allotment dinner tonight. In fact, the leek beds has now been totally cleared. There were signs of allium leaf miner in the first few leeks coming out the ground. This time of year is peak time for them striking, so I decided to harvest them all and then clean them up before freezing them.
Another bed that has been cleared in the last couple of days is the squash bed. We've had a couple of light frosts (first ones of the season) recently, so I took that as my hint that they needed to be harvested and set out to cure in the polytunnel. The Uchi squashes were picked several weeks ago and will soon be finding their way into some soups, ready for winter.
With this bout of harvesting completed, it's important to always make time to site back and look. It's the very reason why we invested in a nice bench at the start of the year. I think the plot is looking quite good at the moment. There's still so much more to come out of the ground, and there are some larger jobs I want to do while the milder weather is still around. Stretching out the polytunnel plastic is high on that list of things to do, as well as digging out the cucumber trellis, and turning the manure pile, but for today, it was great to just spend 15 minutes sitting down, drinking a cuppa and chatting to my new allotment neighbour.
Ssshhhhh... 2026 is around the corner!
I can't believe I'm talking about 2026 already. Truth be told though, I'm way ahead of just talking about it. I'm fully planned up using Veg Plotter, right the way through to this time next year, and I already know what's going where. More importantly, the seed box has had a sort out. Seeds that will be out of date by the spring have been disposed of. Seeds that have no part of my plans have been given to others to use and a full list of seeds needed for 2026 has already been written. Not only that, but my main seed order has already been placed and received. This year, I have again chosen to go with getting most of my seeds from Premier Seeds Direct, as opposed to order via the allotment society seeds catalogue. Even though purchasing seeds through the society means I will get 50% off, actually, I still feel I get more seed from Premier Seeds per packet. And they're not that expensive from the start anyway, managing to keep their costs down by not investing in full colour printed seed packets with pictures and instructions etc. Instead, with Premier Seeds, you get a simple foil packet with the use by date, the name of the seed and a QR code. For sowing instructions, you scan the code, and all the instructions are on their website. Nice and easy!
There are still a few seeds left on the list, but I'll hopefully pick those up over the coming months.
That's about it for now. More to come soon enough. Cheers :-)
