Wow! It's October. What happened to September?

Nothing really. Most of my crops were ready at the end of August. All I had to do in September was dig up the potatoes, sow a few turnips and clear out the tomato and pepper remains from the greenhouse. This month I sowed more lettuce and carrots in the greenhouse and potted up some leaf beet for the winter. On the allotment I have leeks and cabbage ready to pick.

Propagating Leeks from Bulbils

This year we are trying our hand at propagating leeks from bulbils or pips. Each flower head from last years leeks has produced dozens of little leeklets which can be carefully removed in the autumn and potted up to overwinter under heat. I have heard that it is quite tricky to get good results, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

These flower heads are from last years King Richard. This year we are growing Musselburgh leeks that were sown in March in pots and only recently transplanted in the allotment. They are still a little spindly but I hope they will catch up. Almost everything we have done this year has been later than it should be. There is a reason for this which will be explained in a future blog.

Here you can see the spindly leeks waiting for Vicky to weed them and bordered by a few stray rows of parsnip and swede.