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.

Cleaning Up

Well it's cold, wet and windy. What a change from the last few months, the greenhouse without heat is struggling to get to 70F. It looks as though I may have to get the vitopod out of the shed soon.

I have picked the last of my sweet peppers and Cayenne pepper this week and cleared out the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, only the Demon Red (picture below) remain, still to ripen. I'm looking forward to drying them as they have a lot of heat to add to dishes.

Demon Red Chilli

The Vitopod (they must owe me royalties) ensured that my crops peaked early, it's unusual to have your greenhouse cleared by mid-August.

I'm still eating my new potatoes and toying with the idea of planting a few of them in a planter in the greenhouse for a Christmas crop.

Now that the greenhouse is more or less cleared I shall be washing it down this week with a mild disinfectant and taking the opportunity to rearrange my automatic watering system. It wasn't that effective this year, the tomatoes regularly flooded so I need to put more control valves in.

I have purchased some new greenhouse staging and a new heater, as my old one packed up, the staging arrived today but I'm still waiting for the heater. My intention is to use the heater to keep the greenhouse frost free or keep it at 45F, haven't decided yet. The vitopod will be kept at 60F to keep my geraniums and fuschias happy.

I have also bought some spring bulbs to plant up in bowls and pots on the new staging which I hope to get done next week.

I also made a couple of scoops from used milk containers just to pass the time.

Scoop

Scented Geraniums

Early Potatoes

This year I decided to change from Rocket which I have grown for the past two years and try Pentland Javelin and I have just cleared the last of the five potato planters I have kept on the patio since I brought them out of the greenhouse in May.

I am pleased with the results which are probably more due to the weather than anything I have done, although I did feed them with potato fertiliser which I have never done before. The potatoes are bigger and taste delicious boiled in fresh mint and drenched in butter.

Update : In the last potato planter there was 3.25lb of potatoes from 4 Pentland Javelin tubers.