To do on your plot in October

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Harvest

By now the maincrop potatoes should be ready. As the foliage dies back you can cut this off and leave the potatoes for a couple of weeks. This will prevent any stray blight spores from infecting your crop. Wait for a sunny dry day and dig up the potatoes, brushing off excess soil and letting them dry before storing in hessian or paper sacks in a frost free, dark shed.

The last of the beans should be picked now, compost the foliage but leave the roots with their nitrogen full nodules in the soil as a fertiliser.

Cabbages should come up now too,

Any green tomatoes on outdoor plants may as well come in now before the frost gets them.

General Jobs on plot

As ground becomes vacant you can dig it over and spread manure over the surface. Leave the soil roughly dug in large clumps, the freezing and thawing of water in the soil will cause the soil to break up finely so becoming easier to handle in the spring.

October and November are good months to undertake double digging, incorporating manure into the bottom of the trench and deepening your topsoil.

Dig in any green manure crops such as mustard that you planted earlier in the year.

Your compost bins will be filling up as the last of the crops come in so now is a good time to give them a turn to help even decomposition and cover them to keep them warm and damp rather than soaking wet.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

You can plant your garlic now although this job will hold over into November easily. If you have time and the weather is fine.

Remove any yellowing leaves from over-wintering brassicas, they are of no use to the plant and will encourage botrytis to develop.

Fruit

When the strawberries have finished tidy up the bed, cut off the tops, remove dead leaves, rotting berries you missed under the foliage and remove self-planted runners.

Fruit bushes such as black and red currants should be pruned, as should the gooseberries. Now and November are good months to attend to the raspberries, blackberries etc. It’s also a good time to plant new canes.

To do on your plot in September

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Harvest

The maincrop potatoes should be ready now.

You may well have reasonably sized parsnips now but they will stay perfectly happy in the ground and do taste better after they have had a frost on them.

The runner beans and French beans will be continuing to produce and the last of the peas should be coming in. Compost the foliage of the peas but leave the roots in the ground as the nodules on them contain nitrogen.

Harvest:

  • Beetroot
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflowers
  • Courgettes
  • Cucumbers
  • Globe Artichokes
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Leeks
  • Marrows
  • Onions
  • Pumpkins
  • Radishes
  • Spring Onions
  • Spinach
  • Sweetcorn
  • Tomatoes
  • Turnips

From the greenhouse you should be picking aubergines, chilli and sweet peppers as well as cucumbers and tomatoes.

If you grow fruit then the picking should be in full swing there as well:

Apples, pears, plums, peaches from the trees, blackberries and raspberries from the canes and strawberries from the bed.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Sowing

There’s not a great deal to sow now but surprisingly it’s the right time to sow winter lettuces.

The other salad crop is the winter hardy spring onion.

Planting Out

Your spring cabbage plants can be planted out now and over wintering (Japanese) onion sets can go in for an early onion harvest.

You can plant out garlic as well although I prefer to plant it out later in the year.

Cultivating

Keep feeding your tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. It’s not really worthwhile feeding other plants at this time of year as they are nearly finished and the nutrients are best saved for the spring. Keep the side shoots in check on the tomatoes.

Fruit

Tidy up the summer fruiting raspberries, cutting off the canes that have fruited and tying in the new shoots that will bear next year.

The summer fruiting strawberries can be attended to now as well. Cut off the foliage about 1″ from the ground, clearing and weeding as you go. Any runners can be planted up to replace 3 year old plants that are best replaced now.

General Tasks

Keep an eye on your brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars, these will most probably be under the leaves.

To do on your plot in August

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Harvest

  • French Beans
  • Runner Beans
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Courgettes
  • Cucumbers
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Spring Onions
  • Peas
  • Early Maincrop Potatoes
  • Radish
  • Spinach
  • Tomatoes
  • Turnips

When you harvest your potatoes take care to remove all the tubers. Any left will not only sprout next year and become a weed but will also be a reservoir for disease and potato blight spores.

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Sowing

There are still quite a few things you can sow in August.

  • Spring Cabbage
  • Chinese cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce (sow a hardy variety for winter use)
  • Spring Onions (White Lisbon winter hardy)
  • Radishes
  • Spinach
  • Turnips

Planting Out

August is the month to plant out:

  • Savoy Cabbages and Cauliflowers
  • Kale

Cultivating

Runner beans that have reached the top of their supports will benefit from having the growing tip pinched out.

Keep on top of the weeds, it really is far easier to hoe them as small seedlings than as grown plants.

Keep your tomato sideshoots in check, you want tomatoes not masses of foliage. Ensure they are watered regularly, drying out prevents the plant from taking up sufficient calcium and the deficit causes blossom end rot.

Keep feeding your tomatoes.

Fruit

Many fruits are ready to harvest or swelling. Swelling fruit requires a lot of water so ensure they have enough.

Finish summer pruning apple trees and prune mature plums after fruiting.

Plant new strawberry plants and pot up runners from established plants.

General Tasks

Keep on top of the pests. Aphids and Blackfly are a particular problem. You can control them with pesticides or just wash them off many plants with a strong jet of water. A wash with soft soap will do no harm to the plants and will reduce numbers.

Turn your compost. The warmth will be helping your compost break down and turning it out to in will ensure even breakdown. Water if it is dry as the microbes need some water but don’t make it absolutely sodden.

Keep an eye on your brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars, these will most probably be under the leaves.

To do on your plot in July

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July is usually one of the driest months so a lot of time may be spent watering.

Another good method of preventing water loss is to hoe. This not only kills the weeds but breaks up the top of the soil stopping water from being drawn to the surface by capillary action and evaporating.

Harvest

  • Broad Beans
  • French Beans
  • Runner Beans
  • Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Cauliflower
  • Celery
  • Courgettes
  • Cucumbers
  • Kale
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Onions
  • Spring Onions
  • Peas
  • Early Potatoes
  • Radish
  • Spinach
  • Tomatoes
  • Turnips

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Sowing

A few things you can sow in July.

  • Spring Cabbage
  • Chicory
  • Chinese cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Lettuce
  • Peas
  • French Beans
  • Beetroot
  • Carrots
  • Radishes

Planting Out

If they’ve not gone out yet, it’s time to plant out your leeks.

It’s also the month to plant out:

  • Broccoli and Calabrese
  • Cabbages and Cauliflowers
  • Kale

Cultivating

Keep on top of the weeds.

Keep your tomato sideshoots in check, you want tomatoes not masses of foliage. Ensure they are watered regularly, drying out prevents the plant from taking up sufficient calcium and the deficit causes blossom end rot.

Don’t forget to feed your tomatoes as well. It’s a good idea to give your maincrop potatoes a feed as well. A major cause of poor crops with potatoes is poor nutrition. A feed balanced as for tomatoes is ideal. If you make your own feed from comfrey, this is ideal.

Keep your onions well weeded and don’t forget to feed them as well to get the best possible crop.

Fruit

Many fruits are ready to harvest or swelling. Swelling fruit requires a lot of water so ensure they have enough.

July is a good month for summer pruning apple trees.

General Tasks

Keep on top of the pests. Aphids and Blackfly are a particular problem. You can control them with pesticides or just wash them off many plants with a strong jet of water. A wash with soft soap will do no harm to the plants and will reduce numbers.

With broad beans you can pinch out the tops which are most attractive to blackfly. Another ‘trick’ is to plant some nasturtiums which attract blackfly. You can then pull the nasturtiums and their blackfly.

Keep an eye on your brassicas for butterfly eggs and caterpillars, these will most probably be under the leaves.