Autumn sowing in the November Garden

Hopefully the last planting job of 2017, broad beans.  This time I have put them in only in the kitchen garden plot at home, they don't enjoy the cold heavy clay at the lotty.  Just a short row of Aquadulche, I'll put some spring planting ones in at the lotty later - I'm going to try De Monica there.

C-H Jnr seems to have taken a liking to rhubarb.  I always hated it as a child, but I am warming to it, so have stuck in the odd crown at the allotment to give it a go. Hopefully it will be happy with the barrow load of "good stuff" I mulched it in with.

I've got a fair bit of  my manure pile form last year's trailer load, so I've been layering that on everywhere I can.  It did make getting things ready to plant up in spring a lot easier last year, the ground seems to stay quite a bit more workable.  It might suppress some weeds, but brings with it its own weed problems - most likely the Calendula volunteers that I've allowed to spread rather because they make the plot look cheerful - but they at least pull up easier from the crumbly mulch than sodden clay.

As you may know, I'm keen on experimenting in the garden.  One experiment this year that will not be repeated is going without environmesh for brassica and leeks.  The idea was that not only did the mesh make weeding difficult, but it also protected the slugs, snails and caterpillars (one cabbage white always seems to get in !) from the birds, and maybe removing it would, in classic organics style, allow nature to do its thing.   After one year of picking out caterpillars from the broccoli, and losing lots of leeks to leek moth, I think that's conclusive that the mesh is needed if insecticides are to be avoided.

What have you been up to ?

Broad beans sown here too (in pots) - will see how they do. They haven't been too brilliant for the last two years but never say die...
We arrived home in the dark on Friday evening after visiting my mother in hospital. I had left the hens inthe garden when we went out, so checked that they had gone back into to their little hut and locked them in. It wasn't until the next morning with the cold light of day that I discovered that in my absence they had forced their way in to the greenhouse and trashed all the lower leaves of my French beans which had been sitting there quite happy in big pots, providing us with the occasional treat of fresh beans. Interestingly they hadn't touched the beans, but I don't think the plants are long for this world!!

Little bu**ers, Dandelion!
Mind you, I thik you've probably had a good deal out of those beans if they are/were still cropping.

I decided to try again with the Red Grenoble lettuce seeds + a few other winter salad leaves that got missed in September. Sowed them last week and put in heated propagator - only at about 12-14*C, just to keep night time temps from dropping. So far all germinated except the lettuces again. If no joy in another week, I shall send the seed pack back with a cross letter!

This is more like 'Autumn sowing on the November windowsill' - I had a go at pea shoots, as I had a bag of dried seeds from last year's Tutankhamun peas. I sowed them in a seed tray of compost and started them off in the greenhouse, but when the weather got much colder I brought them inside. I think I probably let them get a bit big (they were about six inches tall when I cut them) but they did provide me with a couple of salads for work. And who doesn't love free food??

I use up odds and ends of pea seeds for salad pea shoots in spring; they can usually be picked over a few times then, maybe they will not regrow so much in autumn ? Still, I think they are pretty tasty as saladings go.

Tidy up time at the allotment yesterday. The main job was to sort out the leeks I'd grown without mesh, which were affected by allium leaf miner. With a lot of peeling, there is still a usable core of leek, but a lot of waste with the little brown grubs visible. Now, I am not normally one for garden fires, but this seemed like the best way to be sure they didn't survive, so I did a clear up of whatever wood I could find - old pea sticks, stakes, broken carrot cage etc, and got a good hot fire going in an old dustbin, and tossed them on. All safely under cover of darkness to avoid neighbor complaints ! Very effective it was too, not a lot left and very doubtful anything survived that. It did get through a lot of wood to keep the heat up though, the plus side being I now have a rather tidier allotment.

Worth mentioning that I lifted an odd leek from another row that had been under mesh, and it was clean, so mesh it is for next year.

The leeks I started off in a bucket this spring have turned out to be the best ever. I did grow them under mesh, and didn't take it off them until the weather started to get cold this month (when I thought any little blighters might have disappeared!). The only downside of this is that I had the mesh supported by large cloche hoops, so the larger leaves of the leeks had curled over and gone a bit wavy, not having had enough room to grow straight. They still tasted good though!

Presumably pea shoots for salad still have a reasonable chance at this time of year. Whilst tidying at the allotment I pulled up several peas, which must have grown from dropped seed from the dead plants I cleared last month. Would not have expected them to come up in November, they are a spring sown variety according to the packet. Looked healthy enough though.

I think my leeks, started in a bucket, would have been good if I had got them planted out at a more sensible time but I just didn't have the space until late.  That said, there is nothing wrong with them except size but I have had smaller leeks dished up when I have eaten out.
I will be rethinking my outdoor growing spaces next year.  Because I had such good crops of potatoes, French beans, carrots and courgettes from very few plants** in the polytunnel I didn't get to start harvesting from the garden until late which meant that the ground wasn't clear for later plantings.  I was mortified at the amount of beans wasted when I cleared the plants.  That was partly down to the excessively wet summer - I just dashed out and got a handful when I needed some and didn't really have any good picking sessions.  I already had plenty frozen and cooked from the polytunnel.

**one courgette plant, 12 French bean plants and  2 18" diameter rings of carrots produced more than we could eat right through the season - I am still harvesting carrots.  2 18" diameter rings of extra early potatoes yielded about 10kg.

Talking of carrots, I've never really had a garden with reasonable 'carrot' soil, so have only tried growing them in a pot once or twice (too much faff IMHO...) My other half does archery with a club who meet on a local farm (which is brilliant, because there isa very long barn they can use if the weather is bad). The chap who owns the farm gave us a bag of carrots which he had grown, which were a complete revelation. I have never eaten such tasty carrots, completely different from supermarket ones. I may try to grow my own with a bit more diligence and persistence having tasted these ones. (He also gave us a bag of Laxton Superb apples from an old tree on the farm. Again, they are gorgeous.)

Do you have the room to make a small raised bed for the carrots, Dandelion?
I'd never had much success with them but grew some fairly decent ones in one of the raised beds and they certainly tasted particularly carroty!

Edited to add that I thought having them in a small raised bed would be easier to service than several pots.

Not wanting to be too smug, but I think I'm one of the few who has not given up on carrots at our Bedfordshire clay allotment site. But it does need special treatment, here's what I do.

I've talked about my tomato growing system before, I use 15L bottomless pots sitting on a sand bed. The compost is a homemade garden compost mix. At the end of the season, I bag up all the spent compost. Every second or third year I clear out the sand too. All this gets delivered to the allotment. Then, in spring, I use a narrow border or tree planting spade (that was once acceptably referred to as a "ladies spade" ) and make a narrow trench about 10" deep, and empty the compost into it. Then the carrots are sown into that. Our heavy clay has no shortage of nutrients so it does not seem to matter that the compost is already a bit spent. In a good year, I can get fairly normal shop sized carrots. But I agree with DL, the taste is so much fresher and nicer. Well worth the extra effort, it is no worse than preparing a bean trench really. Does depend on a supply of old compost though.

A barrel or stack of old tyres is another popular way; allegedly carrot root fly stay close to the ground so don't trouble ones grown 40cm or more above soil level. I'm dubious about that one though. And some say old tyres can contain stuff you don't want in your soil.

With our clay soil everything really gets grown in a raised something with good soil / compost over the clay.  I would go with Flobears suggestion and make a suitable sized frame 8 - 12 inches deep, fill it with compost and sow the carrots in that.  I recommend Amsterdam Forcing, a nice quick growing variety and the 'sungold' of the carrot world.  That's what I've grown in the tunnel.  I sprinkle the seed all over and thin to an inch apart after germination.  I thin further by harvesting baby carrots when ready.  They can grow on to a fair size.  I keep them covered with fleece initially then mesh if outside.