Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
What to do now - August
It's that time of year...
It’s been another hot, dry start to summer and we still need to protect plants from the heat. Apply mulches around plants to reduce the amount of moisture escaping from the soil. Consider applying temporary screens where plants are exposed to directly sunlight for long periods of the day.
If you are planting out new seedlings, these can get some protection from the sun if located where they benefit from shading from established nearby plants or bespoke screens.
August is the month of plenty and, just as there is a wide range of fruit and vegetables almost every day: peas, beans, carrots, beetroot, sweetcorn, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, potatoes, onions, berries, and early hard fruit. It’s a time of excess produce presenting opportunities for preserving: freeze beans and herbs, store squashes and convert other produce into jams, chutneys and pickles.
It’s the time of year to make jam, and this newsletter includes a recipe for one of my personal favourites: blackcurrant jam. There are many other recipes and tips on preserving fruit and vegetables on the LAA web-site- see link below:
https://longcroftallotmentassociation.org.uk/and-cooking-them
And, when you’ve used all you can from your crops, any plant waste can be added to your compost heap to rot down over the winter, so it may be time to construct (or reconstruct) your compost heaps/bins.
It’s also the time when most of us go on holiday so there’s often a need to make arrangements with fellow allotment holders to take care of watering and harvesting while we (or they!) are away.
Allotment tasks
Sow Now
Carrots (the last of the year), spring cabbage, new strawberry plants
Jobs
Dry out onions/garlic, mulch the soil to retain moisture, pinch out growing beans (French and runners), prune summer fruiting raspberries, thin tree fruit and weed around the base of fruit trees
Harvest
Early sweetcorn, beans, courgettes, plums and gages, potatoes
Leaf Salad Crops
Salad crops develop quickly, and there are a wide variety – sorrel, lettuce, endive, kale, radicchio and mustard leaves - to suit various conditions.
They can be grown in seed drills, broadcast over an area of ground or grown in containers. Either way, they offer a fresh and tasty alternative to bags of supermarket salads.
As salad crops can outgrow weeds, watering and pests are the main concerns for salad growers. Watering every two days may be necessary during long dry spells if salad crops are grown in compost rich beds (daily watering may be necessary if they are grown in small pots).
Slugs are the main pest, and can be treated with pellets, nematodes, or regular picking off. Ants and aphids can also be a problem – ants can be kept in check if the surrounding soil is kept moist. Aphids can be squashed by hand if they are not tackled by ladybirds or beetles.
Regular collect leaves when they are ready to harvest. If leaves start to sag after harvesting they can be recovered by soaking in cold water.
Protect Winter Brassicas
A well planned plot will have some well-developed brassicas as we head towards winter: various types of kale, cabbage, sprouts and broccoli. Give them a helping hand by:
- Fitting mesh or netting to protect them from pigeons
- Stake out taller Brussels sprouts and broccoli plants
- Remove any yellow leaves to discourage white fly and improve air circulation
- Apply soft soap solutions to help protect against pests the following spring
Chitting Potatoes
February is time to prepare seed potatoes for planting by ‘chitting’ them – storing them in such a way that they start to sprout before being planted in the ground.
The potatoes should be spread out over a single layer in a cool, dry place which is free from the risk of frost. Large, unused egg boxes are ideal for this, allowing air circulation between each seed potato.
Ideally the storage area should be bright but the seed potatoes should be out of direct sunlight. After a few days the potatoes will then grow short stubby shoots which will help the potato plants to grow when they are planted out to get them off to a fast start when planted out. St Patrick’s Day is the traditional day of the year to plant potatoes.
There is some evidence that you can grow larger potatoes by breaking off the weaker shoots just before planting, leaving only the three or four stronger shoots to grow.