Life on The Weald - November 2024

and other distractions

With the terrifying prospect of a Trump victory in America, we certainly need some distractions this month!

1 Nov 

The October sown broad beans were thriving but might need a bit of hand weeding.

1 November - broad beans sown 5 October

In October I had prepared a second bed for more broad beans, layered with cardboard, manure and homemade compost and now topped this with some free compost that the council had delivered.

1 November - second bed for broad beans

 

In another bed, I planted 3 cloves of Elephant garlic, which I understand is not garlic at all, but more closely related to the Leek. 

1 November - Elephant garlic  planted

2 November

In addition to the Elephant garlic, I had bought some Solent Wight soft neck garlic and planted this next to the Elephant, as well as some Eden Rose hardneck (that I had ordered online some time ago but which had only just arrived). I had ordered 2 bulbs, but 4 arrived! So I now need to find more space and a suitable place to plant them.

2 November - Solent Wight & Eden Rose to keep the Elephant company

I had gathered a few bags of autumn leaves from my front garden and used them, mixed with some homemade compost and coffee grounds to mulch the rhubarb.

3 November

I sowed a double row of Aquadulce broad beans directly in the bed that I had prepared. I hand-weeded the onions and planted the remaining Eden Rose. Usually, I rotate crops but the only spot that I could find for the extra garlic was where I had grown onions last year - so it's fingers crossed. I covered the broad bean sowings with fleece and some wire mesh to keep rodents away. 

3 November - a double row of broad beans hopefully protected from mice

I picked the last butternut squash of the season...

3 November - Butternut squash

There were a few onions left from the onion sets that I had planted last month and, after hand-weeding, I used some of the spares to fill gaps in the beds where the Electric and Shenshyu onions were growing

And there is progress to report on the greenhouse which now has a glazed roof and the top half is also glazed on 3 sides.  This renovation has been handled wholly by Sylvi with no input from me.

4 November 

My neighbour to the east, Louise, has done a great job weeding and tidying up her side of the boundary and has planted some Rosemary bushes, so thought it was time to tidy our side!  Unfortunately it is one of the areas where rubbish had been dumped by previous tenants, which I have negelcted and there is rather a lot of bindweed and brambles - so no easy task.  Some of the area now looks a little more decent with extensive strimming - but that is only a temporary measure.

5 - 7 November

At home I was able to admire the Spindle and foxgloves.  The Spindle looks right for this time of year but I would not normally expect to see foxgloves flowering in November.

5 November - Spindle fruits

5 November - Foxglove

Some plotholders appear to have had some success with autumn sown peas, so I thought I would give it a try and have sown some Meteor peas in modules at home and to provide some protection placed them in the mini-greenhouse.

Another plotholder introduced me to Achocha which he had grown on his allotment. It's a South American native and the fruits have a taste which is reminiscent of both sweet peppers and cucumber.  It is supposed to be good in stir fries or salads.  We tried both - it was an interesting addition to a salad but was rather lost in a stirfry.

5 November - Achocha

I have saved some seeds and will try growing some next year

5 November - Achocha seeds

7 November 

In the morning, I planted various Fritillaria bulbs in tubs for the front garden hoping for some early spring colour.

It was an important day for the allotment - we had an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Allotment Association to decide whether to form a Community Interest Company which would enable us to obtain a lease on the site building, (which houses our shop and our community waste food project), and raise funds to improve the building.  This is a proposal which I had been advocating for some time. Currently there is no proof of ownership of the building. Some conspiracy theorists on the site have been running all sorts of rumours as to our intentions and so I was a little nervous about the outcome but the critics didn't turn up and the resolution to form a CIC was carried by 54 votes to 0!

And in the international news it was revealed that, globally, so far, 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded!  Surely even the most sceptic must now recognise global warming is a threat to humanity.  The planet will survive come what may but what will inhabit it?

11 November

The broad beans sown in trays at home were ready to be planted out. They all looked healthy bar one, which appeared to be albino; something I had not seen before!

11 November - a lone albino broad bean

I decided to plant them all out, including the albino one, in the bed where I had directly sown some eight days earlier.

11 November - broad beans planted out

There was more good news. Some free compost had arrived from the council.  We asked plotholders to restrict themselves to one barrow load per plot, which they seem to have done - but it had all gone by the end of the day

11 November - free compost arrives

After planting out the broad beans, I sowed some Meteor Peas directly in another bed and covered with fleece.

11 NovemberMeteor peas

13 November

The Kingsland Wight garlic and the autumn planted onions were all looking healthy and I sprinkled some crushed eggshells around the garlic.  This will add nutrients to the soil as the shells breakdown and improve the soil structure and drainage as well as deterring slugs.

13 November - Kingsland Wight garlic

13 November - Shenshyu  onions

I did a bit of strimming to tidy up the border with neighbours and gathered up the strimmings (mostly grass and annual weeds) to add to the compost heap. I  

sprayed the brassicas and broad beans with a home made mixture of garlic, mustard oil and soapy water. to keep both white-fly amd snails away.

At home, I sowed some more organic broad beans in modules.

13 November - sowing more organic broad beans

Sylvi had managed to complete the jigsaw (with a suitable allotment theme) that she had started at the weekend with our granddaughter, Tilly,  who had been staying, providing another distraction fro  the plot!

13 November - the jigsaw completed

14 November

Thanks to volunteers, the community garden at the allotment site, which had been neglected and completely overgrown, was looking a lot better and ready for new planting.

14 November - The Community Garden

This prompted me to tackle my own neglected and overgrown areas. Couch grass and bind weed had been left to encroach the area from our western boundary to the brassica cage, so it was a case of digging out the offending weeds.

14 November - the weeds; a daunting task

14 November - looking a little better

I now need to source some more cardboard to cover the area. It was a bright dry day with clear blue skies - very pleasant for mid-November

14 December -garlic and peas under fleece, sunshine and blue sky above

15-17 November

Another distraction and a weekend away from the plot.  We were off to Dieppe for the weekend for the annual Festival of Herrings and Scallops!

16 November - Normandy Festival of Herrings and Scallops

19/20 November

We saw our first real frosts of this winter.  I made a brief visit to see how the broad beans were doing and thankfully they did not seem to have suffered any damage.  I think they are quite resilient with low temperatures, but it is the wind that they do not like and we are about to see the arrival of Storm Connal

21 November

Storm Connal arrived bringing heavy rain. There was some flooding in SE England and train disruptions but we came off lightly compared with the Nerherlands and other parts of continental Europe.

It was, however, a good day to stay indoors, and as we had a number of over-ripe bananas it provided an opportunity to bake a banana loaf.

21 November - Banana loaf

22 - 24 November

The rain eased off on Friday 22, so I spent some time tidying up the plot but it was very wet underfoot from the rain. The rain and stormy winds returned on the Saturday and I remained indoors.  On Sunday morning, I dressed for the weather and ventured into the garden to survey the damage.

24 November - dressed for the cold winds!

Unfortunately our stand-up mini-greenhouse was no longer standing! and the various seedlings were on the ground.  Fortunately most could be saved.

24 November - That was the greenhouse, that was

There was no time to visit the plot as we were off to Rottingdean to celebrate a friend's birthday.  The winds did not let up.

25 November

Fortunately, the allotment had escaped major damage from the storm.  The shed was still standing, the greenhouse had lost a couple of panes which could easily be replaced and the broad beans had survived.

25 November - broad beans

25 November and shed still standing - just!

25 November - greenhouse top pane missing

There were clear blue skies and I managed to lift some Jerusalem Artichokes, most of which we shared with neighbours.

25 November - Jerusalem atrichokes

25 November - looking East from 247

25 November a few fluffy clouds

26 November

As it was a bright sunny day with little wind, I managed to spend some time mosty weeding and tidying and it is now possible to walk down the path between our plot and our neighbour's to the west.

26 November - our boundary looking south
our plot to the left

26 November our boundary looking north

I also cleared the area where the tumbler compostor had been so we can relocate the wormeries whilst Sylvi repairs the greenhouse

26 November - a new space for wormeries

29 November

Having made our boundary to the west a little tidier, it was time to attend the our eastern border which had also become rather overgrown.

29 November - the eastern border

The Chinese Quince bush was choked with weeds, but it now visible and ready for mulching

29 November Chinese quince

We put down a layer of cardboard in front to the Chinese quince  and began to cover with a layer of compost from the wormeries mixed with autumn leaves.

29 November - cardboard and compost

30 November

Earlier in the month I had drastically prined our bay tree and had left the branches on the ground for the leaves to die off.  I collected the branches to take home to put through the shredder and just spread the dead and dying leaves on the ground.  The smell was wonderful.

30 November - bay leaves

I had laid down some cardboard but also had a supply of cardboard vehetable trays from the supermarket delivereies to the community food project which I filled with a m ixture or coffee grounds, autumn leaves and worm compost.  I had also collected several sacks of leaves from my garden which I piled down and covered with recycling boxes to prevent it all blowing away.  I will now leave this until early spring when I will rake it over and apply another layer of compost.

30 November - boxes and piles of organic matter

I was very pleased to see that the most recently planted garlic was now firmly rooted and  beginning to sprout through the layer of straw mulch.

30 November - the garlic appears

I'm just hoping we will have a few dry days in December to enable more preparation for next spring

John Austin

Hove, November 2024