Hillside Harvest November Newsletter

This is the second monthly newsletter from the Growers Committee.   Autumn is here, the leaves are falling, the clocks have changed and growing season is almost at an end (but not quite!).

October on Lotti

The weather in October has been relatively quiet, some sun, some rain and quite an early frost.  The flowers alongside the main path have continued to look colourful. 

We have cleared most of the summer crops from the Poly Tunnel and planted a few Beetroot and salads to see if we can get a late harvest.  We have a bed of Autumn Cauliflowers too.

The bed clearance outside has continued as we have harvested the last of the peas, beans and courgettes.  The squash have been gathered in (a poor return compared to last year) but we got two giant pumpkins.

We have purchased some Japanese (autumn) onions and garlic sets and these are already in the ground.   Both have a long over-winter growing period:  Garlic should be ready by the longest day and the onions soon after to provide produce until the main crop onions ripen later in the summer.

Following sterling efforts by Nick, Glenda and Eddy we now have a path in front and along side the Poly using slabs reclaimed from plot 62.  These join up nicely with the new paths.

The hoses have been tidied up for the season - some didn’t get a lot of use this year!

 

Later in the Autumn

We aim to restore the poles and wire to the top boundary to provide support for the fruit trees. 

More paving to areas by the sheds and the compost bins.

Work on the paths around the site – weeding and laying new bark chippings

We are working on a new crop rotation plan and bed plan for 2012 so we can order the right amounts of seed potatoes and onion sets from Hagg Lane Allotment shop.

Sort out support for all the fruit trees.

 

November Jobs

·      Finish clearing the beds ready for next year.

·      Prepare the bonfire using the material from the tree and hedge cutting.

·      Check on the PSB and adjust the netting where necessary.

·      Recover the weed suppressant fabric from plot62.

·      Concerted effort to weed the tyres/paths in the fruit cage.  We want to revitalise this area next spring.

·      Move the four trees from plot 62 to a new area by the main path to the Poly

·      Tidy and reorganise the shed, greenhouse and wood store.