The Kitchen Garden

Rosemary Martin

 

The vegetable garden

More ground is gradually becoming visible again now that some of the summer crops have finished and have been cleared to the compost heap.

The salad vegetables are still cropping well in spite of the dry weather and onions and shallots can be harvested this month once the tops have died down. Pull them from the ground on a dry day and then leave them on the surface for a couple of days to dry out before hanging them in bunches in a dry, cool place.

Many of the summer crops, i.e. broad beans, peas, courgettes, sweetcorn etc. will be finished by the end of this month and cleared to the compost heap, but with our winter crops looking good, all is not lost. Leeks, swede, parsnips, brussels and sprouting broccoli will soon be offering themselves up as replacement crops at the table.

Make the last sowings this month for hardy spring onions and Chinese cabbages, and plant out Japanese onions and garlic to overwinter. Sow broccoli, cauliflower and onions for overwintering under glass. Complete the harvesting and storage of maincrop potatoes and dig the ground over when cleared to expose grubs and pests to the weather and to birds.

Fruit

Most strawberries will be finished now, but some perpetual varieties such as Rapella and Ostara will continue up to the first frosts. Continue to pick late raspberries, blackberries, loganberries etc.

When the late raspberries have finished they can be cut down level with the ground, as they will grow and fruit again next year within the season. Summer fruiting varieties should have this years fruiting canes cut to the ground and the new canes tied in which will fruit next summer.

Continue to pick and store (or preserve) tree fruit when ripe, and give any final pruning to gooseberry and currant bushes, to clear old wood and open up the centre of the bushes to the air and light.