Worthing and District Allotments and Gardens Association

Sunday, 31st October

Well, I've got an answer to the curly kale question already:

Thank you, Matt

I hope that is satisfactory for all you kale growers out there. I don't grow the stuff myself although I do like it. Had some this weekend in fact in Kent. Yes, I was skiving off again, this time visiting relatives near Deal and while there took the opportunity of taking a trip into Canterbury, hence the photos. I didn't actually get inside the cathedral or even through the main gate (above) to the courtyard as there was a bit of a queue and a silly entrance fee. The city was thronging with foreign tourists and has some lovely old buildings but the same old shops are there: The Works, Wilkinsons, Debenhams, phone shops, etc. We took refuge in a pub but only for lunch. It was practically empty when we went in but heaving by the time we left - unlike the pub we'd gone to for lunch the day before which was as empty when we left as when we arrived. It was a pub that has suffered the same fate as the Coach and Horses i.e. a new road moving it and hiding it from the roadside, if you understand what I mean.

Got back today and have only had time to check on the indoor peppers so far which have survived my absence. I'll check on the rest tomorrow.

Wednesday, 27th October

I must confess that apart from picking stuff I have not been up to much in the way of gardening recently although I did go to gardeners' Pub Night last night. A topic that came up was, "How do you pick curly kale?" I must admit I've no idea; I thought you just pulled off the bits you wanted but apparently there is a proper way to pick it to encourage branching. So if you know, get in touch.

I suppose the real reason I haven't got much done is because every time the weather's been half decent I've skived off. Last weekend Mrs Ned and I spent a few days in Salisbury. We did the cathedral of course but although we stayed in Salisbury we weren't there to visit the city but a couple of National Trust properties nearby. Anyway I couldn't afford to stay long in Salisbury with bitter at £3.50 a pint! First we went to Stourhead, an impressive mansion set in many acres of grounds and the autumn colours were wonderful. In the landscaped gardens there are trees from all over the world including many from North America and Japan and at this time of the year I suppose they are at their best. Not only that but they are set round a huge lake whcih reflects their colours so you get a double blast. Marvellous! Our timing at our other destination was not so spot on. Mottisfont Abbey is particularly famous for its rose collection in the walled garden and by late October they are well past their best. The house and grounds are still worth a visit but I think I'll go back when the roses are in bloom; there are certainly lots of them. The River Test flows alongside and you could lean over the bridge and watch the brown trout swimming ito the current of the crystal clear waters. And we were lucky - the weather was perfect all weekend. Not so lucky last night when it was time to go to the pub; too much wind and rain so we took the car. Tonic water's quite nice when you get used to it, isn't it?

Saturday, 23rd October

Well, the begonias in the back garden have had it now all right; that touch of frost the other night did them in good and proper. Never one to be afraid of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, yesterday I moved as many of my containers and baskets into the greenhouse as I could. That should keep the frost at bay for a while. Outside I've been mainly tidying up again which did involve digging up quite a few cabbages beyond their dig-by date, chopping them up and dumping them on the compost heap. I also intended sowing some green manure and got as far as taking the packet of seeds to the allotment but there were too many weeds already growing so it was back to weeding again. I did take a picture of the seed packet though to lend credibilty to my story (see picture).

I had to throw away my best pumpkin (of two) as something had eaten a hole in it causing it to rot but I pulled the little one as it had been slightly frosted and had it for dinner tonight. Somehow the courgettes seem to have survived which is good news because I was down to my last dozen or so in the kitchen. I've still got some onions I haven't picked as well - don't know if they'll be any good. They never grew much anyway, not much bigger than pickled onions. Still, looking back, I suppose it wasn't a terrible season, just no better than average although I think the fruit was better. I've still got a load of cooking apples to pick and a few Golden Delicious and the raspberries had their best ever year.

As I was driving down Bolsover Road away from the allotments I had quite a surprise when a rather large bird flew very slowly over the car. It was a cock pheasant. Now I've seen loads of cock pheasants in my time but never drifting gracefully down the middle of the street. Probably on its way to my plot to finish off the remaining cabbages!

Wednesday, 20th October

St Symphorian's

"Frost," they said so I've been putting things in the greenhouse: orange tree, potted cordyline, phormium, yucca and trailing geraniums mainly. It can't have been that bad last night really though as my begonias usually keel over at the first touch of frost and they're all still OK. Tonight it's going to be colder, they say. It was pretty cold this afternoon when Mrs N and I joined our walking group for a little stroll in the Saint Symphorian's area of Durrington but the sun was shining brightly so it lifted the spirits and we soon warmed up afterwards with a cup of tea in the Community Centre.

I've dug up the last of my potatoes now to store in the shed and I've had to throw away several wasted cabbages. I've been doing some more grass strimming on the plot, around the plot to be precise, with my 20-minute strimmer. I've also had to mow the lawn at home so grass hasn't stopped growing yet. I think the old boy on the plot next to me is giving up which is a shame as I could always rely on him to strim the path on that side of the plot. I shall miss him for other reasons too, of course: he knows a lot about gardening and was always very friendly. So maybe I'll be getting a new neighbour soon. On the wider front I understand the waiting list for allotments in Worthing has come down quite a bit since the council sent out letters to people asking them if they wanted to stay on the list. I think the state of the allotments, at West Tarring anyway, has improved in leaps and bounds in the last couple of years and much of this must go down to the hard work of the Association and their work with the council. If you're a member don't forget the AGM on Wednesday, 10th November, 7.30pm in the Gordon Room, Stoke Abbot Road, near the Town Hall. I'll be there but don't let that put you off.

Saturday, 16th October

Falling temperatures, shortening days, mushrooms in the lawn, loads of leaves - it must be Autumn good and proper. There are other signs of Autumn too such as the golden crab apples and the squirrel(s) raiding the bird feeders and last week it was our church's Harvest Festival so I managed to get rid of a few more courgettes. That said, I refuse to put on the central heating until November at the earliest. I know I get the winter fuel allowace now but that's no reason to throw money away. I'm more likely to put the heating on in the greenhouse than in the house. We can always put a jumper on but I've now moved our orange tree from the garden into the greenhouse and it doesn't really like temperatures much below 7°C. Fleece will give it a bit of protection but not enough according to the most recent weather forecasts.

Actually I quite like this time of year as some of my favourite vegetables come into season: leeks, parsnips and squash. And for the Ned household it's the start of the soup season. (See Recipes page for soup recipes.) It's also the time of year when we start thinking of next year's holidays and I must admit I do enjoy gettting away for a bit. My reluctance refusal to fly restricts our options somewhat but as neither of us has a burning desire to visit such far-flung places as China, Australia, America, India, New Zeeland or Brazil it's not that much of a restriction really. Germany's looking the favourite for next summer at the moment but a lot can happen between now and then. There's Christmas for a start. I know it must be just around the corner because all the local garden centres are full of Christams stuff. I think I'll stick to our stores for my seeds and whatever - I'm pretty sure there won 't be any untimely Christmas decorations there!

Wednesday, 13th October

Oh, dear! All of a sudden all my tomato plants, inside and out, went down with the dreaded blight so I've had to pull them up and bag them to take to the tip. I did salvage some tomatoes that looked OK at present but I doubt they'll keep very long before they go funny so I have done my duty and eaten as many of them as I could. Not all on my own; Mrs N and I had a plate of them grilled for lunch today. My cabbages on the allotment are going off as well - they're splitting and rotting before we can eat them all. It's all happening too fast for me to keep up; even the Savoys are nearly ready.

The courgettes are slowing to a trickle at last - I still have several courges in the kitchen to use - and I think I got my last handful of runner beans today. I also dug a few more spuds to store as those little black (keel?) slugs will be at them soon making holes in them so they won't keep. I'd only really gone to the allotment to tidy up a bit, strimming the overgrown paths. Trouble is, even when fully charged my battery powered strimmer is only good for about 20 minutes light grass cutting before it gives up the ghost and today the little plastic blade flew off and got lost. I thought I would treat myself to a sickle as they never run out but not one of the three garden centres I tried on the Littlehampton Road stocks them. I have located one online and it only cost about £5 but it's another £5.95 for postage and packing! I've put my strimmer back on charge.

Saturday, 9th October

Last night I did something I've never done in my life before: I went to the ballet. Well, it was on at the Pavillion in Worthing so I didn't have to go far and it was Sleeping Beauty so I thought, "If you are going to go to the ballet you might as well go to one with a happy ending as opposed to something like Swan Lake." And, like I said, it was on the doorstep. There weren't many other people there apart from a lot of little girls with their hair in ribbons sat with their mummies in the front rows. Probably all having ballet lessons. As for the ballet, I'm afraid it only helped confirm my prejudices - lots of people prancing around either on their own or with others, women in very short skirts and fellas in skin-tight pants with either a Sainsbury's oven-ready chicken or a sparrow tucked down the front. Some of the music was good though but then it was Tchaikowsky and he has written a few tunes in his time. I probably won't go again but on the credit side it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and you had to admire the performers' athleticism and grace.

Back to earth today: the supermarket run and then off to the Allotment Stores to renew my membership. I produced my card and my hard earned £3 annual subscription only to be told they couldn't find my name on the membership list! They do know I'm a member so I didn't have to fork out another £2 to join but if they had I would have doubled my fee for writing this column. What is twice nothing?

I'm still harvesting cabbages (starting to split), tomatoes (starting to look blighty), courgettes, potatoes, apples, carrots, runner beans (last ones) and today I picked what I thought were my last blackberries only to be told by Mrs N that you're not supposed to pick them after the end of September as the Devil will have spat on them (?!) I said to give them to the harvest festival then and perhaps they'll get blessed.

Thursday, 7th October

Despite all the wind and rain Istill think the weather has been reasonably kind recently and certainly quite mild. In our garden we have fuchsias (tender and hardy) still in flower along with geraniums, verbena bonariensis, tobacco plants, echinacea and begonias and the choisya bushes are starting to put on another show. We don't really know what to do with all the tomatoes now; we can't cook and freeze or soup and freeze them as we have no more room in the freezer, so they're starting to split and go funny, I'm afraid. I'm doing my bit - I had several grilled tomatoes and lettuce from the garden for lunch today.

On the plot though I'm not dong my bit really; it's slipped down the pecking order somewhat. Is it decorating time for everyone else out there? But I must admit I skived off again at the weekend, this time for a reunion back up North. It was a 50th anniversary school reunion which I was dreading as I didn't have many friends in my own year but once every 50 years seemed just about doable. In the end I'm glad I did - you'd have thought I was everyone's long lost best friend and I certainly wasn't! It was amazing how some of the girls (now all in their sixties) seemed to have hardly changed and were instantly recognizable and disappointing to see that all but 2 of us blokes still had a full head of hair.

The biggest shock was bumping into my old Latin teacher. She wasn't at the do but by some strange twist of fate was at the same hotel for reasons totally unconnected and she recognised me, even remembering my name. I spoke to her for a couple of minutes and thought what a nice old lady she had become and obviously still with it ......... until a girl (60+) she'd been talking to said that the aforesaid teacher had been talking all about me and had told her that I was trouble. First impressions wrong then; she's obviously lost the plot or got me totally confused with someone else.

Friday, 1st October

Bit of a wet, blustery start to October. No change there then. Very soon after moving to Worthing I realised there was no real Winter here - apart from a few exceptions like last year - but come November at the latest the rainy season starts. (The wind is here all year round) This has serious implications for allotmenteers. Not only are bugs not killed off but weeds and grasses keep growing and if you're on heavy soil it becomes waterlogged and unworkable. This means you have to start your winter digging as early as possible or you're stuck until next Spring. Trouble is I've still got stuff in the ground, especially loads of cabbages; grew far too many and I never learn. Most other things are now slowing down if they haven't stopped altogether. The raspberries are only offering meagre rations now and the beans seem to have stopped. They like the rain but not the wind. Thankfully the courgettes are not nearly so prolific now either as we've got loads of overgrown ones (courges?) put by already. I've still got a few potatoes in the ground but my onions are now in store. Tomatoes are still going strong outside and under glass.

I didn't go to the plot today (surprise, surprise) but I have been this week when conditions were kinder. I've had to do some tidying up as it was looking a bit dishevelled. Grass has been growing really well on the paths and on my fruit patch so when it dries a bit I'll have to get cracking with my 20-minute strimmer; that's how long the battery lasts. In the meantime it looks like more decorating so come on, you sunshine!