Every year is different. It has been fabulous for humans, and twice as productive as normal for most vegetables. We have been frantically looking for new recipes to cope with the flood of heat lovers such as French beans and courgettes.
So what is coming this winter. There are always scare stories of a cold winter, but no-one knows yet. For this reason we tend to make similar plans and plantings each year. Depending on the winter, it may not be too late to plant garlic and over wintering onion sets this month, as well as Aquadulce broad beans if the soil is not too waterlogged.
Most crops have grown large, such as winter cabbage which were not watered at all, and celeriac, which were planted deliberately near my water butt for lavish watering. The welcome warm Autumn means we also have plenty of salad in the polytunnel.
And why are all football pitches so soggy? Because the players are always dribbling.
Celeriac needs a good 15” spacing to get a big bulb, lots of mulch and water too
Radicchio at 14” spacing, planted in early July in modules to follow broad beans. Eat the hearts only, the tips of the leaves naturally go slimy, but the rest add vibrant colour and texture to meals.
Turnip variety Snowball planted early August and transplanted after sweetcorn. Can be left in the soil and used from now until April.
Bulb Fennel variety Sirio, planted mid July: needs picking as it matures or it will go to seed. Also needs much water to stop it bolting.
Savoy lettuce variety Vertas (a cheap seed packet). we aim to eat these in the dead of winter, but they are ready now even after being eaten by all the usual bugs. We will leave them and hope the hearts don’t ‘crack’ and run to seed.
Arctic King and Valla lettuce in the polytunnel, sown late August and transplanted late September in the polytunnel, beginning to heart already. As an alternative they can, like most lettuce, be treated as cut and come again.
