October’s monthly rainfall total was once more below average making it the seventh month in a row to be drier than average. Only February was wetter than average, the other eight months this year have all had below average rainfall. However, the good news is that September was only just below average so the water shortage should not be getting any worse.

September was the first month this year when the temperature fell below the monthly average of the last 12 years. It was only by a fraction of a degree but with energy charges increasing again on the first of October we could do with all the free heat we can get.

At the allotment, all the major harvesting is completed apart from harvesting our quinces.

 Last week we lifted our carrots and were really surprised by how well they’d grown. They hadn’t been a priority crop for watering through the dry summer so I wasn’t expecting any decent roots.

They’ve now all been stored in recycling crates filled with compost and placed in our home greenhouse. I’ll need to keep the compost on the dry side to keep any marauding slugs and snails at bay.

Our runner beans produced a very poor crop this year. In complete contrast to our carrots, the runner beans were a priority crop for watering so it was disappointing that a lot of effort watering the beans was to no avail. However, we didn’t water our potatoes at all and the carrots didn’t get very much either but both went on to produce excellent crops. Gardening always has a few surprises to keep you on your toes.

I’m hoping that we’ve had enough rain so that autumn digging can recommence. We do have a few other pressing jobs to get on with first.  We need to harvest our quinces and we have a couple of final planting jobs to do. Firstly, we need to plant out our sweet Williams, winter onions and garlic. Fortunately, we’ve got some beds prepared so it shouldn’t take too long to get them planted.

Everything else that’s growing at the plot, like these leeks, will be harvested as required through winter.