Saturday, 02 November 2019
October's Review
There’s no doubt about it October has been a cold and wet month. It’s almost the coldest October we’ve had in the last 10 years. The only other October on a par with this one was in 2012 which although it was just as cold wasn’t anything like as wet.
October Average Temperatures & Rainfall Records 2010-2019
This October was the wettest of the last ten years by a considerable margin with 106.6mm of rainfall making it the third wettest month I’ve recorded.
Top Ten Wettest Months 2010-2019
It follows on from a wet September and has brought garden and allotment activities to a grinding halt.
The temperature fell to 0°C or 32°F this week which was enough to finish off our late French beans, dahlias and oca.
The French beans, Safari had just about come to the end of their cropping but we’ve been pleased with the results from sowing them to follow on from early potatoes. The remains can now be cleared away to the compost heap and in an ideal world the bed dug over ready for spring crop. That’s not going to happen because the ground is far too soggy.
Only a week ago Sue was cutting dahlia flowers for home but this week’s frost has turned all the stems black and like the French beans they can be consigned to the compost heap.
The tubers will need to be lifted and stored in a frost free location over winter. Last year they were stored in potato sacks alongside our potatoes in the garage. The tubers will need to be cleaned and dried before going into the sacks.
I suppose we were anticipating the demise of the beans and dahlias but the frosting of the oca plants was a surprise. From reading up about growing this vegetable it seems that oca produces tubers very late in the season and needs leaving in the ground through November for the tubers to swell.
However, if the plants succumb to the first frost they are not going to be very successful on our allotment. Whilst we sometimes get through November and maybe even the early part of December without a frost that’s certainly not guaranteed so ocas have had their chance and failed miserably. We won’t be growing them again.
I’m not sure we have enough tubers for a taster. Don’t be fooled by the large potatoes in the bucket like we were initially. Not only are the tubers tiny they look like a nightmare to prepare for the pot.
Finally, the video below is a look around our plot at the end of October.