After an unintentional week off, I was back for some gentle allotmenting. My back is still not fabulous and it’s really hard to work out what to do to help it (I can’t stop carrying wheelchairs downstairs or sleeping on the floor three nights of the week – although Ma has offered that I can sleep with her!)

If heavy duty weeding was out, I had some ranunculus corms to plant, I wanted to clear the tomato beds and put the dahlias to bed for the winter. I’m happy to report that I did manage that before it got dark!

So first the poor dying tomatoes, time to cut them down and weed the beds, which I did and I was really surprised by how good the soil was looking after some rain, over the summer it felt like all the soil was turning into desert, I also had a little weed of the paths and planting outside those beds, and considered what I was going to do with them over winter.

Have I mentioned that I’m on a mission to make the plot more manageable with my new responsibilities? Yes, I know I have and I’m probably not going to stop banging on about it either! To that end I’ve put more perennials in and have planned more flowers because they don’t need as much work in either growing or harvesting. I’ve got some tulips that need a home and I had about 100 giant ranunculus asiaticus corms to plant. My initial plan was to plant them in the empty bed next to the strawberries, the one I weeded the cinque foil out of the last time I was at the plot. You may remember that way back in spring, I’d planted some perennial leeks in that bed and they had promptly died in the summer.

My plan was to plant the rannuculus there. However, the leeks that I thought were dead, weren’t and have started to come up again. So I’m sticking with the leek plan and planting some more in that bed. And also it seemed mean to pull up all the nasturtiums that are trying to take over that bed. So the perennial leek seeds I have will go in there next week and we’ll see if they survive!

So I needed a new plan, but first dahlias…

I’ve loved having the dahlias this year, I bought them on a whim with no idea what I was doing and it’s a miracle that they flowered at all. I bought some smaller plants which have been overshadowed somewhat by the larger Cafe au Lait Dahlias, next autumn I’ll probably take the smaller ones out and put them elsewhere so they have some room. While part of me wants to buy all the dahlias now, I need to practice restraint, and the only other ones on the list for next spring are some Wine Eyed Jill tubers, which I did have in 2023 but they didn’t survive. I cut down the plants, added a bag of compost to the bed and then a layer of strulch which I watered to lock. Fingers crossed they will survive the winter.

Then the rannuculus, I decided to plant up one of the old tomato beds and did so as it got a lot darker, I had a fair few left over which I think I’ll plant in pots. The bed got the same compost and strulch treatment as the dahlias!

That was it, it was nearly 5pm and fully dark. I’m busy next Sunday so I have this Friday off for a plot day. The four main things I want to do are:

• Sort out the blueberries, weed them, top up with fresh compost and strulch
• Weed the gaps between the patio slabs on the fruit cage.
• Cut back the raspberries
• Plant the onion and shallot sets and the garlic
• Plant out the rest of the brassicas

There is also the outside possibility that I’ll have some more trees to settle in and there is always weeding to do!