[sunshineband]

I cleared the greenhouse yesterday and we've just spent the whole morning clearing the back garden, and putting away the geraniums and the fuschias!

Our greenhouse is now clear, and I had intended to wash down the inside today prior to putting up the bubble plastic and then bringing same plants as you in, but Mr Sunny wanted to lay membrane on the paths on the new plot as it wasn't windy today, and get on with carting woodchip to cover it.

Managed to weed the brassica beds on #146, and will tackle the big one on #145 tomorrow in between wood chipping. The best laid plans, as the greenhouse is still unwashed ......

[greenjay]

any ground I have cleared I have laid down cardboard and covered with farm yard manure. still got quite a lot to harvest. I find it saves so much work in the spring.

[Hampshire Hog]

Taking it slowly at present. Cleared out a bed of French beans yesterday and filled with garlic. Started cutting back asparagus but reluctant to cut down all the green ferns before they turn brown. Lots more to do but still have crops in the ground.

Cheers HH

[Flowertot]

I started preparing for winter yesterday and managed to clear and dig over a couple of beds. Still so much to do...

[Stewarty]

I've done quite a lot here in Oxford  -  green manure mix of rye grass and vetch sown over the early potato and squash areas, which amounts to about 10 poles out of the 25 poles not devoted to fruit. My large area of dahlias and chrysanthemums still bearing profusely  -  the only way I can deal with all the blooms once the house is full ('Makes the place look like an undertaker's', says my wife) is to put them on a table in the lane with a sign inviting passers-by to buy 3 for £1, which has brought in £135 so far this year, under the category 'incidental surplus crops', so that's next years plot rent paid for!

Runner beans still giving edible pods - in mid-October; this year I'm going to try treating them as perennials, leaving them in the ground and mulching with horse poo. I'll cut off all the dried climbing stalks, save all the dried pods, and, I hope save myself the job of re-building the 2 sets of bean frames for next year, which I always find tedious. iIhope the frames survive winter gales  - they're a mixture of old and new bamboo poles, mixed with hazel sticks from our site coppice, reinforced with lots of triangulation, so I'm optimistic that I won't have to do too much patching next summer...
I still have 2 short rows of maincrop spuds in the ground, which I hope to dig this weekend. Then the plan is to build 2 more large raised beds out of pallets sunk into the ground, lined with mypex, filled with lasagne layers of newspaper, horse poo, soil, my own compost, mushroom compost, topped off with cheao B&Q baled multi-purpose seed compost. It's quite a lot of work, but the one I did last winter, with an internal area of 4 feet by 12 feet, has been a great success, and saved my old back and knee joints during this summer  -  my crops which need low level hand weeding have been suffering for a few years because it's been so difficult for me to get down to ground level, and even more difficult to get up!
Last winter I also constructed a 4 ft high table, 4t wide by 12 ft long, out of palettes and old timber planks, that will hold 8 balers' trays, which I use for growing salads, beetroot, dwarf beans etc at chest height. Very pleased how that has also saved the old back, and given crops that were getting lost among the weeds last year. But I'll need to refresh the composts etc in the trays over winter...

[Growster...]

we've just spent the whole morning clearing the back garden, and putting away the geraniums and the fuschias!

Is there a frost forecast where you are? I normally leave mine out until it's forecast to be frosty

It has been chilly, but we like to spend a little time giving them some TLC before they get packed off for their winter hols..;0)

They also look a bit of a mess outside about now!

[chillimummy]

Another bed dug over today which feels like am getting closer to being ready for autumn. 
Have bed to dig over where green and broad beans were and then need to plant red onion sets and garlic.
Still things growing, cabbages, turnip, sprouts, butternut squash, last of broccoli and fennel.
Dug up and moved strawberries as bed was really overgrown and dug up and gave away most of my blackcurrant bushes as they were really overgrown too. 
Has made big difference as looked awful.
So think a few more visits and I will be ready for autumn 

[al78]

I was initially behind on tidying up (due to not being able to do work on the plot for three consecutive Saturdays), but have almost caught up now. Once the French beans had finished producing I took down the frames and was then able to do weeding and clearing of those beds, also I have dug up sporadic patches of creeping buttercup, and finally got round to shovelling three piles of weeds that have been laying there all year onto the compost pile. I have bought a cheap dustbin which will fill with rainwater and be used for drowning perennial weed roots. I have got a local source of free horse manure which I can collect periodically from now until Spring. Finally I have been sowing green manure (alfalfa, caliente mustard, field beans and Hungarian grazing rye) over the last month on the cleared beds, which I will leave to do its thing over winter. I still have leeks and brassicas in a couple of beds which will stay there for the next few months.

[AnneB]

Just back from 10 days away in Albania ( very interesting).  Weeds have been rampant in our absence.   Have been weeding beds, lots more to go.  Harvested some of the carrots, more to do and put in store.  Harvested all of the remaining beetroot, courgettes and squash, but still some borlotti and runner beans to go. Taken down climbing french beans.  Tomatoes and peppers still going in polytunnel.

Planted out garlic and red and white overwintering onion sets.

Need to sow broad beans.  Blackberries and autumn raspberries still going.

Need to take down pea supports, prune fruit, chop back the blackberry, clean polytunnel and add manure to empty beds.   

It seems busier than high summer!

[mumofstig]

I managed to lift the last of the potatoes this afternoon and forked over and covered that bed...one down 6 more to go  the soil was easy to work after all the recent rain.

I hope there's some decent weather tomorrow, to carry on with it.

[Christine]

If the soil drys it might just be possible to get on with the digging that needs doing.

But with the new strawberry bed in place, the winter onions in place, the winter garlic in trays till a space is clear and the pear tree just cleared on Sunday a lot of the jobs that need doing are well in hand.

[Tenhens]

Glad to read that I wasn't the last to be digging up potatoes.

Stewarty, your surplus flower selling is brilliant, well impressed.

Lifted and drying onions , cooking some corn on the cob in the steamer as I type, still some left. Managed to do some weeding before it got too wet. Also sown Broad beans and planning to do some onions.

Further digging weather permitting and planning whats going where for next year.

[Hampshire Hog]

A quick visit to plot late PM. Managed to cut down remaining asparagus and took down the runner bean frame.
Pulled up remnants of sweet corn. Piled up to dry ready to burn. Harvested a few radishes. Lots of raspberries need to be picked.

Cheers HH

[Aled]

A bit of dry weather promised this weekend, so plan to give the outside a good tidy up.
Cheers
Aled

[New shoot]

I've got about half the big plot done now and I'm hoping to get some more done this weekend.

The small plot needs a weed, but that may have to wait.  At least the weeds grow slower this time of year