Allotment tales: Autumn makes changes to your gardening routine

Commenting on the weather is a national characteristic. But on the allotment, keeping an eye on the forecasts during autumn is very important. My American friend Jane, who has a plot on our allotments, recently posted a wistful reflection on Facebook: "harvest is coming in and so is winter". She comes from Michigan where the change from autumn to winter is much more dramatic than here.

In Scotland, summer drifts into autumn. Evening gardening becomes a thing of the past as the nights draw in. Moving through September, the warm days of summer give way to beautiful russet colours. My seasonal milestone is the first frost.

Some of the summer crops continue well into autumn. I usually manage to keep on picking runner beans until the equinoctial gales blow down their wigwam supports. Growing successful sweetcorn is a bit of a lottery but when it does well and you cook it within minutes of picking, the flavour takes some beating. Lingering green tomatoes will get turned into pickle.

The main crops of strawberries and raspberries have finished.

Strawberry beds have been tidied up and the bird netting has been relocated over the kale and broccoli. Autumn raspberries are a trouble-free late season bonus. I'm not sure the taste of cultivated brambles is as good as those gathered in the wild but they're very welcome mixed with some windfall apples for a crumble.

My husband keeps an eye on threatening storms in case he has to hurriedly pick the quinces before they get blown off. He turns them into delicious preserves. This much underrated small tree performs well in Scotland and what the fruit lacks in size by comparison with those imported from Spain, it more than makes up for in flavour.

This is the first year I have had success with pumpkins and squashes so I have been taking advice as to when to harvest them. They look huge to me, but I'm told that they might have been even bigger if I had fed them with beer. Perceived wisdom is that I must keep a watchful eye out for slug damage and leave them as long as possible. On no account must they get frosted.

And if the days have a feel of what Keats called "temperate sharpness" I can warm up with energetic compost spreading on recently vacated patches.

• This article first appeared in The Scotsman, Saturday September 11, 2010