Gardens: ‘Good plotholders take holidays in winter’

The car was packed to go off on holiday but I still had to make one urgent last call at the allotment. Leaving the plot for a week at the height of harvest can be quite a wrench.

Last week I quickly picked all the sweet peas and gave them to a neighbour lest the plants stopped flowering and set seed in my absence. Fortunately, self-catering accommodation meant that I could take some home-grown produce with me. All the courgettes went into a bag in case they turned into marrows before my return. I also picked a bunch of French beans, a cauliflower and a few onions.

Peter Wright, an allotmenteer on Edinburgh’s Lady Road site, told me that good plotholders take their holidays in winter. I’m not sure I’d go so far as that, but I do try to ask friends and family to keep up with the harvesting when I am away, after making quite sure that they know which plot is mine. I see too many good crops going to waste on some allotments while their owners are on holiday, which seems such a shame.

Returning home, I hurry down to see what has been happening on the plot. I left it in what seemed like the height of summer and in just a week it seems to have taken on all the signs of autumn. Pumpkins and squashes which had been hardly visible have grown to a respectable size. Sweetcorn tassels have turned brown, which says they are ready to eat. My little plum tree is laden with ripe fruit and the autumn fruiting raspberries are blemish-free and delicious – a late-season delight. On the debit side, however, the lettuces have all gone to seed and caterpillars are chomping through the young purple-sprouting broccoli plants.

At this time of year I try to remember to scribble down what was good and what I won’t bother with again. Cherry tomatoes the size of raisins were a waste of space. Red lettuces seemed less tasty to slugs than more traditional green ones and I’ll grow them again. If possible, I’ll save seeds from my prolific French beans to sow next year. Shortly, catalogues will be ready for our allotment seed scheme and it’s useful to have some reminders of what to order up for next year. I spotted some very decorative purple-flowered broad beans on a neighbour’s plot which I’ll try to track down.