Whitehall Lane Allotment Association

01/09/2025

https://thenas.org.uk/September-Gardening-Checklist

Stay on top of your September allotment tasks with our checklist of sowing, harvesting, and seasonal care for a thriving plot. | National Allotment Society

09/08/2025

Plot holders beware, this tree fell across a plot earlier this week. The Council have been contacted as was the owner of the tree. Fortunately no one was hurt.

13/07/2024

FYI

12/12/2023

Where do all the butterflies on your allotment go in winter?
Did you know - while the majority of the UK’s butterflies will spend the colder months as caterpillars or chrysalises, a few species have superpowers to survive the cold months🦋

Take a look at this Butterfly Conservation Butterfly Conservation article for more:
https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/winging-it-through-the-winter
@

07/12/2023

05/10/2023

A month of chilly mornings and spooky nights 🍂 Make the most of daylight before the clocks go back!

Here are a few allotment jobs for October:

Vegetables 🥕
• Check on any tomatoes that you have picked and stored to ripen.
• Lift early leeks now as they are less hardy than the later cultivars.
• Take maincrop potatoes out ground before the end of the month.
• Harvest the last of the peas and runner bean crop for this year, and keep harvesting chard, spinach, carrots, celeriac, lettuce and the Oriental vegetables.
• Lift and store any Florence fennel bulbs before they are damaged by frost.
• Sow winter lettuce and a couple of short rows of winter hardy peas and broad beans towards the end of the month to provide you with an early crop next spring.
• Plant out spring cabbage and overwintering types of onion and garlic. It is also a good time to plant rhubarb crowns.

Fruit 🍏
• Continue to harvest apples and pears as they ripen.
• Any late grapes should have any leaves that cover the ripening fruit removed to allow in as much light as possible.
• It’s the last window for planting new strawberry beds, either from new plants or from runners rooted in the summer.
• Lift a root of rhubarb for early forcing; allow the root to sit on the soil and be subjected to a few good frosts. The crown will then be much better for forcing, and some sticks may be ready at around Christmas.

Greenhouse 🍅
• To protect tender plants, insulate your greenhouse using horticultural fleece or plastic bubble sheeting; newspaper is an excellent substitute if you lay several layers over your most precious plants whenever a frost is forecast.
• It is also a good idea to wrap their pots in bubble wrap to insulate their roots.

Flowers 🌸
• Remove any pot saucers and raise pots up onto feet to prevent waterlogging over winter.
• Empty spent summer pots and hanging baskets and compost the contents.

04/10/2023

👇👇

08/09/2023

Many think of September as the start of the new gardening year 🍂
It's time to take stock of the year's successes and failures - and if you're starting from scratch, it's a great time to prepare the ground for your dream allotment. Here's some September tips:

Vegetables 🥕
• Onions and potatoes need to be got out of the soil before the cold, damp days of autumn arrive.
• Onions must be kept in the light and potatoes need to be stored in the dark to prevent them from turning green, but both have to be stored somewhere that will keep the frost out.
• Cut courgettes and marrows regularly because they will be finished by the end of the month, as will outdoor tomatoes. Remove any green tomatoes and place them in a drawer or shoebox to ripen.
• Plant out earlier sown spring cabbage and protect with netting or fleece.

Fruit tips 🍐
• Harvest apples and pears as they become ready and pick the late season strawberries and raspberries to keep them producing fruit. They will keep cropping right up until the first frost.
• Complete the summer pruning of soft fruit bushes, apple and pear trees. Continue with their training and tying in.

Greenhouse 🍅
• Cooler days mean it is the perfect time to sow the seed of the Oriental vegetables. They will germinate quickly and are hardy enough to withstand the cold of winter. and will provide a steady supply of fresh leaves well into the Spring of next year
• Make a sowing of hardy winter lettuce and spinach. There is still time to sow an early variety of turnip to be able to use the tops as greens.

Flowers 🌸
• Leave any sunflower seedheads in place for birds to feed on.
• Fill any gaps with late-flowering perennials, such as sedums, to provide nectar for pollinating insects into autumn.

23/08/2023

Did you know - just one Asian hornet can hunt down 30-50 honey bees a day 🤯

This destructive breed of hornet could decimate our pollinators, including our bumble bees, if it becomes established in this country🐝

Numbers are rising rapidly this summer and The British Beekeepers Association are asking allotment holders to download the ‘Asian Hornet Watch’ app - to identify and report sightings.

Take a look at their website for more information: https://www.bbka.org.uk/Listing/Category/asian-hornet-vespa-velutina

09/08/2023

WHAT IS 🍅TOMATO TOPPING?

🌿As the growing season draws closer to fall, tomato plants are often still loaded with fruit.
🌿To speed ripening late in the season for Indeterminate tomatoes (5-6’ tall) remove the growing tips of each stem in early August. This is called “topping.”
🌿This type of pruning causes the plant to stop flowering and setting new fruit, and instead directs all sugars to the remaining fruit.
🌿This way, the fruit will ripen faster and it becomes more likely that the green tomatoes you pick before frost will actually ripen when you bring them indoors.