I’ve been trying to plan ahead this week – I would ideally like to keep filling any spaces when things are removed as I don’t want to go back to a weed-covered allotment next season, and of course to get the most out of all the space.

I realised that I should've been more organised with my planting (my husband would tell you that this is a permanent problem!) as I have spread the things that will last all winter out between the different beds rather than clustering them. But I think that I’ll invest in some more netting and as soon as I have a large enough space will make another netted cage so I have more space for, among other things, the cauliflowers and chard that I’ve got. Any space not filled will be planted with broad beans as green manure.

In truth I have always favoured a rather random approach to planting – I love to see mixed beds where plants intermingle and mix. I much prefer that to a very ordered and neat approach (as if I could ever manage that anyhow!). My garden is a testament to this – a colourful mix of plants and flowers with no order, probably verging on totally out of control but that’s how I like it! It isn’t ever intentional though – I had a very clear plan for my bean frame at the beginning of the season – my climbing French bean pre-accession climbing up the frame with a variety of dwarf bean running next to it. However… the climbing French bean turned out to be a dwarf bean so I had to add another climbing variety that could climb up the frame. And then a self-seeded or maybe overwintered sweet pea and runner bean popped up to also climb up the frame! I’m sure a neat gardener would have removed these but I can’t bear to – so I now have a bed that is a tangle of beans, climbing, dwarf, runner, and sweet peas and I just love it!!!

In other news, we harvested a bumper crop of rhubarb this week. I know that you’re not supposed to harvest it this late in the season but the plant was pretty poor early on and is fantastic now. Also, it was shading one of my cucumber plants (again bad planting!!!) so, I decided to make the most of the delicious rhubarb and we have really been enjoying it. We left plenty so hopefully, the plant won’t be negatively affected.

More about Lucy...
Lucy is part of the fantastic Heritage Seed Library team, working hard to grow and preserve seed varieties that are no longer available so that our members can enjoy growing them at home. Raising two young children, Lucy is keen to grow an array of fruit and vegetables to become more sustainable and to encourage her children to get involved in growing.

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