Guy Barter

Ridiculously fair weather for November. St Gabrials Chapel & Lyme bay, West Dorset, yesterday. Start Point is visible 60 miles away I think, south of Torquay.

I certainly chose the wrong year not to grow sweet potatoes

Gazing at Lewisden Hill, highest point in Dorsetshire, from Pilsdon Pen, second highest. I feel bad for Bulbarrow & Melbury beacon, much better hills but significantly lower. Seems wrong somehow but I am biased in favour of my native N Dorset.

Red cabbage 'Lodero' - clubroot resistant & as good as any I have grown, stores well. I find red cabbage difficult. They grow slowly. Allowing extra space helps, more fertiliser doesn't. They might bulk a bit more if weather remains mild. #allotment

Like the many Italian plotholders I grow much escarole for autumn salads. Any unused flowers next summer attracting multitudes of pollinators. Fewer this year - too much watering! #allotment

Eco-asparagus, with many teasils, a great bird & pollinator plant & appreciated by in-house flower arranger. Not in a hurry to clear asparagus, let in die back fully. No disease present and beetle will appear whatever I do. #allotment

Red Verona chicory, July sown, makes especially good autumn salad, mild bitterness and pretty. Saw some at Chelsea showm by shegrowsveg. Usually grow escarole like the many Italian plotholders which is also good. #allotment

Often celery/celeriac defoliated in autumn by leaf miner but very late and few this year. They don't make much difference to yield at this late season, but so few are easy to squidge to reduce numbers for 2027. #allotment

Cabbages are toughies, best crop this year. Savoy's usually the most difficult but best this year. Clubroot resistant 'Cordesa' April sown, late May planted in shallow trench filled with water from time to time. No whitefly unusually #allotment

Digging holes to check rooting where plants unreasonably constrained by dry summer. Top 30ins in great shape full of roots but lacking worms (check pH). Below that soil damp but not yet soft enough to dig deeper. Now what did I do with my pickaxe? #allotment

Cyclamen mirabilis in Wisley alpine house - foliage prettier than the flowers?

Autumn flowering snowdrops - it is all wrong? #wisley

Seldom dig, but turning in this mighty weed crop is the quickest way to get ready to plant onion sets. Might as well ridge too to ensure good drainage. Weedfree until rains returned but no doubt rich in nutrients after dry summer. #allotment

Not sure if this is very bad horticulture, or very good. Sowing broad beans into mypex left in place where overwintered onions were pulled in July weeding as I go. No soil disturbance just the trowel. #allotment

Unwanted insects often surge in autumn, usually but not always when the crop is almost over as on these purple beans. Generally they decline to very low levels over winter but can get numerous in spring before ladybirds etc active. #allotment

How much autumn colour has survived the storms? Most I would hope as abscission is not yet well advanced. Liriodendron at Wisley.

And cauliflowers are back, bare root July transplants have grown remarkably with the rain, just in time as the summer crops go over. #allotment