The horrible little allium leaf miner flies are still active through November, so it is a good idea to protect crops like leeks and autumn planted garlic and onions with fine mesh, as recommended by the RHS.

Community Gardening in North-West Leeds
Cover leeks, onions, garlic through November.
The horrible little allium leaf miner flies are still active through November, so it is a good idea to protect crops like leeks and autumn planted garlic and onions with fine mesh, as recommended by the RHS.
Between Nov. and early March in UK.
Winter pruning of apples and pears is best done while the trees are dormant, usually between November and early March in the UK. Here are three useful articles from the RHS that explain what to do for different types of pruning:
Restricted forms like cordons and espaliers are managed by summer pruning.
When and how to do it.
There is a very useful article about summer pruning for apples and pears on the RHS website – good advice about when and how to it.
Tips for showing veg and fruit.
Our member Peter Blakey has put together some useful tips for showing your produce in our annual allotment show.
Show judging is usually done according to the RHS Horticultural Show Handbook, which you can buy online. At Hollin Lane we have our own rules which follow the RHS ones fairly closely.
Peter has picked out the advice given by the RHS for some of the most popular vegetables in our previous shows, and included some photos of his exhibits in a recent show organised by the RHS.
Class | Tips |
---|---|
French Beans | Straight, fresh pods with stalks, even length, good colour, no outward sign of seeds. |
Runner Beans | Long, uniform, straight, good colour, with Stalks, no outward sign of seeds. |
Globe Beetroot | 60-75 mm in diameter, taproot in place, foliage trimmed to about 75mm. |
Cabbage | Fresh solid heads, 50mm of stalk. |
Carrots | Fresh, no sign of side roots, foliage trimmed to about 75mm. |
Cauliflower | Heads fresh and solid 50mm of stalk. |
Courgettes | About 150mm long 35mm diameter. |
Leeks | Clean, firm, long barrel. |
Marrows | Fresh, less than 350mm long, tender. |
Onions - over 250 grams | Large, well ripened, thin necks, intact root plates. |
Onions - under 250 grams | Firm, thin necked, blemish free bulbs. |
Parsnips | Long, free from side shoots, taproot intact. |
Peas | Large, long, with stalks, well filled with tender peas. |
Potatoes | About 175-225g, few eyes, clear-skinned. |
Squash | Young, tender, well matched. |
Sweet Corn | Fresh, well set including the tips, straight rows |
Tomatoes (medium) | About 60mm diameter, ripe but firm, calyces attached. |
Tomatoes (small) | Less than 35mm diameter, calyces attached. |
Here are some photos of Peter’s exhibits.
Simple way to keep root crops fresh and safe through the winter.
How can you keep root crops like carrots and beetroot fresh and crisp until the middle of winter? A friend from Ash Road Allotments told me how: a mini root cellar. It is just a large flower pot sunk into the ground in a sheltered place, maybe a greenhouse. You layer dry sieved leaf mould or spent potting compost with roots. This protects them from frost or drying out.
Dig them out when you need them and just clean them off a bit. They are ready to use.
Joe Foster
When are they ready to pick?
I find myself giving my beans a gentle squeeze to judge if they are ready to pick. This can be especially useful when there are lots of leaves in the way so that you can’t see the beans clearly.
Joe Foster
Some professional advice
Allium leaf miners are the larva(maggots) of a little fly that lays its eggs on the leaves of our alliums (onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, etc). The larvae hatch out and tunnel down, eating and growing as they go, then pupate in the bulb area. Their damage causes the plants to become distorted, and opens them up to fungal disease. There are some good pictures to help identify them on the Allotments & Gardens web site.
The RHS have some useful advice about how to cope, as does Garden Organic (members only, unfortunately). There is no cure – only prevention, which means destroying infected plants to kill the larvae and pupae, and keeping the flies from laying their eggs on our crops by covering them with nets. The flies are quite small, and the RHS advise using very fine mesh (0.8mm) netting, as the standard “fine” mesh (1.3mm) is not reliable.
The adult flies are active in spring (March to June) and again in the autumn (September to November), which is when you need to cover your crops. These dates are a bit uncertain, as the pest is new here and we are still learning about it.
I struggle to find things that work on my plot, but French beans Borlotti beans are my favourite…
I noticed about that squirrels (probably) were starting to eat my ripening sweetcorn …