Column: Late summer is a fabulous time for harvesting fruit and veg says Derbyshire allotment holder

We are currently enjoying basketfuls of salad, carrots and courgettes. The tomatoes are green and developed, and we hope they'll receive enough sun to ripen before the end of the season.

Leeks are growing well, and if we manage to avoid the allium leaf miner, we will continue to harvest them well into the winter. We also have a decent crop of runner beans and onions to harvest.

If you have managed to grab some time away on holiday or have not been able to get to your plot or growing space for a while, returning at this time of year can come as a shock to the system.

On our return recently, the weeds had grown equally as well as the vegetables, and it was a challenge to know where to start.

My top tips for returning to an allotment after a break would be:

Don't panic by waist-high weeds and a plot that resembles a jungle. The whole look of the space can be changed with a few hours of hard work. Head to the greenhouse and tunnel first and rescue anything that requires water and feed as a priority. Harvest a basket of veg' especially anything that will soon be past its best (for example, not leaving courgettes to develop into marrows). Take this home to eat first. My next step is to clip back any plants that are growing in the way. For us, this entails harvesting the rhubarb that extends over the path when left unattended and cutting back the blackberry bramble, which tries to take over the pathway at the lower end of the plot. After clearing a safe way of passage, I set about mowing and strimming where I can. This will include our pathways, wildlife areas, and if I can manage to squeeze the strimmer between the veg, I'll do that too! The cut weeds and grass clippings are then raked up and piled onto the compost heap. Subsequent visits are then spent working on weeding and hoeing individual beds.

It's incredible what trimming the pathways and tidying the edges can do to the look of the plot. After our initial dismay at the state of the allotment after our time away, I left the same day feeling that we were back on track.

As the long summer evenings enjoying the plot are slowly shortening, we will be turning our attention to ensuring harvests for the coming months. I have recently sowed more spinach and mixed salad leaves and will grow a fresh lettuce batch in the tunnel. I'm also going to try to grow some potatoes for Christmas dinner in a large tub.

There are many helpful guides as to what to grow this time of year; we often browse them and choose the fruit and veg that we enjoy the most to put our time and effort into.

Enjoy the last summer months, and feel free to get in touch with your tips and successes!

Sarah.

diggingtheearth.org.uk

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@sarahltaffe