Life on The Weald - November 2025

and something a bit fishy!

Saturday 1 November

We have booked the ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe for later in the month to go to the Annual Festival of Herrings and Scallops, but we noticed that the Newhaven Ferry was celebrating its 200th anniversary with an exhibition at the Newhaven Port, which we decided to visit.

1 November - poster at the Newhaven Museum

Apparently the growth of the ferry business resulted from the arrival of the railway, also celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. That was before the days of mass tourism; the ferry service was mainly freight, and the passengers were the elite upper classes but in the 19th century the fastest route from London to Paris was via Brighton and Newhaven.

Sunday 2 November

At the allotment there had been a welcome delivery of woodchip.

2 November - woodchip

After collecting some woodchip, I lifted a few leeks to see how they were doing and was pleased that there appeared to be no sign of the dreaded Allium leaf miner.

2 November - Leeks

I lifted the fleece from the broad beans and sowed some more to fill the gaps. I was also able to lift a large beetroot. The Brussels sprouts were looking good but I was worried they were rather early and might "blow" (ie open) before Christmas.

2 November - sprouts

Monday 3 November

I had to be on site today, in my new role as Chair of the allotment association, to meet a plumber to deal with a blockage in our accessible toilet. Oh the joy of high office! I did use the opportunity to collect some more woodchip but had no time to do anything with it.

Tuesday 4 November

I did some handweeding near the recently planted purple sprouting broccoli and planted another row, which I then covered with a new cloche. The woodchip came in handy for making a path between the rows and between the broccoli and the sprouts and between the broccoli and the chard.

4 November - newly planted broccoli

4 November - cloches in place

Wednesday 5 November

Lots of leaves in the garden - but not for stuffing the Guy - for mulching my dahlias and building the raised bed along the garden fence. We also took the opportunity of relocating some of the planters and statues.

5 November - its not a desecrated graveyard!
Re-organising the garden - a work in progress

Saturday 8 November

I had collected lots more leaves from the front garden and used these to mulch the rhubarb on the plot, leaving the crowns clear, to prevent damp rot, and placing flowerpots over them to force the rhubarb. Normally I would do this in January or February but the crowns were beginning to sprout already, so this will not only force the rhubarb but protect the crowns from frost.

8 November - mulching the rhubarb

As it was a fine day, I spent some time on the plot making use of the recently acquired woodchip. I made a start on renewing the central path, speading the woodchip on a layer of cardboard, hopefully suppressing the weeds.

8 November - renewing the path

I also put a layer of woodchip between the bed where the leeks are growing and the area where borlotti beans had grown this year - I had left the bean frame in situ.

8 November - path between the leeks and beans

I made a start on the area where the tromboncinos and cucumbers had grown but with a stiff back decided to call it a day

8 November - weeding left for another day!

Tuesday 11 November

Monday had seen torrential rain but Tuesday was fine. The ground was very wet, but that made it easier to pull out the weeds, so I finally tackled the overgrown tromboncino and cucumber patches. In doing so I discovered a rather large cucumber that I had missed!

11 November - the overgrown cucumber frame

11 November - cucumber area partially cleared

We then tidied the area around the bean frame, and tromboncino and cucumber patches and laid wood chip around the edges and mulched the growing areas with autumn leaves. There was a good supply of spinach and chard for picking.

11 November - woodchip around the bean frame

At home, I potted up the Tayberry, Asian Medlar and Chinese Mahogany plants that I had bought at the RHS Wisley Gardens. I had a Tayberry on my previous allotment which I had been very pleased with, so I thought I should try one at The Weald. I decided to keep it in a pot for its first year before deciding where its permanent home should be. I was introduced to the Asian or Japanese Medlar in Spain and gave a description in my blog November 2018. Having seen a specimen at Wisley, I decided to try to grow one in the UK. I cannot recall why I bought the Chinese Mahogany (toona sinensis) as it can grow to over 25 metres (82 feet) tall with a trunk up to 70cms (thats over 2 feet) in diameter! It did look rather attractive and I assume I was told it's size could be controlled in a container - we shall see!

Wednesday 12 November

I was on site most of the day, but not getting much done as I had to be there for the electricians who were testing the wiring and sockets for our allotment association building to provide an Electrical Condition Report.

Friday 14 - Sunday 16 November

Another weekend lost for gardening as it was the Annual Festival of Herrings and Scallops in Dieppe.

Poster for the Herrings and scallops Festival

As we live only 12 miles from Newhaven its only a 13 mile drive from home to the centre of Dieppe (with a 4 hour ferry ride across the channel). We set off in the morning, with lunch on board and plenty of time for a bit of shopping before dinner.

We had booked a table at The Turbot, which Rick Stein had described as one of his favourite restaurants - we were not disappointed.

14 December - pre-dinner Dieppe sky from our B&b

14 November at Le Turbot - my Scallops with girolles

14 November - Sylvi's medley of seabass, turbot and monkfish
with the obligatory scallop

Saturday was the actual festival and a day to feast on the herrings and scallops available on dozens of street stalls along the dockside - and, of course, the occasional oyster and glass of champagne.

15 November - herrings

15 November - herrings and scallops

15 November - Cheers!

Monday 17 November

I cleared weeds around the original Hugel bed, where onions are growing, and put down a layer of cardboard covered with woodchip around the bed.

17 November - woodchip around the onion bed

I continued to clear around the cucumber frame putting a mulch of leaves on the growing area and woodchip around the periphery.

We seem to have had a visitor who left paw prints on the fleece cloche!

17 November - mystery paw prints

We think it was probably a hedgehog.

Thursday 20 November

I harvested the remaining squashes.

20 November - the last of the squashes

A neighbour very kindly gave me a couple of her sweet potatoes and I lifted my own Yacón, (Peruvian ground apple) which had been growing in a pot.

20 November - Yacón (L) & sweet potato (R)

I found this article in The Guardian of interest.

Wednesday 26 November

Having picked the squashes, we cleared most of the weeds from the 3 sisters bed. We chopped up the sweetcorn stems and those from the Jerusalem artichokes and spread them on the soil which we then covered with cardboard and then a pile of leaves, ready to add manure and compost at a later date.

26 November - 3 sisters bed

There were windfall apples everywhere. It had been an amazing year for all fruit.

26 November - windfalls

The garlic was just beginning to sprout...

26 November - first signs of garlic

...and the recently sown broad beans were also beginning to show.

26 November - broad beans

27 November

Sylvi cleared some of the lower trays from the wormeries. The contents were not fully composted but rich in worms, so we added some of this to the leaves on the 3 sisters bed to let nature do its work over the winter.

27 November - Sylvi's worms

Saturday 29 November

Arrival of our first Christmas card and the first Christmas flowering cactus (Schlumbergera) to flower!

29 November - Schlumbergera & first Christmas card

Sunday 30 November

We harvested some of the beetroots which have been excellent this year, both the traditional red Boltardy and the red, yellow and white varieties.

30 November - beetroot

We also lifted some leeks. Sadly my earlier optimism had been misplaced as there was evidence of allium leaf miner, although the damage did not appear to be as extensive as previous years. I will not be putting the waste from the leeks in the compost as the larvae are likely to survive, so surplus leaves will go to the council waste centre. Commercial and municipal bulk composting will reach sufficiently high temperature to kill off any larvae and other pests.

30 November - leeks

We also picked a few of the lower sprouts to accompany the leeks and roasted beetroot for our last Sunday dinner before winter.

John Austin

Hove, November 2025

Mon 17 cleared round Hugel 1 and old cucumber frame

19 November

It was time to plant the tulips at home. I reorganised the troughs in the back garden and planted 10 Dow Jones (red and yellow) and 10 Fireworks (yellow and red)

in two troughs. In the front garden, I changed the soil in the troughs and removed the pelargoniums which were still flowering. In one trough I planted 10 Rasta Parrot tulips (red, orange and yellow) and 10 mixed crocus and then replanted 2 pelargoniums and 2 cyclamen. In a second trough I planted 10 Silver Parrot tulips (pink and silver) and 10 mixed crocus and replanted a cyclamen. I an thurd trough I planted 10 Helmar tulips (red and yellow). In the first stone trough I planted 5 Lemon Beauty (white with yellow) tulips and 5 One Direction (white with red). In the second stone trough I planted 10 Fabio tulips (red with yellow fringe). In a square pot I planted 5 Amber glow and in the reamining plastic troughs planted 10 Amazing Parrot (pink and orange) and 10 Brisbane (orange and yellow)

Thurs 20 cleared weeds from 3 sisters bed and removed sweetcorn - harvested squashes - S chop stems of sweetcorn and artichokes. Leaves and wood chip cucumber frame.

21 November