Tidying plot for winter

[Dorothy rouse]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

Plot overgrown with weeds! Pulled loads out today, found my cabbages again! replaced Environmesh and netting, but wonder if this is still necessary? Surely butterflies gone now?

Also had good rhubarb this year, still loads, should I just leave it now? Will it die back? Or should I 'do', anything to it?

Haven't even started digging up maincrop pots yet, will they be ok? Until the grounds becomes frozen?

Thanks

[Greenleaves]

Hi Dotty

cant help with spuds as I have stopped growing maincrop. I keep my brasicas covered all year because pigeons do just as much damage as the cabbage whites, more so when food is hard to find.

I allow my rhubarb to die back, my thought process is the roots are recharging for next year

[Jungle Jane]

The other day I noticed green insects that could be whitefly larvae on my rocket leaves,so there's still little pests about.

[WendyC]

I would lift spuds because of keel slugs. Depends whether you are bothered by them. As for brassicas, I didn't see any cabbage whites up on the plot this afternoon, and it was warm and sunny. However there were plenty of pigeons. I intend to change the enviromesh on my PSB with the netting from the roof of my fruit cage.
I thought rhubarb shouldn't be pulled after the end of June to allow it to bulk up for next year. Mine is dying back quite quickly now, except for Livingstone, so I am just removing yellowing leaves as and when.

[Dorothy rouse]

Thanks for that, yes we do have lots of pigeons and magpies, so I'll just leave it in place, it's such a pain to get it back on once I've taken it off!

My rhubarb seems to be still growing, and is very large! I'll just leave it.

I'll have a little look at the potatoes, see what's happening, I was intending to lift as needed, big job to dig them all up.

[vixylix]

I asked the same question about cabbage whites - and it appears that they can keep laying eggs until mid-november! So combined with that and the pigeons definitely worth keeping the netting on

[1Bee]

We've certainly still got the whites on our plot, in spite of an overnight temp of 2C recently. I'm not netted, and am still picking off the ruddy caterpillars. We don't seem to have a pigeon problem here.

Next year there will be nets....

[Tripmeup]

Thanks for that, yes we do have lots of pigeons and magpies, so I'll just leave it in place, it's such a pain to get it back on once I've taken it off!

My rhubarb seems to be still growing, and is very large! I'll just leave it.

I'll have a little look at the potatoes, see what's happening, I was intending to lift as needed, big job to dig them all up.

Dorothy,

If you have loads of potatoes in the ground and it is a big job to dig /store them all, then I would argue that you can/should leave them where they are..And then, as you say, dig them when you need them.. I have in the past dug main crop spuds up in December...
Ok, you might get some with slug damage, but they are not many in my case and it is a perfect storage place for them until you need them....

[PBline]

Bonjour I agree with previous answers.
Brassica nibbled by pigeons to the core, except when mingled with other plants. Hardly any damage done by 'bugs'. Potatoes left under soil : some eaten, but why not help any animal in winter?! Rhubarb disappears (I put a colored stick in place) and reappears. I forgot one behind a pear tree and it grew gigantic,with a meter high 'grape' of white flowers on top of a long main red stem.Superb!
best of luck and courage to trim and clean... @+ PBline

[Twinsane]

I thought rhubarb shouldn't be pulled after the end of June to allow it to bulk up for next year. Mine is dying back quite quickly now, except for Livingstone, so I am just removing yellowing leaves as and when.

I stop picking rhubarb around the end of June to let it conserve energy for the next year's crop. I've just checked on RHS and it says July/August so we can harvest it a bit longer