The veg plot is slowing down as the weather chills and the daylight hours shorten. A few beans have been left on the plants to provide seeds but soon the Sunday Gardener will start to prepare the plot for next year.

Tips and Advise for the vegetable plot in October are in the Sunday Gardener's  Calendar but now is the time to start clearing the plot, giving it a good weed and dig in organic matter to improve the soil for next year. It is hard to beat well rotted manure and either dig it in or leave on the surface the weather and worms will help over the winter.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse are slow to ripen now and soon the only way will be to bring them indoors. For an easy foolproof way of ripening tomatoes click here. This works because one year The Sunday Gardener moved house in September andthe tomato plants were in full fruit and it was impossible to transport them in pots. The green fruit was cut on the vine from the plants and laid out in a sunny conservatory on card board as an experiment. Result: over several weeks 85%+ ripened. Now as many as possible are ripened in the green house and the remainder brought indoors to ripen and it works every year.