Calendar • Specific Fruit & Veg • Dictionary • Useful Sites
Calendar of Fruit and veg Jobs
Help is at hand month by month so you can see what you should be doing on your plot. The weather and where you live make a huge difference to what grows, or not, but doing anything is better than nothing.
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A year's worth of work in the Veg Plot...
June
The plot in June is inspiring and full of hope; everything is growing, and you are harvesting as well, so it all seems worthwhile. Every evening I clip some chives, lettuce leaves, rocket, and maybe pull a radish to have an instant zero-food mile salad, and it’s lovely. Later on there’ll be some tomatoes, and hopefully a cucumber to join it, and maybe a baby carrot. The asparagus treat comes to an end this month, but the beautiful ferns that develop promise more for next year. And hopefully I’ll be enjoying a pea and broad bean risotto, if the pigeons have left my patch alone this year. Tender Loving Care is needed for plants in June, and they will grow healthy and strong. You can still have plants under cloches and bottles, and covers in June, but remove them during the day. In the bright sun the plants could actually wilt and leaves get burned. Remember to pop them on again overnight if the plants they are protecting are still new to the outside world. Cloches also protect plants that may get flattened by heavy rain. Plants may look weak and pathetic if they have had a bit of a shock being put outside, but don’t worry, they will pick up. Tomato plants should be well attached to supports, and pick out the shoots that appear between the branches, so that you have one main stem going up, with leaves branching off. If you don’t you’ll have lots of main stems and it’s impossible to stake them, and there will not be enough light getting to the fruit. Next month you can trim off some of the leaves to let light through to the fruit. Water can be a big issue in June. Ideally of course it will rain at night, and be sunny during the day, and your well-prepared soil will hold the moisture. But you can help by putting small amounts of grass mowings around plants, and over potatoes once it has rained. If you are using a watering can filled from water butts, give the plants a good soaking at night, every few days. If it is dry some plants will bolt. So, either water to prevent this, or be prepared to lose some, which should be lifted once they have bolted (producing a flower). The exception is any plant whose flower you like to keep, like onions, or rocket – they make the plot look pretty. Check fruit blossom for any maggots, or moths and remove by hand if you can. If the plants are new, make sure they get plenty of water if there’s been little rain. Weeds go mad in June, either from the rain, or your watering! So keep hoeing them off. Perennial weeds need to be dug out if possible, or at least cut off under the soil if you do not want to disturb nearby crops. They’ll come back, but if you don’t pull them up at least you’ll keep the soil intact. You can put a square of permealay over a weed, and put a rock on top, which will weaken it. Keep staking plants like beans, peas and tomatoes as they grow so that a sudden strong wind does not snap them off. Any plant will welcome being shielded from wind in June. You can put up a makeshift wind shelter by tying fleece between canes, or a sheet of Perspex trapped between canes. It need only be temporary, but it must be secure. Earth up, and firm down brassica plants so they stand rock solid. If they rock about then they tend not to form a heart (cabbage) or the broccoli head, or the cauliflower floret. A full grown brassica plant can be huge, with a thick stalk, so they need a firm solid ground to support them. Potatoes should be earthed up, or at least covered in a thick mulch to prevent any light getting to the tubers. Check rows of seeds like carrots, parsnips, beetroot, spinach, beet, radish, salad onion, rocket that you have sown, and thin them out so that the seedlings can get a bit of air and water. Some of the seedlings you can transplant, others just wash and use in a salad. If you’ve got sporadic patches of seedlings, sow some more seed in the spaces; you’ll have a successional crop, just not in an orderly line! Watch out when thinning carrots and do it at night. The carrot root fly is attracted by the smell, so doing it at night may help, or try and confuse it by rubbing chives nearby as that smell they do not like! If you can, use a mesh cover over your carrots and this will keep the fly away. Interestingly there is no insecticide licensed for domestic control of carrot root fly, so everyone has to be organic when it comes to carrots. To get a good fruit crop you do have to thin. It’s hard, but worth it if you want to go for quality. Fruits that grow next to each other rub, get diseased, go brown and are useless. So for pears, apples, gooseberries, it is worth picking off weaker fruits, leaving two per ‘bunch’ to get all the nutrients, sun, air needed to produce the perfect fruit. In a dry summer the plant will naturally drop a lot of fruit anyway. Cherry and plum trees can be pruned, but be careful of the fruit. Tomatoes like lots of water and an organic feed s they set their flowers (make your own from comfrey or nettles, or buy from HDRA). Bedding plants can safely go out now, but keep checking for slugs until the plants get established. Dead heading of flowers will keep the plants flowering for longer. Container veg tends to be thought of as for those without a garden, or plot. But anyone can use containers, and they have many uses in the veg plot: I put flowers in troughs and move them near veg that need beneficial insects; Hungry plants like courgettes and pumpkins can go in a container, and it makes watering easier; You can get a good crop of potatoes from just a couple of tubers planted in a big pot (yep, sprouted, unused supermarket ones are fine for a container); If slugs get everything in your plot, put some come-again lettuce in a pot and snip as required; Herbs like Basil and Parsley do better in a large pot than open ground in wet areas; Carrots can be grown in a pot if they fail in your open ground. Strawberries and raspberries look after themselves, but do like plenty of water when the fruit is swelling. You are not supposed to harvest from new plants, you are supposed to pick off the flowers so no fruit is formed, to make a stronger plant for future years! Fruit that lies on the ground (strawberry, cucumber, courgette) can get nibbled by slugs, so put some straw or material under the fruit to keep it off the soil. You need to make sure you are sowing some brassicas for next winter, and spring. They do hog the ground for a long time, but you will welcome their presence next year when everything else is empty. Ideally you’ll have a ‘holding bed for the seedlings, so that you can then move to their permanent home later in the summer. If not, keep the seedlings in pots. Pests! It’s hard to know whether to be bothered by pests, or not. On the whole in a ‘healthy’ garden, you will have pests and predators doing their thing. Pests will appear before predators, so just rubbing them off will keep them at bay. Similarly rub off greenfly and black fly, and the ladybirds and hoverflies will move in soon. Mind you, blackfly is so horrible to look at it’s best to snip off really infected areas. With broad beans snip off the growing tip if it’s covered in blackfly and remove from your garden. Young brassica plants get little holes in the leaves made by flea beetle, but it’ll pass. I pick off slugs and snails when I see them, there will be plenty more for frogs and thrushes that I can’t see. Check for infected potatoes, and other pests. You’ll know an infected potato as the foliage will be withered and yellow compared to the others, so dig it out and remove it from your garden.. If you see caterpillars anywhere (brassica, gooseberry) pick them off, and give them to the birds. And it’s the end of rhubarb harvesting once June is over. Just mulch heavily and leave them alone. Also, take cuttings of herbs and pot them up to replace lost plants, or give to friends! Plant this month: (and then water and weed!) In June 2007 I harvested my first courgette and strawberries on 13 June. The peas were nearly ready and the broad bean pods swelling. I stopped cutting asparagus and the runner bean had some lovely red buds waiting to flower. The rocket, chives and lettuce were being picked and eaten daily. The Japanese overwintering onions were pulled on a hot and sunny 10 June. At the plot we harvested some early potatoes on June 10, all clean and small and tasty; and the turnips looked round and pink and could be picked, or left in the ground. In 2008 May had been so dry, and April so wet it was hard for anything to get going. Then June had very cool nights, but rain and warm days. Peas were started, and broad beans at school. Beans went in at school and home, and peas were sown. Courgettes planted out under cover. Salads did well under cloche and were being picked with some asparagus, rocket, chives. Lots of flowers on strawberries. As of 18 June still only salad, radish, rockets, chive could be picked. At the plot first early potatoes were lifted and are huge. Pods on broad beans and peas, and flowers on strawberries. On 14 June 2008 we harvested some huge early potatoes, plus lettuce and chives. And in the plot and at home the first strawberry was picked and eaten on 20 June. The small red gooseberries on the bush planted in January were delicious. In 2009 the veg patch was giving lettuce, rocket and chives and the First Strawberry was picked and eaten on 17 June. There had been virtually no asparagus spears to talk of, so the few that came through were left to hopefully beef up the plants for next year. At the plot the cabbages were magnificent, and the Kale majestic, but now the caterpillars have moved in. The first Swift potatoes were harvested 21 June and were perfect. 2010 was very dry and sunny apart from one week where there was light rain and mist all week. The first strawberry was picked 24 June, but little else apart from salad, and Kale. Beetroot, carrot, turnip, radish seedlings have just about germinated now it’s warmer, but need water. The rocket has bolted! 2011 had such a dry spring that everything got held back, but by June the rocket had gone mad, lettuces, radishes, and spinach was everywhere, and a few tiny carrots were pulled, and a beetroot. We’ll never know if the brassicas would have been nice as the rabbit chopped them off. The strawberries were huge and sweet, and ripened at the same time, but were about 3 weeks earlier than usual, as the first one was picked 29 May. The school plot had some lovely white salad potatoes to harvest. 2012 was a very wet month, and dark, and cool, with just the odd sunny day. The potatoes are doing well, and the sweetcorn. Carrots, beetroot, spinach, turnip and radishes have now germinated. Courgettes and pumpkins have not grown, but are surviving the slug and snail onslaught. Strawberries are ripening and I picked the first one at home on 16 June. It was surprisingly red, sweet and delicious. Fruit bushes do not seem to have much on, and the Victoria plum tree is bare having been full last year. Chives, salad under cloches and the perennial rocket have done well, and the greenhouse tomatoes have grown, with some flowers on. 2013 saw the lettuces suddenly spring into growth from nowhere, and the rocket is lovely. Courgettes suffered even under cover, as have the runner beans but they have now started growing. Broad beans, carrots and cabbages have all germinated, so fingers crossed the slugs don’t get them. There are lots of gooseberries and currants and blueberries on the bushes and the Sweet peas have just started flowering. All the herbs (chives, parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano) look fantastic. 2014 was very dry, and sunny, with wet patches early on and then no rain to fill the waterbutts from 14 June. By end June the ground was baked dry. Sweet peas, carrots, beetroot and spinach look small and sad, but huge red lettuces, and purple sprouting broccoli. The strawberries have been sweet, but small, and there are lots of fruit on the blackcurrant bush and gooseberry. The courgettes and runner beans have survived but not really grown. Soil needs digging over and lots of manure as a bag of horse manure doesn’t do enough. The calendula and phacelia look great! 2015 has been cool and windy during the day, and very cool at night, but little rain at all day or night. Salad crops have struggled, and whilst all is surviving slug damage, it’s only the warm end to June that has seen any growth. There are now mini courgettes, and sweet peas, and peas in pod, plus lots of strawberries. The sweetcorn, carrots and beetroot seedlings are there, but not very big! Poppies seem to be happily flowering all over the veg patch, and nasturtiums have self-seeded with borage and calendula from last year’s flowers. 2016 was very dry, and cool, and then sunny and warm and wet. The longest day of the year was sunny and clear and light till well past 10pm. Veg wise the turnips bolted, and the courgettes sulked, but they are still there. Blackcurrants look good, and sweet peas and sweetcorn are growing well. The strawberries suddenly appeared red in mid June but are small. 2017 was very hot and dry, and then ended very wet. Courgettes, lettuce, sweet peas all looked great, but the beans are waiting for the rain! We've had so many strawberries, and now the pumpkin plants are starting to flower. 2018 was hot, dry, windy, and no rain. Plants withered, or just did nothing. Those that are watered are fine, and the sweet peas are doing great. But the courgettes, and sunflowers have hardly grown. The early planted purple sprouting broccoli has a few shoots, but the leaves look yellow already. The onion and garlic stalks are falling, but the bulbs aren’t very big. And lettuces are germinating and growing and then bolting everywhere. However, it’s lovely to be in the garden! July
Yes you’ll have too many courgettes, but keep picking them so more will develop to keep the season going (you’ll miss them when they are gone). You can put unwanted courgettes on the compost heap., or take them round to friends and family whenever you visit. Similarly with cucumbers, and peas, keep the flowers coming by cutting off the fruit. In July there is so much coming from your plot that it is easy to forget to plan ahead, like you did in March. But, to paraphrase, as you reap, so shall ye sow. That means, sow veg now that can overwinter and provide you with crops until April next year. If you have done this you will of course find you have plants ready to go in the plot, but it’s hogged by other plants. If you have a big plot then you can have holding beds, such a luxury, but in a small plot you’ll just have to keep potting on until space becomes available. Be ruthless with plants that are finished, like peas. Cut them off and plant out your brassica. You can probably treat yourself to some beetroot, carrot, turnip, French beans, Broad beans, Kohlrabi, lettuce by making a late sowing now. Check the seed packet, but if you keep the seedlings shaded from hot sun, you’ll hopefully be able to crop until the frosts arrive (or not!). Some onions, shallots and garlic should be ready now – you’ll know because the foliage goes yellow and droops, and the onions appear to almost sit themselves on the soil. On a dry day, carefully pull up the onions, using a fork if necessary, and lay them on the dry soil, or a wall, or a conservatory floor; anywhere dry and warm. After a couple of days, store them somewhere cool and dark. If you store them damp they will start to grow again, using the bulb as fuel! If you find that your onions have pretty flower heads, cut them off now, and the plant should yellow and wither ready for harvesting in about three weeks’ time. Potatoes that you harvest in July should really be used straight away, or within the week. So only lift what you need as early and second earlies are not suitable for storing. Wash off any dirt outside before using in the kitchen. Stop most of your strawberry plants producing runners by snipping them off, but let a few produce runners, and pot up the new plant that is developing at the end of the runner. In September you can cut off the new plant from the parent and plant it out. Once you’ve picked all your fruit, trim off the leaves and clear away weeds and rubbish, like straw. Keep the plants well watered and happy so that they produce lots of new leaves ready for next year. If a row of broad beans or peas have finished, cut the plant off at soil level and put on the compost heap, but leave the root ball in the soil. It will have fixed nitrogen in nodules that the next crop (usually brassica) need. Your runner beans will be producing lots, so keep them watered, picked and feed them some comfrey or nettle solution. Bolting becomes a problem in July, it’s when the plant starts to set seed and the bit you want to eat goes bitter and unpalatable. Plants mainly do it when they have matured and the weather is dry, so the answer is to water well, or remove and replace with younger plants. Lettuce, spinach, rocket, radish seem to bolt overnight. It’s a natural progression as the plant has matured and is producing seed; all very well for its life cycle but not what you want, unless you plan to collect the seed. Tomatoes really shoot up now, and if you do not control them they will branch and flower in all directions, and then collapse. Apart from tumbling varieties, (which you can leave alone, and are therefore worth growing!) grow the plant up a cane, tying it in as it grows. Make one shoot the main one, and pinch out the little shoots that try to grow out from where the leaf joins the stem. This happens all the way down the plant. Keep pinching them out otherwise the plant becomes too weighted and unmanageable. The plant will produce flower stems, with pretty yellow flowers that become the fruit, so don’t pick them off. If there are no bees around you’ll have to pollinate them yourself. Later on, once the fruit has set, you start to remove the leaves so that sun can get to the fruit. You can buy an organic feed for your plants, or make your own stinky concoction from nettles or comfrey left in a bucket of water. Traditionally you try to stop the plant growing in height once there are four or five flower/fruit ‘trusses’ by pinching out the top growing point (and the side ones). This gives the plant the strength to grow big fruit, rather than increasing in size. If your plants do not get a good, even water supply they may develop ‘blossom end rot’ when the base of the fruit goes black. Any plants that like a regular water supply, like tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes can have their own private supply. Cut the end off a large plastic bottle and put it top first in the soil (no lid!) near the base of the plant. Then fill the bottle with water. The water will be deep in the soil where the roots need it, and not evaporating off the surface. It’s efficient, effective and makes manual watering quick and easy. Keep checking these plants, picking fruit when ready, tying to a support if necessary, feeding once a week. Look after them and they will ripen properly and crop for ages. Potato blight is a phrase that scares any gardener, as we’ve all read about the famine that struck Ireland after potato blight. You can visit www.blightwatch.co.uk to see if it is in your area. Check your potato plants and any that have brown patches on the leaves (or stem), or a fluffy mould are probably infected. Tubers infected will have a depression on the surface, and marbled flesh underneath; the whole potato goes mushy and rotten and smells foul. Blight can also affect tomatoes, and the fruit goes brown. That’s why you try and grow pots and toms together, and move them round the rotation together. Don’t use the same ground for both. In the early stages of blight, remove the infected plant and burn or take away from your garden. Tubers may be OK, but check them. You can spray your plants with compost tea and seaweed extract to keep the plant healthy to fight the disease. Next year, plant resistant varieties, and early ones are less susceptible than later ones. You must try to dig up all the pots, so that none are left in the ground to grow next year, and pass on the infection. Make sure your brasssica plants are covered with some sort of mesh or net. Otherwise the cabbage white butterfly will lay her eggs on your plants, and the resulting caterpillars will strip your leaves bare. If you opt not to cover, you can pick them off manually, but do it every day, or even every hour. From about end September no more eggs are laid, so you can take the cover off. You can plant out the young seedlings, but keep them watered. And keep sowing so that you have some spares if some die off. If you are away and cannot water for instance. Weeds will still be everywhere, especially when you clear out a crop like peas. They’ll have grown under the canopy hidden from view. So hoe them off on a dry day, or lift and remove. Keep your plot tidy by picking up leaves that fall. They’ll hide slugs and may harbour pests. After rain, or a good watering, keep mulching plants with grass mowings, or compost. It keeps the soil moist, and keeps down weeds. Flowers should be popping up all over your plot, either self-seeded or sown by you. Poppies, Calendula, herbs, anything with a flower that bees and hoverflies like should be left to grow. If you have space in the plot you could sow some flowers for spring – like forget-me-nots, polyanthus, sweet William, wallflowers. You can leave them in the plot to look pretty next year, or to move elsewhere in your garden. You can prune your plum, damson and cherry trees, but mind the fruit. Prune out old dead and diseased wood, and trim back any over vigorous shoots to keep the shape. Trim any shoots that are crossing or congesting the centre of the tree. Apples and pears should be thinned so that there are just two fruits per spur. It’ll help them to swell and ripen without rubbing and causing damage to the skin. Plant this month: On 15 July 2007 I harvested, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, courgettes, calabrese, potatoes, Dwarf French beans, broad beans, peas, parsnip, beetroot, turnip, rocket, salad, radish, carrot. Plenty for a delicious meal. I could have had some curly kale as well! On 21 July 2008 I was picking raspberries, strawberries, scented sweet peas, courgettes, broad beans, peas, salad, rocket, radish, parsley, chives, calabrese, last gooseberries. At the plot we had potatoes, salad, turnips and mini beetroot. The comfrey plants were huge and leaves used to make a feed. In 2009 the raspberries were perfect, and finished 17 July and the strawberries which had been beautiful, got very small and finished 15 July. The beans kept growing, but watering was needed as there was not much rain to speak of in the first two weeks. Rocket, lettuce, chives were lovely and the tumbler toms were covered in flowers. The first sweet pea was picked 16 July, and the courgettes kept coming. At the plot the globe artichokes were forming, the Sante potatoes lovely as were the Swift, there just weren’t many of them! All the spring brassicas were huge especially the kale. July 2010 saw the lifting of some lovely Charlotte potatoes, and lettuce, and parsley, and the first beetroot! Plus of course hundreds of strawberries, with the last being picked 24 July; lots of blackcurrants, and the autumn raspberries had a few red fruit. The onions were flopping but not very big. At home Mangetout, lettuce, rocket, chives, parsley were all picked. The sweet peas smelled delightful, but they were small due to the dry weather. The raspberries started to ripen at the end of July but were very small. July 2011 had some lovely courgettes and potatoes from the plot, and lettuces, with rocket. In the school plot there were carrots, spinach, broad beans, beetroot, potatoes, parsley, purple sprouting broccoli, and courgettes. At home there was lots of lettuce, radishes and courgettes! July 2012 was a bit of a disappointment. Mainly because of the weather, the carrots, parsnips and beetroot sown in great quantity did not appear, except those grown under a cloche. Gardens are looking very verdant, with green lawns, overgrown hedges, toppling shrubs and perennials the tallest ever. The pumpkins look great, but the courgettes have been eaten away by the slugs and snails, again, as have the peas and beans. Some lettuces survive and the sweet peas are huge and now smell lovely. The large sweetcorn plants have just started to put up flower stems, but I do not know if they will set fruit and ripen before autumn! Blackcurrants swell on the bushes, but the Victoria Plums are nowhere to be seen, and the few apples seem to be dropping off the tree too early. Lots of autumn raspberries seem to have already appeared, but are lovely to eat anyway. Trusty rocket and chives are available. In the green house the tomatoes are setting, and I am waiting for the cucumber plants to get bigger. July 2013 was the warmest for 7 years, which was lovely. Plants that had grown slowly in the cold May and June, finally put on a spurt, and then wilted or bolted. But seeds germinated and herbs did well. I still only picked salad and chives and parsley in the garden, but courgettes are on their way. The strawberries were plentiful and sweet this month, and there are lots of redcurrants and gooseberries on the bushes. Sadly the blueberries look to have shriveled up and dried, even in the veg bed. The apple tree has dropped lots of small apples, something that usually happens in June. And something brassica wise is growing well, but I can’t remember if it’s a cabbage or purple sprouting broccoli! The onion sets have done well, but are smothered by calendula and borage seedlings. Carrot and beetroot seeds sown late June did germinate but look sad with the lack of rain. July 2014 ws so dry this month, with hot daytime sunshine, and only the odd shower. The ground is rock hard or like sand. Veg wise, the lettuces were huge till they bolted, but the chives and rocket are fine. The beetroot and carrots are titchy, but courgette, cucumber and tomato plants in the glasshouse are looking better. The chilli plants high up in the glass house also look happy and are full of fruit. There will be lots of blackcurrants and gooseberries soon, and some blueberries but the plants have been so dry. I need to properly manure and feed the soil this autumn. July 2015 may well be the hottest on record, but the hot sun was only around for the first two weeks, the second two weeks were wet and changeable, and cold at night. Cucumbers appeared in the glasshouse, and lots of flowers on the tomatoes. The sweet peas are lovely, and there have been courgettes, at last, after years of none. One pea plant gave a meals worth of peas, but the beetroot appear to have done nothing. The spinach has bolted, as usual, but the sunflowers stand tall and there are blackcurrants and even an early raspberry or two. The apple tree is covered in tiny apples that I really should pick off. July 2016 was warm, and very dry, with some well needed rain coming torrentially at the end of the month. One small courgette has been picked, and lots of salad and beans, and purple sprouting broccoli and Kale. Late potatoes got lifted as the plants wilted and the soil was so dry. Now the sweetcorn plants are looking tall, and cobs forming, but the sweet peas got too dry and are over. July 2017 was warm and dry at the start and then warm and wet at the end. The sweet peas have been amazing, and lots of courgettes. The sweetcorn is huge, and the potatoes harvested were perfect. Dwarf beans are fine, but the French climbing beans got eaten away by slugs. Some kale plants are fine, some are decimated. The early planted cabbages look good though. Picked a huge amount of blackcurrants. July 2018 was very dry, and hot and often windy, such challenging conditions for plants. Established shrubs and trees seemed to have coped well, like blackcurrants, but annuals like vegetables have had a hard time if not regularly watered. The sweet peas seemed to have loved the hot conditions, but the sweetcorn is flowering very late, and the sunflowers are not as tall as previous years. Lettuce keeps bolting, and whilst the courgettes flower, they’ve only recently set fruit. The blackcurrants have produced twice the crop of last year, without watering, but one blueberry has perished and the other looks very brown. Some apple trees have lots of fruit, others are bare. Once the rain returns I can sow some more beetroot and carrots, as none have germinated, it’s been too warm! The growhouse has produced lots of lovely tomatoes and now the chillis are starting to ripen and are hot to eat.
August
Storage of crops you have grown and want to harvest becomes an issue this month. Freezing is an option with fruit, but only if you have a big freezer! Not many of us are lucky enough to have cellars, or barrels full of sand as people used to. The key to successful storage is the condition of the crop you harvest. Make sure it is clean and dry and can be kept somewhere cool and dark. Dig up one , or two to make sure they are ready. If you look in gardening catalogues there are beautiful wooden storage options available (that will burn a huge hole in your pocket), but you can make do with large fruit boxes from supermarkets (the long flat ones for melons are great) and see if your garden centre has any of the wooden boxes that bulbs are shipped in going cheap or free. Get some in now for when you need them later in the year. With all stored crops, you should check them regularly and remove any that are rotting. The smell is often a giveaway, and if you’ve smelt rotting potatoes, you’ll know it forever! The phrase ‘one bad apple can spoil the whole lot’ applies to all stored crops. As they rot they give off a hormone that ripens the rest of the fruit. If you have grown runner beans you will have too many! You can blanch and freeze them, or eat them. But pick them you must, every other day, and you’ll have beans for maybe eight weeks. If you stop picking they will stop production, so even if you can’t eat them, or freeze them, you could give them away or put them on the compost. French beans seem less prolific, but they crop for a short time, so you need some plants sown in succession to keep yourself in a good supply. Tomatoes will be starting to ripen and get heavy, so make sure the plant is well tied to a stake. Snap off any ‘laterals’ (little leaves that try to grow between a big leaf and a stem, and if left start to flower and exhaust the plant). Keep watering and bi-weekly feeding the plants. If you have big old leaves that are shading the fruit, cut them off now so that sun can get to the tomato and ripen it. If the plant is at the top of your stake, trim it off. Cucumbers and courgettes should be harvested as they get to the size you want. This will make the plant produce more flowers and more fruits. Large courgettes are marrows, and good for a laugh, but not to eat. Cucumbers that are too ripe aren’t nice to eat, the pips are huge and the flesh watery. If you’ve got three or four pumpkins on a plant, be happy with your lot and keep cutting off the growing tip so the fruits swell rather than producing anymore. If you are hoping to have huge pumpkins or squashes then you will have to water them well now. Put an upturned plastic bottle near the plant, (with the base cut out) and water through this everyday. All these cucurbits will love some seaweed extract in the water, as they are hungry plants. If there is plenty of sun, great, if not, remove big leaves that shade the pumpkin or squash so that they get the maximum of the suns ripening rays. When you harvest a cabbage, you can cut it off at ground level, and put unwanted leaves on the compost heap. Pull out the root and remove it from your garden in case it carries disease. Clean up any yellow or mottled leaves. Similarly, any potato plants that don’t look well should be dug up and removed from your garden. Brassicas that are still growing should be covered, but if not (or anyway) keep checking for caterpillars and pick them off. If you’ve got a writhing mess of caterpillars it’s because you did not cover the plants, so plan this for next year! Just keep picking them off for now, hourly if necessary. Your onions must be ready now! If the stalks have flopped, or the foliage yellowed, then they are ready to be lifted. On a dry day, carefully pull up the onions, using a fork if necessary, and lay them on the dry soil, or a wall, or a conservatory floor; anywhere dry and warm. If you can create a sort of raised bed for them on chicken wire this will help they dry on top and underneath as well. After a couple of days, store them somewhere cool and dark. If you store them damp they will start to grow again, using the bulb as fuel! Onions will store better if their outer skins have been toughened by drying out in the hot sun. Potato blight has been reported in lots of areas this year, it’s a fungal infection that can ruin your crop. Check your plants and remove any that have brown patches on the leaves. It tends to affect later varieties, more than early. You can still eat the tubers if they are not infected, but check them first. Spraying with compost tea or seaweed extract helps to keep the plants healthy. Blight is caused by spores that are in the air and settle in the ground. Your fruit bushes need to have the fruit harvested and to be kept well watered or mulched. Make sure you’ve thinned your apples and pears so they can get lots of sun and ripen. Always remove diseased fruit, and try to have just two fruit per branch/spur waiting to ripen. Plum branches may be hanging down laden with fruit. You should prune them now, and you can do that to branches which are so heavy with fruit they look like they will snap (can you really eat all those plums?). If you have not got much plum fruit, prune back unfruiting branches to create new wood and fruiting spurs for next year. If your summer raspberries are now finished, cut the fruited can down to the ground (the foliage will probably be mottled and yellow). New unfruited shoots that look strong and green should be tied to a support to survive the winter. Don’t touch autumn fruiting raspberries, as they’ve yet to produce! You can also trim any fruited gooseberry or redcurrant bushes. Removed damaged wood and branches going into the centre, and then trim back outside shoots to remain with four buds. Pot up the runners of strawberries to give you new plants. You can weigh down the runner with a stone. Keep your plot tidy this month, clearing away dead leaves and spent crops. Weeding is often difficult if the ground is hard, but you can still hoe off at the surface. Watering should be carefully done in August, as the ground can be so hot and dry that it will evaporate before doing any good. Water early in the day or late at night, and mulch with grass mowings, newspaper, compost after watering. If it’s too hot (or wet!) to be in the garden, sit down and plan what you could be sowing for autumn. And then do it! And make a list of what you would do differently/the same for next year. And also, order some green manure seeds, and plan where to sow them. Ideally they can go where you will have bare soil over the winter. There are many green manures available from the Organic Catalogue, and Suffolk Herbs. They grow easily, keep the soil healthy over the winter, and can be dug in or composted come spring. If you do not get round to doing this, empty out your compost bin in September and tip the lot onto the ground to protect it! Make sure you are sowing some winter and spring greens now, so that you don’t have to rely only on your stored food over the winter months. You can also try sowing some chard, spinach, lettuce and they should be fine if the weather stays good for the next few months. If August is very hot and dry, the spinach, rocket, lettuce may bolt, but, nothing ventured, nothing gained! Keep the seedlings partially shaded and you could be lucky. Don’t sow seedlings and then go away for two weeks leaving them to fend for themselves. Wait until you are back from your hols so you can water them as they germinate. Plant this month: Summer 2007 was a bit of an odd one, with more rain than usual. Blight hit potatoes and tomatoes, but the tubers seemed OK. The problem was finding a dry sunny day to lift them! Similarly the onions were huge, but endless rain meant they got bigger without being lifted. I continued picking salad crops, and broad beans and some French beans, but the outdoor cucumbers looked sad, and the courgettes slowed down. The beetroot, parsnips and carrots were delicious having done well in the rain. In 2008 there was a lot of very heavy rain for all of August 2008, but with hot sunny periods (half a day) as well. The plot let us pick lots of beetroot, potatoes, calabrese, the last of strawberries, first of autumn raspberries, parsley, lettuce. Blight seemed to hit the toms and pots so we stripped the leaves off, but sadly it proved to be too late. Carrots that germinated then disappeared, presumably to slugs and snails. At home still lettuce, parsley, basil, chives, rocket, plus dwarf French beans, courgettes, peas. Sunflowers and sweet peas were looking lovely. Toms were ok, and produced lots of small fruits and Globe artichokes growing well. 2009 saw the plot go mad. It was dry for the first two weeks of August then heavy rain one day, warm sun the next. The runner beans shot past the top of their poles, but there were lots of beans on them, peas and mangetout appeared everyday, the carrots and beetroot were perfect, parsnips looked odd but tasted fine, potatoes continued to be lifted, onions were lifted and left to dry on 22nd, the raspberries are fat and the wasps love them when they get there first. The kale and cabbages look majestic, but most have bolted with big yellow flowerheads. The globe artichokes were huge, and the rows of sweetcorn look nearly ripe. The damsons and plums are looking nearly ready to eat, as are the outside tomatoes. At home the beans are pathetic, the peas are great, nasturtiums, sweet peas and phacelia have grown huge, and courgettes, lettuce, rocket, chives still produce. The carrots and beetroot seedlings have disappeared, but the radishes survived. The sweetcorn is very stunted, but the newly planted leeks look ok, and the Tumbler Tomatoes that flowered all summer are now producing lots of little red glossy fruits. 2010 finally saw the tomato fruits appear on some of the outdoor plants, the rain and sun must have got them going. Apples are waiting on the trees and the first Victoria plums and damsons have been eaten. Early potatoes are still being lifted, but they are big, and a bit scabby. The pumpkin fruits are small but pretty, and there’s courgettes, broad beans and raspberries a plenty. Onions, shallots and garlic were lifted and left to dry, and look and taste pretty good considering the dry weather. There would have been lots of beetroot to pick, but the rabbits got there first, but have left the carrots and parsnips alone, for now. The green manures of trefoil, clover, buckwheat and ryegrass have all germinated, and the phacelia is still flowering. Lettuce, rocket, peas, chives, courgettes are all still going in the plot at home. Despite many very heavy rain downpours, the soil still seems very dry. 2011 has been recorded as the coolest summer for a “generation” but not the wettest, as 2009 holds that record. Yet we had such a warm and promising spring. The sweetcorn in the plot has not done well, it never really got going, but in the fields about all looks fine. Similarly it’s taken ages for carrot and beetroot to germinate, and I’ve done a later sowing with fingers X. Only now are the beetroot big enough to pick. Potatoes have been great, and the onions lifted mid-month were big, just not many of them. Tomatoes in the glass pyramid have ripened an been eaten, but I didn't risk growing any outside this year. The Victoria plums are delicious, and so many, and so heavy they have snapped branches off. Similarly there are lots of autumn raspberries around, and big juicy blackberries. The Purple sprouting broccoli came through in July and again in August, and one big Savoy cabbage that had survived the winter was finally picked and eaten this month. Lots of small broad beans have been picked and eaten, but for the love of it, not the taste. The sunflowers are smiling, and look perfect with their deep yellow heads. The courgettes are still going, but no pumpkins seem to have developed. The dill smells lovely in the fruit bed when brushed past, and I’ve grown fennel for the first time, and some germinated and is growing well. The dwarf beans have done well, but the runner beans never got going before the slugs or snails felled them. Elsewhere I see them growing tall in other people’s gardens. The rhubarb is delicious and sweet, even though the stems are green. 2012 was the wettest summer for 100 years, and probably holds the record for the most slugs and snails. I have had no courgettes, and a smattering of lettuces, no beans or peas which would have loved the wet if they’d survived the snail attacks. The early potatoes were great, and in the green house there are tomatoes and cucumbers. The sweetcorn is tall, but no ripe cobs, yet? There are no plums, but the raspberries are lovely, and the rhubarb has kept going all summer. The cabbages have survived but are very small. A friend’s plot, on dry soil has produced lovely cabbages, broccoli, lettuce and courgettes. 2013 has been a lovely warm and sunny August, and summer (the warmest and driest since 2006). My courgettes have fruited, but are titchy, so I will have to sort the soil out, others I have seen elsewhere are enormous! The onions did well, and are drying in the green house, and lettuces have bolted before they could be all eaten, but there’s been plenty of it. I have a few tomatoes in the green house, but they suffered early on when I went away and they fried without watering. The broccoli was huge, but quickly went and bolted, and the large red cabbages were shredded by caterpillars when I turned my back. Chillis and peppers sown outside have grown well at the school plot, as did the beans and courgettes. But at home the soft fruit has been a delight with raspberries, gooseberries and blackcurrants. Leeks have gone in for the winter, and then it’ll be back to sowing onion sets again. Sunflowers everywhere look bright yellow and welcoming, and with cosmos flowers huge and continuous the veg plot looks pretty if nothing else. 2014 I lifted some beetroot and carrots, but only enough for a meal. Same with the leeks, and blackcurrants, but they were still delicious to eat. So I went out and got backs of free horse manure from a local farm and put it on the patch. The soil has felt like sand, so I am going to pile on stuff all winter. The rocket, lettuces and chives are still picked daily which is lovely. I had a cucumber in the green house, but suddenly the plant got mildewed and died. The courgette plants in the green house flower beautifully, but no courgettes appear. In the patch there is one large pumpkin which is looking good and getting lots of tlc. The tallest sunflower ever has finally started to fade having looked beautiful all summer. 2014 I lifted some beetroot and carrots, but only enough for a meal. Same with the leeks, and blackcurrants, but they were still delicious to eat. So I went out and got backs of free horse manure from a local farm and put it on the patch. The soil has felt like sand, so I am going to pile on stuff all winter. The rocket, lettuces and chives are still picked daily which is lovely. I had a cucumber in the green house, but suddenly the plant got mildewed and died. The courgette plants in the green house flower beautifully, but no courgettes appear. In the patch there is one large pumpkin which is looking good and getting lots of tlc. The tallest sunflower ever has finally started to fade having looked beautiful all summer. 2015 August was a dry month, and not to sunny, but warm, and some torrential thunderstorms one weekend. The courgettes carried on, as did the rocket and lettuce, and there were some blackcurrants. The Autumn raspberries fruited early but are big and delicious. Carrots, beetroot were Ok, and the pumpkins are growing, but they look like squash so maybe I got the labelling mixed up. The mauve poppies that seeded around were so pretty, and I’ll keep the seed heads, and nasturtium, borage, phacelia and sunflowers have kept the plot looking pretty. 2016 was a warm and sunny, but not too hot, with the odd wet, windy and horrible day. The sweetcorn looks ready with brown tassles, but I’ll leave it a little longer. The lettuce bolted in the dry weather, and courgettes stayed small but edible. Kale continues to look and taste good, with some varieties getting chewed by slugs and caterpillars and others staying clean (but I don’t record which is which!). As the month turned a few tomatoes went red and I ate the last of the fabulous French beans. The pumpkins have grown well, so should be great for Halloween. There were so many delicious blackcurrants, that I made into a puree and froze, and lots of very subtly sweet blueberries. The raspberries have just started to ripen. 2017 was a wet during the day, sunny in the evening month which left everyone feeling they’d not had a summer, but the August Bank Holiday was the warmest on record. Sweetcorn has been picked and eaten, and the lettuces continue to do well if left along by the slugs, who also seem to like Kale now. The autumn raspberries seem perfect, and there are still blueberries on the bush. The courgettes seemed to have stopped with the dry weather, but the solitary pumpkin is still growing. Carrot and lettuce seedlings have appeared very quickly. 2018 was a mixed year. The sweet peas were lovely, but I never saw any carrots or beetroot, unlike others. Lettuce bolted but at least it grew, and there is lots of fruit ready to be picked. The sweetcorn cobs are big, but not very yellow, and it’s hard to know when to pick them! We didn’t have any pumpkins, probably due to lack of water, but the courgettes have been great. Raspberries and blackberries will kkep going no doubt and have been delicious. The plot has been a magnet for cabbage white butterflies, so I gave in, and took the netting off, so the plants are chewed to bits. The purple sprouting broccoli has been small and sweet, but we should have some Brussels sprouts at least! September
This is a lovely relaxing month in the veg plot. If you look at any ‘sow/harvest’ style calendar you’ll see that September is the month when you can just about harvest any and everything, and sow virtually nothing – a real glutton’s paradise! Of course, if you’ve done everything right and planted in succession you‘ll have crops for a few months yet, and then some more, but often this is the month when everything stops flowering and packs up shop. So, enjoy it. Everyone talks excitedly of an Indian summer as if it is unusual in September, but this month is often warm and sunny, and ripens the tree fruit. September 2007 was warm, dry and sunny for the first three weeks, sadly September 2008 rained for the first two weeks, and was warmer and drier towards the end. 2009 was wet at the start, then warm, dry and sunny and 2010 was everything, sunny, wet, windy! Apples can be picked when ready (twist the apple and if it comes off it’s ready!) Generally speaking, the earlier the apple is ripe, the shorter time it will store. So, eat them now, and then as the season progresses, start to store the later varieties. Pick up diseased fruit and leaves as they fall to remove any pests from your plot. Paint sticky grease bands onto tree trunks to stop winter moths. Store fruit ideally in airy containers, and place the fruit on straw or wrap individually in newspaper. Your local greengrocer/garden centre may have wooden boxes going cheap or free. If you notice new shoots on your tree, cut them back to about 5 leaves, but otherwise you can leave the pruning of apple trees until the winter. Autumn raspberries are there to be enjoyed, as are plums, damsons, pears. Make sure to secure any new summer fruiting raspberry canes, so that they don’t flap and flop around all winter. You should have cut to the ground any old summer fruited raspberry canes (the leaves are yellow as well) but leave the new shoots to flower next year. Blackcurrant bushes can be pruned now by cutting out one in three fruited shoots. With Blackberries, cut out fruited canes, and secure new shoots so they grow where you want them to. You can prune most of the fruited bushes now, or over the winter. Don’t prune apples or pears until winter. If you are lucky enough to have tomatoes and cucumbers growing, cut off the big leaves now to allow maximum sunlight to reach and ripen the fruit. Your asparagus foliage is probably going yellow and leaning over. Cut it off now near the base and give the area a good rich manure mulch. Plant out new strawberry plants produced from runners, or pot up some runners to make new plants. If your strawberry patch is a mass of plants, you could lift them now, fork in some manure and fresh compost, trim off runners and old leaves and then replant them in neat rows. It will make your life easier if you plan to use cloches or netting next summer, to plant them in rows that fit under the cloche. It’s best to leave plants uncovered over winter, as they need a cold spell in their life cycle before they will flower. But cover from March if you want to try to force an early crop. Either way, trim off all the old leaves and clear away any rubbish like straw, that’s probably going mouldy now (but I found a frog under mine!) As you harvest the last of the beans and peas, cut them off at the stalk leaving the roots in the ground, and plant any remaining winter and spring brassica plants that you have left over into this space. If you have lots of potatoes it is worth investing in some sacks, but make sure the pots are dry first. Use your hands to lightly rub off the excess soil. Or, if the soil was really dry when you harvested, leave them to dry as picked, in the sun. You can leave maincrops in the ground, but be wary of slugs, but lift all your crop by mid October. If you lift them on a sunny day, let them bake in the sun to toughen up the skin so they are less likely to be damaged in storing. If you had blight around hopefully the virus has not got into the tubers, but if it has they will rot. So make sure you only store clean pots with no holes or blemishes. You can eat blighted potatoes, but do so now before they rot, don’t store them. In 2007 we had lots of blighted plants and removed the foliage at the first sign. The tubers we lifted were fine and we did not get blight in 2008 until mid September when it wiped out all the toms, and rotted much of the main crop potatoes as they lay in the ground. If you haven’t got room for a compost bin, dig a compost trench. This is when you dig out a trench in your plot, say a spade’s width wide and deep and just fill it with shredded newspaper and your kitchen scraps. When full, pull the soil over and start again. These trenches are great to grow peas, beans, potatoes and courgettes into, but there’s really nothing that won’t like it except brassicas that like firm soil. Sow some green manures. These are plants that protect the soil over the winter, and help fix nutrients in it. A green manure that stays in the ground all winter is very beneficial. You just dig it into the soil in the spring, or put it on the compost heap. You can sow these into a compost covered area of soil, or bare soil, and they germinate quickly now when the soil is still warm. Just make sure the green manure fits in your crop rotation, as some, like mustard, is a member of the brassica family so it should not be grown out of turn (grow it after brassicas so if club root shows up, it ruins the green manure crop, not your brassica). Phacelia can be grown at any time in the cycle, as can field beans.
Catalogues will be arriving tempting you to buy bulbs – and you may as well. But plan where they will be going first. Bulbs in the plot look pretty, or in a pot. Plant them very deep if you want to keep them in your veg plot, and then plant veg on top once they have flowered. Many garden centres and on-line garden sites have sales now, so look through for items you would have liked this year, and maybe order. A cloche tunnel for instance, or an obelisk or trellis, or a trough for salads maybe. A small greenhouse, or even just a mini-greenhouse will mean you can get salads all winter, and start off bedding plants early, and peas and beans. Plant this month: Plums picked at the plot in 2007 were truly sweet and delicious, just not plentiful as in previous years. Some raspberries and apples were picked, and the cucumbers were finally growing, and the tomatoes (apart from bush ones) were still green. The sweetcorn looked perfect but not ripe, as did the pumpkins. But all the carrots and potatoes were lifted and stored in damp sand (carrots) and sacks (potatoes) in a cool dark room. The garlic and onions were all been lifted and dried. And the peas were lovely, going with more runner beans from the garden than anyone can possibly eat. In 2008 the plot let us pick an awful lot of beetroot. For the village show there were courgettes, lettuce, rocket, radishes, turnip, beetroot, a few carrots, a few beans and broad beans, rather ripe and mouldy raspberries, small onions. The toms were wrecked by blight, and many of the potatoes. Rocket and radishes did well when planted late. Squashes appeared in profusion but rotted. Grass grew very long on the paths. Didn’t harvest any apples, yet, but the trees were full, but there were no plums on the tree, and only a few damsons. The pears tasted Ok but looked awful. 2009 at the plot saw more Victoria Plums on a tree than you could imagine, and they were delicious. There are not many pears or apples to speak of, but thousands of autumn fruiting raspberries. The parsnips were huge, as were some of the beetroot, and turnips, and the carrots were crunchy and sweet. Peas were finished but the runner and French beans just kept going. The kale and cabbages are just about done, but more will go in now for next year. And, the phacelia flowers continue to look gorgeous and keep the bees happy. One large clump of Verbena bonariensis still glows a bright purple which the butterflies love, and the wild flower patch continues to have red, pinks yellows and whites and looks so cheerful. Most of the potatoes have been lifted and either eaten or stored. The first sweetcorn cobs were picked and eaten on 28th and were lovely, but sadly the tomatoes that had looked so good all went black and horrible from blight. At home it was beans, courgettes rocket, lettuce, parsley, basil to eat. 2010 and the Victoria plums were again delicious, and there were quite a lot of damsons as well. The apple trees are heaving with fruit, but after one wild windy night so many lay on the ground. The pink chard looks fantastic, and there were lots of carrots, huge parsnips, and the odd beetroot that escaped the rabbit’s nibbling. Leeks are looking good, and there is one huge pumpkin, and lots of smaller ones. If they’d been grown earlier maybe we’d have had more! The Brussels seem to be coming back having been nibbled, and the bed with Phacelia looks stunning. The raspberry canes are 2m high and full of big soft fruits, but you need to eat them quickly after picking. The late planted sunflowers are yellow and pretty, and one flower had 8 ladybirds on it, and the Verbena has self seeded and flowered again. The tomatoes are big and green and so have been taken inside and introduced to a banana in the hope they will ripen. And, for the first time, celery was grown and picked, and tasted so strong – great if you like celery. At home it’s a little bit thin produce wise after such a dry start to the season, with lettuce, chives and rocket; but the calendula, nasturtium, borage, achillea and phacelia make it still look beautiful. 2011 saw us eating lots of fruit – raspberries, plums, more raspberries. There were a couple of small cucumbers in the hot bed, and one pumpkin is doing well at school. Lettuces, rocket, the staples keep going and there will be lots of cabbages in the spring. Sadly the sweetcorn did not do much, and look small and stunted. There are lots of lovely leeks and beetroot, and some carrots. And three sunflowers that have shone for so long are now setting seed. The weeds and nettles that have crept in amongst the paths and bed edges are huge, so we will get rid of them over the winter. So many potatoes to harvest, I don’t know where to put them! Flowers everywhere still keep going, with the rain and now sun they are still looking great. And the insects are happy! 2012 having been so wet, the plot has only produced fruit and veg that had been started early, or under cloches. In the garden there are carrots and beetroot, lots of lovely big raspberries and some rocket and chives, but the lettuces have now bolted. In the school plot there are radishes, turnips, courgettes, raspberries and rhubarb. There are a few sweetcorn cobs that will be picked at the end of September, rather than August, and the early potatoes have grown huge. Some of the potatoes are mushy and blighted when lifted, and some are perfect (the red skinned ones). The summer flowers of Calendula have kept the plot looking pretty, along with a purple flowering clematis. There are a few apples that will hopefully ripen, but no plums, and a friend’s wall trained pear tree is covered in fruit. 2013 was the year of endless sunny September days, and continuous raspberries. The soil was baked dry, so not much else produced. But the Victoria plums were lovely, the odd courgette, still lots of lettuce, chives and parsley. The beans are over, but the pretty calendula flowers continue everywhere, with nasturtiums and borage. The apple tree is full, but many have fallen early, probably because it is so dry. 2014 was the driest September on record with only 20% of the normal rainfall. This followed on from a wet August and the wettest winter and the wettest Jan-August period on record. But if you ask anyone, it was a lovely summer because most of the rain fell early in the year. Fruit has been prolific starting with strawberries, then all the currants, raspberries and now apples and pears. With water levels high, established trees have had plenty, and then there have been weeks of warm sunshine to ripen the fruit. In the veg patch lettuce, rocket, and autumn raspberries have continued, and the courgettes have flowered, albeit with smaller fruit. The onions dried off as di the harvested potatoes. Beans were still being picked at the end of September, and the warm sun with daytime temperatures of 20C made it feel lovely to be outside. Farmers have been harvesting, rotavating and sowing like mad, waiting for the October rains to come. 2015 was mainly warm, with just a few very wet days. The days often started grey and cool, but by midday the sun burst through and gave the autumn colours a lovely glow. The sweetcorn picked this month was sweet and delicious, and the courgettes kept coming. Sweet peas enjoyed the late rains and kept flowering, and the calendula kept their bright flowers. Squashes are developing well, but I thought I’d gown pumpkins, and as ever the raspberries are huge and delicious. The raspberries are covered in bright green shield bugs, but there’s no damage, and if anything the fruits seem cleaner than ever. There also seem to be a lot more blackberries than usual. 2016 saw lots of blackberries, seemingly early, but small and really quite tart. The sweetcorn was late and small, but still tasty. Courgettes carried on, but were small, but the apples started early and were lovely. Beans kept going and were delicious. The brassicas got decimated by caterpillars, but still carried on growing, and all the salads and pac choi were still fine. The raspberries kept going, even as the mornings turned misty. 2017 saw apple trees full to bursting, and berries of every description on mainly non-edible bushes. The warm ,wet weather meant the courgettes continued to flower, and everywhere pumpkins seem small, but the plants still have flowers. Some late sunflowers came out in the sun in mid-September which was lovely, and early sown sweet peas were still smelling lovely in September. The Kale plants look good, as do the cabbages, and some late sown carrot seed germinated very successfully. And we are still picking and eating blackberries and raspberries. 2018 saw even more blackberries and raspberries than ever, they just kept coming. Courgettes are still being produced, and the lettuce is now growing and not bolting. The sweetcorn was delicious, but not a very deep yellow, and the sunflowers look stunning as they continue to flower! The Kale plants and chard should keep going all winter and the sprouts are looking good despite the wind trying to blow them over. There are so many apples waiting to ripen and be picked.
October
If it’s been a sunny September most fruit will be ripe, and you’ve hopefully been picking lots of the lovely things for ages. 2009 saw plentiful blackberries and apples and 2010 was similar, with blackberries in October! 2011 had the last of the lovely raspberries, and 2013 sees lots of blackberries and apples ready for picking. October 2013 was a very warm month, but with lots of rain as well, and now 2014 is the driest on record, and nearly the warmest, extending the fruiting season so bountifully. Once all your fruit has been picked, and stored or eaten, a big tidy up is needed. Sweep up all the fallen leaves and remove them if they are diseased. Make sure any nasty looking fruit that is still on the bush/tree is removed. Anything nasty on leaves or fruit that is left about is harbouring the disease/pest for next year. Then apply tree grease to the main trunk of trees to trap winter moths and reapply in spring. You can leave fallen fruit that is just bruised, not diseased, for birds and other wildlife. Blackbirds love apples! Now, or over the next few months is when you should prune out any spent canes on blackberries, raspberries and other cane or bush fruit you may have grown. Tie in the new canes so you can manage their growth. Rhubarb is at home in Yorkshire, and it’s a huge plant. This is traditionally the month for planting rhubarb, so have a go if you have the space. Rhubarb likes ground that’s had loads of manure, and then some cold, so don’t cover the crown of the plant but leave it exposed to the frost. However, cold, wet ground just rots the plant! Each plant needs about 1m square. In January 2009 I planted one rhubarb plant at the plot, a Timperley Early. From a plastic bag it had a tiny pink shoot and one leaf. The next day it snowed! On re-reading the packet instructions it said plant in autumn/spring. However it survived, and in February 2010 I covered it and was rewarded with soft sweet pink stems in March. If you have some Alpine strawberry plants in your garden, you’ll notice they will have self seeded and you’ve got lots more. Remove those you do not want, or pot some up to give to friends – that’s where my first one came from. The small sweet strawberries are lovely to snack on, and children are happy to try them. You may find the towering foliage of Jerusalem Artichokes starts to brown and topple now. Cut the stalks off near ground level so that you know where they are when you want to dig them up to eat over the winter. Frost will pretty much kill off any plants when it hits. This is OK as it signals the end of the season, but it does mean that any tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, squashes, sweetcorn etc that are on the plant need to be harvested BEFORE the frost. Usually the first frost to hit is light, and acts as a warning to ‘pick everything now’. But, predicting that frost will affect you is tricky, so keep an eye on the weather forecast; southerners may get frost in certain pockets; northerners know they will get it everywhere. (I scraped ice off my car windscreen at 7.30am on 18 September 2007, and the day went on to be a warm and sunny 13 degrees!) Wind can also come whipping through your plants. Stake any tall ones like Brussels, and big cabbages, or at least earth up the soil around them to give them some support. You really should not have any potatoes left in the ground by the end of October. Carrots, parsnips, beetroot can be left. But if it’s very wet, check they are not being eaten underground. It’s best to lift and store if you can (see last month). If you don’t have sand to store in, try newspaper, and keep everything cool and dark. If you like chives, you can lift up some older existing clumps and separate them now to keep producing healthy plants. The foliage will die back, but pop through before you know it when spring arrives. Chives are good value as you can snip them for 6 months of the year, they have a lovely purple flower that attracts beneficial insects, and they are free if you divide them each year. October is when you (start to) tidy up the beds that have had most of the crop harvested, and prepare them for the next crop. The beds need to be weeded (by hoe or digging) and the weeds removed, and maybe dig out the big perennial weeds. However, it’s unlikely that all your beds will be ready to clear, as you’ll always have some brassicas, kale, beets and leeks around. The bed that’s going to have roots next year does not need manuring, but do dig over the soil as the brassica leave, to make it nice and open. Dig in plenty of compost to make the soil moisture retentive. The bed that will have the brassica next year can be dug now and lots of manure and compost put in, and then firmed down. Try growing a leguminous green manure to feed the soil ready for summer planting. The bed that will have potatoes can have lots of manure dug in, as can the ‘other bed’ as the space becomes free. Peas and beans (and strawberries) would love it if you could dig out a trench for them (see last month’s notes). Once you have done your digging, or if you know you won’t do it, you can sow a late green manure, or sprinkle compost. Winter frost is good at breaking down soil and killing pests, but you never know how harsh the winter will be. Some people think that digging messes up the soil’s structure and you should do as little as possible. They just cover the soil with manure or compost and let the worms and weather do the rest, just lightly digging to put in plants. Believe me, it’s a back-friendly option, and better than doing nothing at all. If you have got covers on your soil you could take them off for the winter, as most annual weeds have stopped spreading their seed now. Dig out any perennial weeds you can see. If you keep doing this over the years you will have a relatively weed free plot. If you didn’t sort out your compost bins last month, have a go this month. Make regular checks on the harvest that you have in store. Anything with any mould, or black bits needs to be removed, and used straight away. If you can’t use it, put it on the compost pile, or remove if you think it’s diseased. If a lot seems to be going off, make sure that the crop has plenty of air to circulate, and is kept cool and dark. To keep your garden wildlife friendly means you can leave plenty of ‘rubbish’ around. Anything diseased should go, but flower heads with seeds can stay, and fallen fruit. Try to create twig and branch piles in hidden corners where animals can take refuge from cats, and maybe hibernate. We all love hedgehogs, but their lifestyles have been wrecked by recent climate changes, so feed them if you see one in your garden, or see signs that they have trundled through. Plant this month: In 2007 at the plot all the pumpkins have been harvested, and the sweetcorn. But the courgettes did nothing all summer and then went mad, as did tomatoes which never ripened. The weeds were huge in between the beetroot, parsnips, turnips, chard, spinach and leeks so these have been harvested when accidentally pulled! Runner beans keep going, with still more flowers. The cabbages looked fantastically healthy. In 2008 the sweetcorn was plentiful and delicious. Finally some runner beans appeared, and the brussels sprouts and final sprouts of calabrese were being picked. Radishes, rocket, beetroot, leaf beet and carrots were also available, and some beautiful fat autumn raspberries. Sadly the late potatoes were pretty much all rotten, and the squashes never got ripe. Cabages were ready to be cut. 2009 saw a sweetcorn fest from the plot. They were unbelievably sweet and delicious, even if they were eaten at every meal. The purple sprouting broccoli that has flowered started to produce small florets again, and the cabbages have sprouted leaves. New leaves on the Kale can still be eaten, a year on after planting out. The asparagus fronds look sickly, so a new batch will be planted with more grit in the soil, and a slightly more elevated position along the bed. The carrots pulled were sweet to munch on but oddly shaped, the last of the beetroot are still great, and there’s lots more parsnips and turnips. I think the plentiful Runner and French beans can officially be classed as finished now, as are the raspberries, and courgettes. But there’s lots of parsley, and the Jerusalem artichokes carry on as ever. At home I kept snipping the last leaves of lettuce, chives, parsley and rocket, and the last courgette was picked from a blackened plant. 2010 produced lots of carrots, parsnips, leeks and lots of potatoes, plus the end of the beetroot. The rainbow chard looked so pretty, and all the green manures made the plot look vibrant. Sadly the outdoor tomatoes got blight, again, and the Brussels got attacked by caterpillars because I didn’t cover them. Lettuce, herbs and rocket continued at home, but no beans this year. There was a very heavy frost on 24 October which froze the bird bath, pond and car windscreen! The day went on to be beautiful, clear and sunny, but the nasturtiums were done for. 2011 gave plenty of leeks, beetroot, and of course potatoes. The earlies seemed bigger and better than the maincrop when lifted this month. The carrots were disappointing, as there weren’t many and they were very scabby. All the spring brassicas look great and there are Brussels in there so maybe we’ll have some (small ones) for Xmas. There have been two sharp frosts this last week, and the courgette plants have gone. At home there is still lettuce and rocket. 2012 was a bit bare. The last of the carrots, turnip and beetroot were lifted, and the sweetcorn looked good, if late. Stars of the show have been the autumn raspberries that have just kept coming. The frosts have killed off the courgette plants that failed to deliver this year. In 2012 it snowed lightly on 26 October as the new 007 film went on general release. 2013 was a very warm October, but with torrential rain and storms to add to it. I was still picking beautiful raspberries, and the very last of the lettuce and chives. There is now an experiment in the green house – growing salad crops to eat all winter! I dug over everything in the outside veg patch on a warm sunny day and added two bags of horse manure, and covered with comfrey leaves. The comfrey plants this year have been huge. 2014 was warm, mild, sunny but some rain. The raspberries were still there, and the chives and rocket. Sunflowers tried to re-bloom, and the pumpkins were great. More manure has gone on the soil, and I tipped out compost from pots. 2015 started warm, sunny and dry, then the cold nights appeared, and it finished very wet. But the warm days and cool nights have been great for autumn colours everywhere, and roses are still in bloom. The raspberries carried on fruiting, the potatoes were lifted along with the remaining carrots and beetroot, and the cabbages cut off to eat. Courgettes which had become marrows were harvested, and the last of the rhubarb eaten. Onions and garlic have been put in the shed to dry. Four squashes were harvested, which was odd, as I was sure I’d sown pumpkins! 2016. The raspberries kept coming, but got smaller as the month went on. It was a warm and sunny month, with the occasional gale and heavy wind, but the autumn colours are stunning. Leaves are still on most shrubs and many trees, and Acers seem to have bene in full colour for months. Bedding plants are still in flower, and working in the garden has been warm and lovely. The one large Pumpkin was cut and carved for Halloween, but the kale is still being snipped and eaten, as are lettuces and Pak Choi. The indoor tomatoes are all done now, and the chillies are very hot! 2017 was a bounty year for apples, they just keep falling from the tree! My pumpkins didn’t do too well, but everywhere else seems to have. Late sown carrots have done well, and the kale is great. One sharp frst hasn’t killed the nasturtium that still looks lovely. The compost is now down on the veg beds ready for winter. 2018 was warm and windy. A summer’s day one day, iced up ground the next. There were so many apples, and the raspberries kept going. But only a few blueberries, due to the dry weather. Chives are wilting now after the frost, but the Kale and chard look magnificent. Lettuces are Ok under cover, and the last carrots and radishes have been pulled. November
We’ve had regular snow in November here in Yorkshire – sometimes it only lasts a few hours, but everything tender gets killed off and the plot and garden start to look neglected and run down. But in this photo, the sun's shining, and that pile of manure is waiting to be moved! Plant a few pansies or polyanthus to brighten things up, and if you’ve got room for a winter scented shrub plant one to cheer you up in the winter, or keep it in a pot near the plot so you get a lovely waft everytime you pass. (Try Sarcococca, Hammamelis, Daphne, Viburnum, Honeysuckle.) If you have the space, now is the time to plant raspberry canes. I have four summer fruiting canes acting as a screen to a raised bed. Raspberries grow well in Scotland, so remember this when you decide where to site them in your plot. They like moisture, shelter and have shallow roots so need a weed free/well mulched area. They like a good deep soil, but actually grow very close to the surface, so do not plant them deeply. Plant bare rooted trees now. Hopefully the tree will come with planting instructions, but remember, it’s going to be there for a while, so prepare the hole and soil properly. Staking is also a good idea for the first few years. If you have not planted any garlic, do so now. It’s very little effort, and apart from a bit of weeding you can leave the area alone until July when you lift the bulbs. Similarly plant some of your onion sets now, but check the variety as some onion sets do not like to be planted until spring. Ones called Japanese overwintering onions can be planted now. Most green manures will not germinate now, so if you’ve got bare soil for the winter, tip any home made compost on the soil to rot down over the winter. Anywhere in the plot will benefit from compost trenches. This is when you dig out a trench, say a spade’s width wide and just fill it with shredded newspaper and your kitchen scraps. When full, pull the soil over and start again. These trenches are great to grow peas, beans, potatoes and courgettes into, but there’s really nothing that won’t like it. Leaves will be everywhere in your plot and garden. If you can, buy the biggest, widest plastic leaf rake you can find and afford and store. Like many jobs, the right tool makes things a lot easier. The leaves can be put in a chicken wire store to rot down if you have the space, or put them into black bin bags. Make sure there are some air holes, and let the leaves get wet, and then just hide them around the place, behind the shed, under a tree. Go back in a year or so and you’ll have a leaf mould to put around shrubs, on the plot, or over mulching fabric to keep weeds at bay. Putting dry leaves into the compost bin slows things down, and you can go back after a year and nothing’s changed! So wet is best. Clear any dead leaves, rotting stalks and other debris from your veg plot and near your favourite plants. This will get rid of pests and diseases, but you can leave fallen leaves elsewhere for wildlife to hide under and use. What other jobs need doing then? And then, sit down, read the catalogues and make lots of lovely lists and plans for your Christmas wish list and for next year. Plant this month: At the plot in 2007 the winter brassica were all huge, and edible. The leeks were lovely and the beetroot, parsnip, spinach and chard just kept growing. The potatoes and carrots were storing well. In 2008 things were a bit depleted, but the leeks were plentiful and delicious, the orange leaf beet looked lovely, the carrots were lifted and eaten, beetroot and turnip were still available, and rocket. The odd healty potato kept coming to the surface, and Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, and the odd sprout of calabrese were still being picked. 2009 saw a still sunny and warm start to November in the day, but with cold frosty nights. Then the heavy rains came and everywhere was sodden. Weeds germinated in abundance around the newly planted brassica seedlings, and high winds rocked these plants so they had to be earthed up. There were so many uneaten runner beans, but lots had perfectly formed seed pods to be kept for next year. The courgette plants turned to a sickly mush and were removed to make way for a garlic bed. The Kale still stands majestic, and the chickens have been allowed in to peck away at the wildflower patch and other bare earth before they move to their new home in a field next door. The globe artichokes had flowered a beautiful purple, and the phacelia is still in flower looking lovely at the end of a bed. At home it’s just lettuce and rocket to nibble at. 2010 saw rainbow chard being the star of the show. The beautiful pink and yellow stems shone out in the frost, and were easy to cook with lovely leeks, and steamed with Kale. There is something very satisfying about eating a meal from produce you have grown. Even the raspberries are keeping going. The bright yellow (late) sunflowers kept going until gales and frost felled them. The creeping buttercup has taken over in some areas, so it’s back to permealay on the beds again, to try and contain it. Then, heavy snow on 27 and 28 November flattened everything that had made it through so far. Temperatures went to -15c in the Brecon area of Wales, and were -12c here in Yorkshire. It’s weird to see yellow leaves still on trees but with a covering of snow. 2011 had me lifting beetroot and leeks everytime I went to the plot. Plus there were lettuces and rocket at home, and still lots of raspberries to pick and eat. The chicory grown for the first time was big and healthy, but I really didn’t like it, and fennel grown for the first time was wonderful and plump, and the foliage worth having alone to look at. The spring brassicas are all looking good, but have mealy bug on them. This month was warm, a bit wet, and perfect for veg growing if only it wasn’t so late. The grass is still growing, and the nettles are only slowly dying back. 2012 was not a very fruitful place in the veg patch. The carrots and beetroot were finished, the lettuces gone, and the rocket ropey. But I did see nice sweetcorn, leeks and lettuces in other people’s plots. Raspberries were the kings though this year, and kept fruiting till the end of November. The cabbages I planted in the summer look to be the same size, still, but maybe a mild winter will help them. And it was wet! 2013 saw just a few stalks of rocket left, but the fruit trees look healthy and full of buds ready for 2014. Herbs like parsley and rosemary are all very plentiful. The veg patch has been well manured for the winter. 2014 was mild and wet, so the patch got cleared and manured again. 2015 was the mildest November on record, but we still had torrential rain, gales and flooding. The veg patch looks sad, so it’s been cleared and lots of compost from the compost bins tipped on it. The raspberry canes have been cut down, and the bulbs planted! 2016 was very wet by the end, with warm sunny days and then snow before. The garden looks very sodden, but the calendula are still flowering. The chives are over, the Pak Choi getting attacked by pigeons, and all looks ready to lay low for the winter. The Brussels sprouts are there, and a dark purple colour, with some small sprouts which may be edible for Christmas! Kales stands majestic and will be eaten over the winter, and used as a hair on a snowman! 2017 has seen the majestic Kale plants totally frosted, but standing tall. Every so often so leaves are picked off to be eaten, and they are pretty much the only plants left standing. The carrots have been lifted, and the cabbages eaten, and everything else turned mushy by the frost. The nasturtiums held on, but they are gone now. Compost and some horse yard manure has been spread on the cleared veg patch, and more will be added over the winter.2018 saw the sunflowers still yellow, and then the frost got them and they turned brown. Brussels sprouts are continuing to grow and will be left until Christmas picking. The pigeons attacked the Kale but it is recovering now it’s covered. The lettuces have shrivelled up outside, but can still be snipped from the glasshouse. And poppy and nigella seedlings are appearing everywhere. December
Plant some colourful bulbs in pots to go round your veg patch and flower next year. You don’t need many, but the yellow of daffodils and the red of tulips signals the start of the veg growing season as you look out from the kitchen window. Depending on where you are, some crops can be started off now. If you have a greenhouse for instance, off you go, but even a windowsill, or a cold frame or mini-greenhouse facing south will get warm enough for some seeds to germinate. Once they are peeping through, keep them frost free and they’ll have a head start growth wise in early spring. Or, start some broad beans or peas off in pots somewhere warmish, and keep them contented until spring when you can plant them out under a cover. Remember all that compost you dug out of your bins? If you bagged it up, or stored it on a sheet you can bring it out now onto the veg patch and put on needy soil around the garden. It’s best not to empty compost bins now as you may disturb a hibernating animal, or frog. You know those neat little onion sets you planted last month? Are they all out and higgly-piggly on your soil? Blame the birds, who have dug them up and thrown them around. Replant them, trying to lightly cover with soil, and put some netting, or chicken wire down until the plants have rooted and are strong enough to withstand attack. Tradition has it that it’s best to plant garlic (and shallots) on the shortest day of the year – which is about 22 December. Give it a go! It’s so easy to plant garlic cloves, or shallot sets, and then you don’t have to do anything bar a little weeding until harvesting in the summer. If you’ve time on your hands, start pruning your apple and pear trees. Or stand and look at them anyway, planning what you are going to do, and then check in a pruning guide that you are right. But make sure you prune before the tree springs into life using sharp tools. If you have plenty of winter greens out in the plot, trim off any yellowing leaves and put them on the compost. It means slugs and even caterpillars have nowhere to hide! Even in mid November 2007 I found caterpillars on Kale. Any willow that you have growing can be used to create more. Cut off some whips (a whip is a cutting made by selecting a healthy shoot and cutting diagonally across under a bud (= base of whip) and then about 25cm up cut straight across above a bud). Soak the base for 24 hours in water before planting, which should be done by making a hole with a screwdriver or stick about 10-15cm deep and pushing the base of the whip into the hole (leaving 10cm and at least three buds pointing up, above the soil). Fill with soil if needed, and keep well watered and weed free if possible and don’t plant near a building or drain. Leaves, leaves, leaves. They look lovely on the tree but seem to go on filling up the garden and paths long after the trees are bare. Try to create leafmould if you have the space (see last month’s job list), but clear them off the lawn, and if they are smothering low plants. Leave (!) lots to gather under trees and behind hedges so that wildlife can overwinter in them. Relatives may ask what you’d like for Christmas – a gardeners dream. Think of items you would have liked during the year, and suggest these. A cloche tunnel for instance, or an obelisk or trellis, or a trough or a small greenhouse, or even just a mini-greenhouse. Then there are always useful items like secateurs, gloves, labels, trugs, a really big pot, or garden centre vouchers! They could give you all sorts of trays, propagators, root trainers, wellies the list goes on. Books are always useful every year there seem to be so many ‘new’ books on how to grow veg and flowers! And a magazine subscription to Organic Gardening magazine would be useful all year. Come Christmas Day, see how much you can pick from your plot to put on the table. If you were busy back in April/May you could have home grown parsnips, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts. And from your store hopefully there will be carrots, potatoes and apples for a crumble to follow. But if that didn’t quite come off this year, there is always next Christmas! Plant this month: For Xmas lunch 2007 I took potatoes and carrots from the store, then lifted some leeks, beetroot, chard, turnip, cabbage, and some rocket. It was delicious, and I didn’t have to run the gauntlet of the Christmas Supermarket frenzy. In 2008 the snow, and freezing temperatures made everything look very sad, brown and damaged. But, the beetroot was great, as were the leeks, cabbages and Brussels sprouts. For Christmas 2009 everywhere was covered in snow, and the ground was frozen solid and impossible to dig! So the parsnips and carrots stayed put, but a few Kale leaves were picked. December 2010 was frustrating in the veg patch as snow and frozen ground were the mainstay. I bought some permealay to put down to cover the ground, and keep down the creeping buttercup, but never managed to lay it down. The Brussels sprouts picked in December were nice though, just not for Xmas, and made a tasty meal with the leeks, kale and chard. 2011 saw lots of parsnips, which had disappeared from view, but I knew they were under the ground, Kale, Chard, Leeks, Beetroot. Added to for Xmas lunch by the stored potatoes. December 2012 was so wet! There was nothing left to dig out from the plot, and I was left to look at the photos of previous years’ produce. The cabbages I planted in the summer still looked the same size as when planted. But there was colour in the garden from the berries on shrubs that seemed have done well, and the damp loving red stems of dogwoods. December 2013 was mild, and wet, and sometimes very windy. Calendula were still in flower, as were violas, and the lettuces in the greenhouse kept coming everytime they were snipped. For the first winter in many years we have had no snow in Harrogate, yet. The leek planted in the autumn are strong, and may just be pulled for Xmas day lunch. This Dec was the eighth mildest in records dating back to 1910, and the mildest since 1988, and the windiest December in records from 1969 with many people spending a miserable Christmas with no power, floods and high winds. December 2014 was mild, warm, frozen and snowy, and as a result there was nothing from the veg patch this year! 2014 was officially the warmest year on record. 2015 was wet, windy and wet again, with terrible flooding across the North West and Yorkshire. Losing your home, business and garden is a horrible event, and at the time of year when you are supposed to be relaxing and having some time off seems doubly cruel. The odd sunny day did appear, with the weeds and bulbs, but working outside is pleasant when it’s so warm. December 2015 suffered from Storm Desmond and in some areas was the wettest on record, and the warmest. December 2016 was mild and dry and sunny, with the odd very cold day, and then very high winds for Christmas. 2017 was set to repeat, after some icy cold days before Christmas. The Kales stood tall whatever the weather, and some was stripped off for Christmas lunch. There are fat buds on the blackcurrant canes, and the blueberry bushes look happy. December 2018 was a bit wet compared to the rest of the year, with very cold snaps, and warm days. The Brussels sprouts were harvested for Xmas, and we small but tasted OK. They were rock hard on the stem, and very difficult to get off the stalk! Purple sprouting broccoli was very small, but kept going. And the Kale as ever continued to be picked and grew well. January
The weather may be cold, the light poor, the ground soggy, but there is plenty to do, inside and out. If you’d rather be in, check through seed and plant catalogues and plan, and even order, what you think you will need. When you can get out make sure you’ve at least put a top dressing of manure or compost onto your soil. If the area of soil you are planning to use is new, you can cover it with some mulching fabric (keeps light out, but lets water in, and keeps the soil warm). Try not to walk on the soil, but if it’s new (or covered in brambles and nettles and goodness knows what else) and you want to dig it over, then do so. Digging is satisfying and keeps you warm, but do too much and you’ll be bent double for a week. Some people think that digging messes up the soil’s structure and you should do as little as possible. Cover the soil with manure or compost and let the worms and weather do the rest, you just lightly dig to put in plants. Believe me, it’s a back-friendly option. Have you got a compost bin or area ready? If not, get it started, it’s essential and a long term commitment, so you may as well do it now. Reckon on two years before you get some useable compost. If you can’t have one, dig compost trenches in your soil. It’s best not to empty compost bins now as you may disturb a hibernating animal, or frog. Also, plan for some water butts. Sure you don’t need them now, but you will later on, but the rains come now. Find a down pipe, or put guttering on a shed, or some buckets you can tip into a water butt, so that you can start storing your water now. Plan your plot or garden so that you will not use a hosepipe, and only water from butts by watering can. This means planning good soil, mulches and not to many water-hungry pots. Inside, you can be planning what you’d like to grow, looking at seed catalogues and going online to browse, and getting items ready to sow seeds. You can buy all sorts of trays, propagators, root trainers or you can make your own by recycling the plastic trays and pots that are usually thrown away as part of your everyday household rubbish. Keep yoghurt pots, plastic ready meal trays, plastic fruit trays, toilet roll inards, in fact anything that might be useful. Make your own pots from newspaper, and let friends and family know you’d love their unwanted seed trays, and plant shop bedding trays. Conventional wisdom says you should thoroughly clean all your old pots and trays, ready for planting. Also think ahead as to whether you need a cloche or two to protect young plants, and some sort of anti-slug control. Plant labels are essential, so look out for bulk-buy bargains, as you’ll waste a lot of time if you don’t keep track of what you’ve planted, and where. Buying seeds is a very personal choice. There are loads of companies who deliver by mail order, or you can visit your garden centre, or even your local supermarket and hardware store. And if you can’t be bothered with seeds, many companies will deliver small vegetable plants to you at the right time, ready for you to plant out into your garden. Have a look at Home Grown Garden’s Useful websites to help you here. By the end of the month you should have some seed packets ready to hand, or on the way to you, some compost in which to grow them, and an idea of where you will be putting the young plants in the garden. If it’s your first year then look at a crop rotation plan that shows you which crops to grow together, and which should follow on the next year. How you do this depends a lot on the amount of space you have, and the range of crops you want to grow, but it is important that you don’t grow crops in the same soil each year. Pests get established and nutrients are used up if you do. As a minimum, rotate every three years, so keep a record of what you plant each year, just three or four big squares on a lined pad is enough. And write down what you plant, so they go in the correct place this year and you can move them on to the right place next year. Mind you, if you do the ‘square foot garden’ everything’s such a muddle that plants rarely stay in the same place. Make sure you have ordered any early potatoes that will need chitting as this can take six weeks or more. If you have prepared the ground, order any fruit bushes, trees and permanent veg plants you want to put in this spring. If you haven’t do it now, and if you can’t, don’t order. Permanent fruit needs a good site, so it’s better to wait until you can do that preparation rather than rushing in now. Pruning, trimming, tying up and generally tidying up around fruit trees and plants can be done (but not plums, trim them in summer). And if you are planning to plant some new fruit bushes and trees, make sure the ground has been dug over and manure dug in to give them a healthy home in March/April time. Keep any useful looking prunings and twigs to act as plant supports later in the year. Assuming you want to garden organically, it’s time to clear out any cupboards, the garage or hut of your chemicals. Take them to the local tip to be safely disposed of, and you won’t be tempted to use them again. The space left can be used for all sorts of things like safe pest controls. “How many black pots do you need?” I have been asked. It’s like shoes, there are never enough. Plant this month: In Jan 2008 at the plot was the end of beetroot and spinach. Chard, cabbage, and kale were ok. Leeks were lovely. At home I was eating rocket, cabbage, rainbow chard, and leeks. The green manure of Field beans were through, but many chewed off. Mustard green manure was looking very good. The garlic in a pot had new shoots peeping through. January 2009 saw still more leeks and beetroot from the plot, plus Jerusalem artichokes with Brussels and chard from the veg plot. Garlic planted in November was peeping through, and a green manure of field beans looked to have survived the frost. Curly Kale had been completely decimated by something, probably pigeons, so netting went over and the new shoots seemed to have recovered. January 2010 was under snow until 18 January when it started to thaw, but it was a slow and messy process. The turnips look more like rugby balls than tennis balls, the parsnips are hiding but taste delicious, some carrots remain and the kale stands proud. The new brassica look ok considering they’ve been under a blanket of snow for four weeks. But the phacelia has finely gone to rot. January 2011 seemed to fly by, and apart from some apple and pear tree pruning little was done. Once the snow had gone everything looked brown and flattened. The protective pots over the brassicas had been blown to the far corners of the garden, the leeks were frozen solid in the soil and the creeping buttercup looked healthy and defiant. 100m of permealay has been bought to cover it up this year. January 2012 was amazingly unproductive, considering how mild the weather was. But it seemed to be wet on a Sunday when I usually visit the veg patch. I did however lift some leeks, and some flat leaved parsley. Plans to reduce the number of beds we use have been put in place, and one large, and mainly unproductive bed under a damson tree is going to be turned over to annual flowers. The green manures make the plot look nice, rather than empty and desolate. January 2013 started very warm, and then went very cold (-13c) and then the snow came. The month ended warm, wet and windy. I have three spindly cabbages looking at me from the patch, and new chive shoots peeping through. There are buds on the fruit bushes, and the bronze fennel is sprouting from its base. In the greenhouse the autumn sown sweet peas are still there, small but perfect, alongside my new inside greenhouse/outside greenhouse thermometer. January 2014 was wet and mild, and looked to be heading the way of December. The water butts are overflowing, the ground is sodden and flooded, but everything’s got buds ready to burst forth! When the sun came out it was lovely, and the small green shoots of chives are peeping through. In the greenhouse, some things are looking very healthy. January 2015 was sunnier than normal, but still there was torrential rain, snow, ice, all the winter lovelies. But on clear days I did get out, and tipped more manure on to the soil. The buds all look thick on the fruit bushes, and I pruned the apple, taking out a large diseased limbs. January 2016 was very wet, and very windy. In Yorkshire there was flooding again, and the Stray in Harrogate is still under water in many places, but no doubt the crocuses will still appear in about a month. Cabbages in the veg patch seem to have a grown a bit, and there are fat buds on all the fruit bushes. Some Purple Sprouting Broccoli seedlings are germinating in the glass house. January 2017 was sunny sometimes, frozen over night, foggy and grey sometimes. But no snow! The veg patch still has some calendula, and leaf parsley and parsley and the Kale is small but still there. All the fruit bushes have beds and look ready to burst, but hopefully not yet. Inside the glasshouse the Pak Choi gets snipped and eaten, and the lettuce keeps going. Seed packets have been checked, and organised by family, ready for the crop rotation plan for the veg patch. January 2018 was very cold, with frozen lakes of water one week, and then 10c and wet the next week. Snow fell and stayed frozen to the ground, and then thawed into a wet mush leaving some very sad looking plants, before the strong winds tore through them. The veg patch looked bare, but bright green chive shoots started to appear, and there are fat buds on the blackcurrant bushes. There are three new asparagus crowns being started off in compost in the greenhouse, and the garlic bulbs have rooted well in pots ready to be planted out. Onion sets have just been potted up.
February
Check through January’s list and make sure you’ve done all the preparation work that you can. Fruit trees and bushes need to be pruned before the end of the month, while they are dormant and before they kick into action. This is an art/science in its own right, so I won’t cover it here, but a short piece is mentioned by each specific fruit in the Dictionary. Do a little, rather than nothing! If the fruit has a stone, eg. Cherry, or plum, don’t prune now, prune in Summer. Prune your winter fruiting raspberry canes by cutting back to the ground – but don’t touch your summer canes. And don’t touch cherry or plum now, leave them till the summer. Hopefully your seed packets have arrived, so read the instructions and start sowing some early varieties. Broad Bean and Parsnip are usually one of the first, certainly for outside. Do some Broad Beans in pots, and some outside. Don’t overdo it, as you’ll need to leave space for more sowings in March and onwards. It is very hard to throw away seedlings so don’t sow a lot and you won’t have to do this. The weather is still cold, the light poor and so unless you are using a heated greenhouse/indoor windowsill, nothing is likely to get going, but you’ll be less frustrated knowing you’ve done something. Opening a seed packet and sowing is like saying “We’re off”. Make sure you have ordered certified virus-free seed potatoes and then put them to be chitted. Late varieties may not need chitting, but earlies do. I have read that you should plant out chitted tubers on Good Friday. Well that’s 21 March in 2008, 12 April in 2009, 24 April in 2011. But, Easter follows the lunar cycle, and as we are told, that’s worth following to get great veg. You are leaving it late, but prepare fruit and asparagus beds now if you have not yet done so. If not, leave until the autumn, so that’s one less job to do now. If you’ve planted some summer fruiting Raspberries, they need supports, so get them in now; and work out what you are going to use to support beans and peas. Autumn fruiting raspberries tend to be self supporting, or you can tie them into wires if you have put them in. If you’ve had your soil covered, but you know it’s got loads of nettles and brambles, peel some material back and have a go at digging them out, then recover. Do a little at a time, often is much easier than killing yourself with a big job, and you tend to be more thorough. You can keep doing this until planting out which could be months away. Doing something is better than nothing, however small. If you have perfect soil, then rake it to remove debris that arrives from nowhere, and all the bits and pieces from your compost that rise to the surface over the winter. If you haven’t yet done so, put some garden compost/manure on the beds, and maybe cover with permealay to start warming the soil up. If you live in a warm, sheltered area you may even be thinking of planting out, but being a northern gardener I won’t do anything till the end of March, early April. Look for weeds in the veg patch, once they start showing you know the soil’s warming up. It’s frustrating to wait, but plants only do well when the conditions are right (either naturally or by artificially protecting them) so be patient. It is better to plant varieties that like the conditions you put them in (ie. early carrots, late cabbages) than trying to force nature into behaving as you want. You know, or will get to know, the weather conditions for your veg patch, so work with them. The south may be warmer, but the north doesn’t have hosepipe bans! Cloches make a huge difference where your patch may be shaded, or you get lots of frost; they stop the frost, warm up the soil and keep heavy rain off the soil. The size of your plot, and what you want to grow will dictate how much you want to sow, and what type of veg, but below is what you could be doing (not what you have to). With one exception, if you want some, plant your Jerusalem Artichokes and Parsnips this month unless the ground is waterlogged or frozen. There are boring jobs to be on with as well, like cleaning the mower, washing out old plant pots; but this is a nice job to do on a sunny frosty day, when the soil should be left alone. Also, don’t forget your compost bin. Have a look, is it dry, is it cold? If it’s in a sunny spot winter sun can keep it very warm, and any early grass mowings will be an effective activator to get things going. If you think wildlife may be hibernating in it, wait till March, otherwise, open it up and turn it now, using what you can on the plot. The weather in February can be a complete mixture. In 2007, early February saw warm sunny days, with temperatures of 10C in the sun, crocuses were out, buds were forming; but at night temperatures dropped to -3C with frozen ground, and snow fell on 8 Feb 2007 after a week of lovely sunny days. In 2008 early February saw the birds out and the smell of spring in the air, and then temperatures plummeted to -5C during the day and -10C was recorded on 16/2/08 in Birmingham. February 2009 started with lots of snow and freezing temperatures all over the country. From 2 Feb – the snow lay thick and solid here. So, enjoy the sun and scenery, but don’t plant out can be the moral of the story for February. Plant this month: In Feb 2008 the plot let us pick Kale, the last of the leeks and of course, lots of Jerusalem artichokes. In the veg plot there was Rocket, the last cabbage, Kale and the last leeks. In 2009 the plot was obliterated by snow and everything was frozen solid. If we could have got them out there were still cabbages, beetroot and leeks and of course Jerusalem Artichokes. Feb 2010 was a blur of fog, frozen ground, snow, rain and yet some perfect carrots and parsnips were lifted, and the dear Jerusalem artichoke, and some Kale was still edible, as was the parsley, though somewhat bolted. And chives were just peeping through. Feb 2011 was very windy, but there was not much to eat from the patch except some lovely leeks, and Jerusalem artichokes. The first pink shoots of Rhubarb appeared, and were covered over. The chives are back again. The kale and cabbages look battered! Despite winter 2011 being mild, February 2012 was pretty frozen and snow lay about, so little got done apart from making paths, and fixing raised beds. The Brussels sprouts kept going, and some cabbages survived the rabbits. The last of the parsnips were eaten, and the evergreen Rocket looks like it’s had it! Some purple sprouting broccoli appeared at the end of feb which was lovely, and the first Rhubarb shoots are through. February 2013 saw a bare patch, which was raked and manured and covered, ready for a bountiful year. The chives were just peeping though, and the fruit bushes have buds ready and waiting. February 2014 passed by mild, windy and wet. I saw slugs, and hosta tips, and bulb tips coming through. The crocus and Iris reticulata were out the second week of Feb, and the chive shoots are growing. Buds are on all the fruit bushes, and trees, ready to burst, and luckily I just got the fruit tree pruning done. We had the first and only snow of the season on 12 February but it was gone by lunchtime, to be followed by huge gales that evening that even lifted the artificial lawn! February 2015 has been quite dry, but still with very cold and frosty nights, and some snow. The chives are peeping through, and some crocuses are in flower. Two lots of horse manure from a local stable have gone down on the four veg beds. The fruit bushes have lots of nice fat buds and the golden fennel looks to be peeping through. February 2016 had clear sunny days, followed by cold and frosty nights, but after all the rain it was lovely to see some sun. The snowdrops seemed to take ages to come out, and there they are, in flower with the crocuses and early daffs. February 2017 was calm to start with compared to previous years, with ferocious storms for a few days near the end that uprooted trees and caused havoc. In the veg patch buds appeared, chives peeped through, and the kale looks very picked, but it’s been brilliant all winter. Pak choi in the glasshouse and lettuce kept sheltered has been snipped at all winter, but now the seed sowing starts in earnest. The Stray Crocuses re plentiful and stunning. In 2018 the veg patch always seemed to be frozen, or with snow on. The Kale stalks stood tall, but bare as most of the leaves had been eaten, but the chive shoots are peeping through, and the crocuses dotted through the patch look pretty. The rhubarb has big fad buds, so it’s been covered to produce new shoots. Sweet pea seedlings have been outside in a pot all winter and seem fine, so when the snow’s gone they can be planted out. And potatoes are chitting, the start of the new veg year begins! 2019 was a mild February with glorious crocuses, and the chives started early. Huge buds sit on the blackcurrants, and some cherries are already in blossom. The potatoes are chitting, the sweet peas are ready and the broad beans already planted out!
March
Check through January and February’s notes to make sure you’ve done those jobs, but now is the start of the serious seed sowing season. Mind you, it can still snow, as it did in 2006, in mid-March, and at the end of March in 2008 for an early white Easter. 2 March 2010 had about 2cm of snow, but the sun melted it soon where it could, leaving horrid frozen pockets where it couldn’t. This is when you can identify troublesome frost pockets in your garden, and plan accordingly, ie. No fruit trees to be planted in these spots! If your seeds have arrived, read the packets to see when they should be sown, and start off a few in a greenhouse, growhouse or windowsill. I store my seeds in boxes marked with the month they can be first planted, then at the end of the month I move them to the next month. March, April and May's boxes are big! You may have had your onion sets waiting patiently, and you could start to plant them out now. Ideally the soil will be warm and friable, not hard, wet and sticky. The further apart the onions are the bigger they could get - the choice is yours! But check the instructions as some onions planted out too early will bolt. Make a hole and drop the onion set in, and then just lightly push down the soil around. Cover with netting or chicken wire to stop birds pulling them out. Keep checking that they are still in the ground until they have green shoots and look settled Anything nasty on leaves or fruit that is left about is harbouring the disease/pest for next season so check your trees and bushes and remove diseased material. Also apply tree grease/sticky tape to the main trunk of trees to trap moths and other pests that will start to appear in spring. Mulch your fruit bushes and trees with manure, or good compost. Do it for young and old alike, but don’t cover the base of the bush/tree, do it around the base to nourish and protect the soil. Prune your winter fruiting raspberry canes by cutting back to the ground – but don’t touch your summer canes! In the veg patch, cover the soil with some mulching fabric, or cardboard, or clear plastic sheeting, to warm it up, and kill off the first weed seedlings as they kick into life. Remove the material a couple of weeks before planting and hoe off the weed seedlings that will appear. You can do this (takeoff/put back lark) a couple of times in the next few months, particularly if you are planting that area late. This should give your veg seeds a bit of breathing space to germinate and get going, before yet more weeds get going. How often you need to do this will vary depending on whether you are using new land, how much you let weeds take hold last year, and what time you have available. But mulching fabric, (or cardboard, or newspapers) is well worth the effort as when weeds take over your plot it is soul destroying. If you know the plot will not have crops for a few months, sow a green manure; but why is it going to be empty? You could put in some lettuce, radish, or rocket. Seed beds should have that perfect soil you see in established allotments, and RHS gardens, and the secret I am told is raking. But if you can’t have a seed bed, make your plot bed as good as possible. Without standing on the soil, rake it, and rake again to prepare the perfect tilth. The reason you do not want to stand on the soil is it compacts it, or squishes it. Out goes the air that the roots need to breath, and trap water, so the plant won’t grow. Plants want loose nutritious soil to provide air, trap water and create a lovely growing environment. If you can’t stick your finger into the soil easily, it’s going to be hard going for a seedling. Sow more seeds indoors/under cover and pot up seedlings which have come through. The fewer seeds you sow in trays the easier this is to do, and you won’t be annoyed at having to throw away seedlings that you don’t have the pots or space for. And label everything, I once planted a row of chives to be ornamental only to find they were leeks. Needless to say the leek crop flowered beautifully! It is hard to know how much to sow, but if you read the packet’s instructions, you can calculate how many plants will fit in the area you have set aside. For an average garden or allotment plot it is not really going to matter if you sow too little, you can sow some more later (known as successional sowing) or try something else. It is far better to sow a little often, than all at once. Outside you can sow some early varieties of vegetables (check your packet, and the weather forecast), and some early potatoes that you’ve successfully chitted. But be careful, the weather is very changeable, so be patient and keep plants covered rather than lose what you’ve just planted. If you put out potatoes and the shoots are through, make sure you cover them at night when it seems cold, frost is a killer of new shoots. I saw a TV program that tested ‘to chit, or not’ and it concluded that earlies and second earlies must be chitted, but for maincrop it’s not so important. Tomatoes are the most popular ‘vegetable’ that we grow, and according to Organic Gardening Magazine (Winter 2008) calculating your sowing date is the route to success. You need to make sure the plant produces pollen as otherwise you’ll have no fruit. The way to calculate this is by temperature, easy in a greenhouse, less so outside. Ideally you need around 20C to ensure pollen will be produced, so when do you think this will be? Work this out and then sow your seedlings 6-8 weeks before this date (the earlier your calculated pollen date the longer the growing time). So, for an expected early July 20C temperature, sow your tomatoes mid to late May keeping them nice and warm and watered. And then of course you need to check the varieties that you want to grow... but, even in Yorkshire tomatoes grow just fine outside, with a bit of protection, a nice sunny wall and plenty of mulching and feeding. Sadly blight completely wiped out our whole tomato crop in summer 2008, 2009 and 2010. At the start of August the trusses were set and going red and it looked wonderful. By September they’d turned to a sad black, rotten mess. Supports that plants such as peas and beans will need can be put up now. It will make you feel you are doing something even though it could be a couple of months before they are needed. Things like pea sticks (birch or beech twigs) can be gathered on walks, but you can do this bit by bit, so long as you remember. All the catalogues sell pea and bean supports, but you can be creative and make your own; try growing some willow, or hazel to coppice to make supports. If you have lots of slugs and snails, put in some pest barriers now, and check them to remove the pests so they are not lying in wait for your plants. Try using plastic plant pots with the bottom cut out as a barrier for young plants, beer jars and upturned grapefruits as traps. I think slugs and snails are creatures of habit, so learn these habits and launch your ‘seek and destroy’ mission before planting out your precious, and vulnerable seedlings. You can buy nematodes (microscopic worms) that kill off slugs and snails. You just water them into your soil, and if the instructions are followed they are successful. I haven’t used them, for no reason other than I don’t like the thought. Plant this month: At the plot in March 2007 we were harvesting endless purple sprouting broccoli and curly kale. In March 2008 the plot let us pick the last of leeks, kale, chard. At home the chives were peeping through and we could pick rocket, kale, and the last cabbage. March 2009 started off cold, but had lots of warm sunny days and by the end I was picking rocket and chives, and salad leaves from the coldframe, and still Brussels Sprouts! The plot gave up the last of the Beetroot and leeks, and Jerusalem Artichokes. 2010 saw sun in March, quite a lot of it in fact, but there was still snow at the start, ice at night, and cold winds. The grass started growing around 20 March, as did the weed seedlings. The last of the parsnips were dug out as they started to sprout again, and some delicious last carrots were eaten. The new spring brassicas are growing, but not supplying much yet, and the rhubarb has some pink stems just peeping through. Asparagus plants are due, and the potatoes have chitted, ready to go out on 2 April, Good Friday. Chives are peeping through at home, and the lettuce seeds have been sown. In March 2011 the days were wonderfully warm and sunny, but there was often a heavy frost at night. The last leeks were lifted and sadly the brassicas are very small, but those that survived the winter must be hardy, so hopefully they will succeed. Lots of chitted potatoes have been planted, and sweet pink rhubarb was picked and eaten. I spotted a finger sized asparagus spear on a plant whose roots appeared fully exposed! At home the chives are through. March 2012 was warm, dry, sunny, with heavy frost at night. Rhubarb was tender and sweet, and the one plant now produces lots of stems housed in an old chimney pot. The cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and Brussels sprouts started to bolt as the last were picked, and the chard kept going. Chives are peeping through, as is the fennel, and the fruit bushes are in leaf. There was nothing to pick in March 2013, as nothing had got going in 2012 with all the rain. But, the rhubarb stalks are there and trying! March 2014 was warm some days, wet on others, with occasional frost, in other words, Ok really. Chives are through, fruit bushes are sprouting, and seedlings are germinating in the greenhouse. 2015 will be good because of the mild late autumn, delaying the blossom this spring, so it should have ideal conditions when it emerges. Meanwhile, March was dry, and quite warm, so the lawns started growing, and the air felt very spring like. The chives are through, buds are fit to burst on shrubs, but the nights have been very cold, with heavy frost greeting dawn. March 2016 was sunny, and cold, and we had quite a lot of heavy snow in the first week. Then it was dry and the soil started to lose its waterlogged look, but over Easer it returned. Easter weekend was a mixed bag of sun, hail and wind, but plants are starting to grow now. The rhubarb has shoots, chives are through, currant bushes and Blueberry bushes are ready to open their leaves, and weed seedlings have started. March 2017 was pretty dry, with the occasional very windy day, and cold mornings. Nothing much is going on in the veg patch, except lots of buds waiting! The chives are through and the rhubarb, and salad leaves in the glasshouse. March 2018 was very cold wet and dull, but still some plants survived the frozen conditions. All the fruit bushes have fat buds, and shoots are springing up from the chives. Rhubarb tips are pink and ready to unfurl, and the garlic and onion sets look happy. April
OK, you’ve had enough of waiting, Easter’s here, so out you go. Tell your family and friends you are in the garden, and will be until October. Shame about any late snow, but there's work to be done! If you have a greenhouse you can shuffle between it and the plot to avoid the showers, making the best use of your time. If not, use windowsills in the house, or create your own cold frame outside. A sheet of glass/clear plastic on some bricks is a start, as the glass keeps the rain off the seed trays/pots, and warms up the soil. Another way is to put trays and pots in a clear polythene bag, and put it in a sunny spot or under a cloche. This keeps them warm and protected, and is cheap and easy to do. Although you can sow seed direct into the ground now, plants will come on more quickly if you sow them in trays/pots this month, and then transplant them into open soil. Towards the end of April, you can sow direct outdoors. The exception, as always, are the root veg which like to be sown direct, but you can try fooling them by planting them in biodegradable pots (or loo roll cardboard inners) under cover. Then when the shoots appear, plant the whole pot in the soil, and protect, and the plant will never know! When outside you can busy yourself by raking the soil where seeds and seedlings are going. If you want a good even seed germination then a fine tilth is needed. If you are putting in plants or seedlings then it’s not so important. Either way you need to make sure you have put in something to protect the young plants from slugs, snails, birds, mice, cats, rabbits, deer, pheasants or whatever your particular pests are. A row of newly germinated seedlings can disappear overnight if not protected. Try anything from beer traps, copper wire, plastic protectors, netting, cloches of all descriptions. Seedlings that have been grown in trays or pots, or under a cloche, need to have time to get used to the real world, (called hardening off). This is easy with a cold frame, you just open the lid; or with a cloche, you can lift it off during the day, and return it at night. Seedlings grown inside should spend the day outside and then return inside, or be covered at night. If you’ve got green manures in the soil, dig them up about three weeks before you want to put new crops in. Either dig them back into the soil, or put on the compost heap. At this time of year, mulching is not something you need to usually worry about. You’ll already have put some manure around your roses and fruit bushes and trees, so the only crops that might like a bit are potatoes and asparagus. Potatoes need to have a layer of organic matter added on the surface all the time to keep the soil moist and hide the tubers. You can use garden compost or (untreated) grass mowings for this. Your asparagus crowns would like a bit of mulching, but look out for slugs which like it too. The idea of mulching is to keep the soil warm and moist, so if the soil is cold and dry and you put a layer of mulch on now, it will stay that way! It’s best to mulch when the soil’s warmed up, and it’s been raining. If you are itching to do things, but the weather’s not so good, clear out your compost bins. Bag up the good stuff and then toss the other back in the bin, and mix well with the first grass mowings. You can dig in the good stuff when you sow potatoes, or plant out beans, peas, courgettes, sweetcorn, anything which likes a moisture retentive soil. Your veg patch will benefit from a selection of wildlife and insect attracting plants. Limnanthes (poached egg flower) flower early and self-seed, Calendula (pot marigold) are always around, and self seed, so just remove ones from a row of veg and leave others to flower. Phacelia, a green manure will grow anywhere and insects love the flowers. You know Lavender is always full of bees so have at least one plant nearby. French Marigolds are supposed to confuse various insects, and lure slugs, so plant rows of these where you can. I always grow sunflowers because I love them, and their height means they don’t bother anything else in the patch. In winter heathers flower and are full of insects so it’s worth having them near your veg plot. Take a look at your plot if you can, at night if it’s warm, and has been raining. You’ll be able to pick off loads of slugs before they do their damage. Check over any perennial herbs, like chives, lavender, marjoram, oregano. You can lift and divide chives now, and prune the woody herbs. Now it’s just down to you to sort your seed packets out and start sowing. It is better to sow a little and often so that you can crop over a longer period. It also means you should not be swamped with seedlings. For some crops, like courgette, it is possible to have too many in the summer, and it’s frustrating not being able to use the produce. So limit how many of these you grow, as they’ll stop producing when you stop picking. For other crops like rocket, lettuce, radish, salad onion, you want a small amount over a long time, so keep sowing all summer. If you are new to veg growing, try to limit what you sow this year, so that you don’t get too much work on your hands. And make a list of what’s worked, and what you’d like to try next year. Some people say ‘grow what you can’t buy’ others say ‘grow what you like to eat’. I’m for the latter, but it’s your choice! Finally, be aware of anyone else you know who works on their veg patch or allotment, so you can plant swap. It’s fun and you get a range of varieties, and find homes for your spare plants. Sow this month: In 2007 I was eating Spring cabbage and rocket (perennial) and lettuce by the end of month. At the plot we were eating purple sprouting broccoli, curl kale and parsley. In 2008 the plot let us pick rocket, (hopefully) first lettuce, leeks, Kale, chives. And, if you want to know, I reckon up here the last frost was on Monday 14 April 2008. The plot in 2009 gave us the last of the leeks, but the purple sprouting broccoli and curly Kale were looking good to eat. In the veg patch chives and rocket were lovely. April 2009 was dry and sunny, but with cool nights and a frost on 21 April. April 2010 was warm, dry, sunny, windy in the day, but frost at nights, even on 19 and 20 April, whilst reaching 17c in the day. The plot had the first ever pink Rhubarb shoot, some tasty Kale and Purple sprouting broccoli and parsley, and at home the perennial rocket was back with lovely chives. Waiting in the new pyramid are sunflowers, sweetcorn and lettuce seedlings. First asparagus shoots peeping through and the school’s Emerald Vale and Rocket potatoes have green shoots in their grow bags. 2011 was so dry, (warmest April on record) after a dry March as well. But the potatoes under the layer of permealay came up OK. The onion sets looked very forlorn in the dry soil, and seeds took an age to germinate. The weeds however had a great time, with huge nettles, thistles, dock and creeping buttercup. The strawberries were full of flowers, and the rhubarb leaves huge. Seeds sown under cover germinated like magic, and there are sweetcorn and courgette plants waiting to be planted. The chives and rocket were perfect. 2012 had a bit of Chard left over, and some new Chives and rocket. The first spears of Asparagus were peeping through. The heavy rain at the back end of April was welcomed, but not the hail and cold temperatures that came with it. April 2012 was the wettest for 100 years. Oddly on 4 April 2012 the Environment Agency said it had been the driest 18 months on record and seven water companies issued hosepipe bans. On this day in Yorkshire it snowed, and then on 9 April some places had more rain in one day than the whole of February, with flash floods. By 11 May the drought order was lifted in 19 areas. As the newspaper said, it’s the wettest drought ever! 2013 found April cold, windy, and fairly dry. Not good growing conditions. Lettuce seedlings in the ground stayed small, and the blossom on fruit trees was not out. 2014 was warm and sunny, and sometimes horrible and wet. But inside the greenhouse it was very warm ,so everything germinated but could go outside! I riskes planting autumn grown sweet peas, and then some summer broccoli. And a row of carrots, beetroot and spinach started off inside. Fingers x. The perennial rocket is back and the chives, and some asparagus. 2015 was very dry and sunny, but cold nights with a late and destructive frost at the end of April. Chives are lovely, and the perennial rocket, and the calendula and borage have self-seeded in the veg patch. The warm weather has brought on the seedlings in the greenhouse, but maybe it’s been too hot for them. Lots of lovely rhubarb all month. And the first asparagus stalks are through. All the fruit trees have been in blossom all month. 2016 had a long dry stretch, where the seedlings got scorched, and then eaten by slugs, but the winter cabbages grew, and the chives were out. And the sweet peas look OK on their new frame. Borage and calendula seedlings appeared and then stopped. Then it turned cold, wet, wintry, with snow, ice and frost every night of the last week of April. 2017 was very dry, only a few odd showers. The ground is baked hard, ponds and reservoirs are at very low levels, and water butts are dry. Plants like lettuces that were put out haven’t been eaten by slugs, but haven’t grown much either. Lots of veg seedlings in growhouse, which has been very warm due to sun. Courgettes, pumpkins, leeks, sweetcorn all ready. April 2018 was cold, wet and windy, and the greenhouse stayed shut for most days except a couple of exceptional days that reached 27oC. However, salad seedlings, tomoatoes and all sorts of brassica did well, and have now been planted out, with cloches for protection. The chives are fully out, a protected asparagus has emerged, the sweet peas are hanging on, and lots more is ready to be planted out.
May
In May you could probably spend all your time in the veg patch, and there’d still be more to do. This is the month when you can sow most seeds outside, and start to put out plants you’ve had in the greenhouse, and hopefully plant out any bedding plants. Of course you should keep a check on weather forecasts for any last minute frosts, and if frost is likely, cover your plot with fleece, or newspaper (but it does fly away), or straw, or anything to just keep the killer frost off your new plants. To harden off veg that you’ve potted up, put them out in the sun during the day, but make sure that you take them back in at night, or protect them somehow. Night winds and low temperatures will check the growth of plants that have been used to nice warm indoor conditions. April 2008 was cold and grey (but dry), April 2009, 2010 and 2011 have been warm, sunny and this year too dry. So, as a result you may find you've got greenhouses, growhouses and coldframes chock full, but you don't feel comfortable planting out as it’s cold at night. But if you try planting a few out using cloches, or fleece or plastic to protect the plants they should be OK. Veg that you want to plant out straight away, like sweetcorn, courgettes, brassicas will do well if covered with a plastic bottle, or cloche for a few weeks. It should stop slug damage, and the plants will get big and strong so when you remove the bottle they can survive on their own. But don’t get carried away and sow too many courgettes, unless you have space you want to fill. Just two plants can give you 50 courgettes in a summer, and believe me, that’s enough! If your time available in the plot is limited, you’ll have to manage it effectively! Getting rid of weeds now will save you time later. If you’ve put down permealay or some form of soil cover you’ll be thanking yourself for doing so, as that area will be weed free and you can get on with other things. But in areas where this is not an option, just a few minutes hand weeding or hoeing now will stop things getting much worse later on, and give your young plants a chance to establish so that weeds do not bother them. Annual flowers, and maybe a small wildflower area can be sown now. There’s no reason why the veg patch can’t look colourful and well as bountiful. Nasturtium, Calendula and other marigolds look good, and poppies. Any type of herb nearby will attract all sorts of insects. Check fruit blossom for any maggots, or moths and remove by hand if you can. If the plants are new, make sure they get plenty of water if there’s been little rain. Grass mowings should go on the potatoes, around the courgettes, and raspberries, and anywhere that likes the soil to stay moist. And put the rest in the compost bin, which you’ll need to keep turning to speed things up. However, if you treat your grass you’ll have to compost it elsewhere before it’s safe to go on the garden. If the parsnip you sowed earlier has not come up, try another sowing now. It may still work, but the roots you harvest will be smaller. Christmas may seem a long way off, but start sowing now for the veg you’d like to be eating on the big day. Cabbages and other brassica that you’d like to eat over Christmas and the winter should be sown now. Red cabbage on Christmas Day, picked from your own garden would be lovely to eat. And of course you’ll have loads left to last till spring. And everyone has the odd Brussels sprout at Christmas don’t they? Established asparagus plants will produce spears this month, ready to be harvested and eaten. Cut off the spears just below the surface. Plants less than two years old should be left alone so that the spears can grow and produce a strong plant for future years. (Oh, go on, one spear won’t matter!) When you sow seed outside and they all come up, you need to thin them out. First just take a few out so that every seedling has a bit of space, and then in time, take more out so that the crop has the correct spacings (usually given on the packet). This way you should not have any gaps in your rows, and should have strong healthy plants. Some young leaves can be used in your salad, some can be replanted elsewhere, maybe in a new row, or to fill a gap, and the rest can go on the compost heap. If you can grow some crops in pots, it gives you flexibility. It means you’ve got some plants that can go out early if the weather allows, or you can keep them under cover a little longer if it’s cold. These plants will withstand slug attack, and be ready to crop earlier that seed sown crops which you can do next to them. And make sure you do a last minute slug hunt with a torch before you go to bed. You’ll get to know where to look for them! But, little pots filled with beer around the place, and some coffee granules, and some copper tape will all help to keep slugs and snails away until the plant can fend for itself. Do not give up! Plant this month: In 2007 I was eating: lettuce, rocket, chive, radish, spring cabbage. At the plot we harvested curly kale and parsley. In 2008, it was mainly salad items at the veg patch and kale at the plot. 2009 was a bit odd, April was dry and sunny, May was wet, and a bit cold. As a result everything up here was under cover and getting going, so the potatoes loved it! So we could eat lettuce (covered), chives, rocket, and a few asparagus spears. 2010 was bone dry, every week passed sunny and dry, and there were even harsh frosts mid-May that killed off blossom, Hydrangea leaves , Astilbes, and potatoes. The plot still had Kale and purple sprouting broccoli, with salad leaves (under cover), rhubarb and rocket. The red clover green manure looked wonderful with big red furry flowers all in one bed. At home it was rocket and chives, and some Asparagus. In 2011 a late May frost turned all the potato leaves brown, and crispy, but happily they have recovered. Little germinated in the open when sown due to the dry conditions, except the parsnips. The rhubarb has grown huge, there are flowers on all the strawberry plants, and the onion sets have turned green and seem to be growing. At home the courgette plants are big, and the rocket, chives, radish, asparagus and lettuce are being eaten everyday. May 2012 was a sad place in the veg patch. It was cold and wet and nothing would germinate. But, the potatoes popped through, the comfrey appeared and the chard kept going. Strawberry plants are flowering promising fruit soon, and the rhubarb, chives and perennial rocket are edible. And, finally, some Asparagus! May 2013 saw me picking a few asparagus spears early one and then the cold snap came, and they disappeared. The perennial rocket is back, and the protected lettuces sown last month are now edible. There are lots of flowers on the blueberry, gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes, and the apple blossom came out very late. The potatoes have shoots, but very small, so harvesting them, even the earlies will be late. Spring 2013 was the coldest for 34 years, and also quite dry. 2014 was nice and sunny, some rain then dry, and all sorts of veg germinated happily in the glass house and was planted out. But then the heavy rain came and nothing much more happened! Potatoes from last year sprouted everywhere, and the lettuce and rocket is nice to eat. The courgettes didn’t germinate but pumpkins did, so I will sow again. The tomato plants look happy in the glasshouse, but they would wouldn’t they! 2015 has been sunny but cold. The tomato plants are small, but growing, and the courgette plants have been planted out to fend for themselves. Pumpkin seeds have now germinated, and the lettuce seedlings that got eaten have been replaced, but I’m keeping them in the green house. This year I’ve tried sowing carrots and beetroot and planting them out, as they get eaten otherwise. Onions and garlic look fine, and the sweetcorn seedlings protected by mesh are OK. The spinach seedlings haven’t done much, but peas and sweet peas and sunflowers are holding their own in the wind. 2016 the weather was ok, just a bit cool, but there was rain, and sun. The annual rocket bolted in a dry patch, but the sweet peas have rocketed in the rain. Chard and leaf celery are doing well, and the angelica sown last year as a little seedling is now a huge leafy plant, and in completely the wrong place. The blackcurrant and blueberry bushes are full of flower, and the cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts seedlings are doing well. In the glasshouse, sweetcorn is waiting to go outside. 2017 was so dry, all the seedlings stayed the same size, but didn’t get eaten by slugs. The sweet peas only shot up at the end of the month with rain. The plants in the growhouse have done very well, but some got very dry in the hot sun. The large courgette plants are now out, as is the sweetcorn, leeks and lettuces. The basil germinated over night as did the salad rocket. 2018 was warm and very dry with the water butts going empty, and seedlings frying in the growhouse. But the sweet peas have grown, and the lettuces in troughs provide lots of pickings. The sweetcorn, beans and courgettes are ready to go out, and the tomatoes and chilies in the glasshouse look happy.
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| Proverb: Life is just a bowl of cherries | |
