The Weather!

In my last blog I talked about the unpredictable weather we’ve been having, and the weather has been a major topic of conversation over the last few weeks. I hadn’t quite appreciated how hamstrung gardeners can be by freezing temperatures in winter. As well as hampering digging, I’ve learnt that pruning shouldn’t be carried out when the temperature is below freezing, as the wounds won’t heal properly. Fortunately, as we are developing some of the garden areas at Ryton Gardens, there’s been plenty of strenuous work going on to keep us warm! This has involved shifting barrow loads of soil, turf and rubble, and last week we built very impressive looking turf stack over six feet tall. This will now be covered and left to rot down to produce a rich loam. There’s also been plenty of work to do indoors this month as the gardens need to be planned for next year and seeds ordered. Ideal excuses for not venturing outdoors on the really cold days!

The redevelopment in the gardens means that the Pest and Disease Control garden is going to be incorporated into an expanded Organic Allotment garden. I’m sad to see this garden go as I’ve really enjoyed growing vegetables in it over the last six months, and have learnt a lot from it about plant health. However, I’ll still have a chance to indulge in my love of growing veggies as I’m going to be helping out in the Biodynamic garden in the New Year. This is a great opportunity for me to learn more about the interesting techniques involved in growing biodynamically.

So there’s plenty to look forward to in 2011, and lots of work to do in the gardens to help burn off those extra pounds I’ll enjoy putting on over Christmas!

Confused Plants

The weather over the last few months has been very temperamental. Yesterday there was fog and frost, whereas today we have lashings of wind and rain. It’s not only confusing for us when trying to decide what to wear on a morning, but the plants seem to be perplexed too. Yesterday, when I was tidying up the strawberry bed in the Soft Fruit garden, I noticed that some of the plants were flowering, either six months early or six months late! There are also fruit on summer-fruiting raspberries, and cowslips, a spring flower, are in bloom.

In the Pest and Disease Control garden, vegetable production is starting to wane, although there are a few plants still going strong. I was really pleased with the Florence fennel that I harvested few weeks ago. I’ve tried, and failed, to grow this before on my allotment, but it seems to have thrived in the warm Mediterranean-like summer we’ve had this year. Whitefly have been a problem in the Brassica bed this year. As well as making the kale look unappetising, they’ve led to sooty mould on some plants, as this fungus grows on the honeydew they secrete. However, the Brussels sprouts are still doing well, and there should be enough of them to last until Christmas. I’m also growing Tatsoi in this bed. Apparently this hardy pak choi can survive temperatures down to –10°C, so it has a chance of surviving whatever weather there is to come over the months ahead.

Over the coming weeks, my attention in the gardens will be turning to winter pruning. I also need to order seeds and start planning the gardens for next year – ideal indoor jobs for the further inclement weather that is no doubt on its way.

The Season for Pumpkins!

I love this time of year: the crisp mornings, hearty soups, and leaves on the trees turning beautiful shades of red, orange and pink in preparation for winter. And preparations have also started in Garden Organic’s gardens at Ryton. I’ve now harvested a lot of the vegetables from the Pest and Disease Control garden and started sowing green manures in the empty beds. These will prevent leaching of nutrients from the soil, maintain and improve soil structure and suppress weeds over winter. I’m using a mixture Hungarian grazing rye and mustard, both of which should still germinate and grow at this time of year, and the grazing rye should continue to grow over the winter.

Another thing I like about this time of year is the drop in temperature. It means the weeds aren’t growing as quickly as they were a few months ago, and I finally feel like I’m winning in the battle against them.

Elsewhere in the Pest and Disease Control garden, the leaf beets and kale are continuing to provide fresh greens, the courgettes are growing at a more manageable rate, and it’s time to harvest the pumpkins. The pumpkins (‘White Large’ variety) aren’t going to break any records, but I’m pleased with their size and can’t wait to make some tasty soup with them. I’m also looking forward to helping out with the pumpkin carving activities that are taking place at Ryton Gardens over half term. When I was growing up, I don’t think pumpkins were readily available in our town, so my dad had the arduous task of hollowing out and carving a face in a Swede every halloween. I’m hoping it’ll be a lot easier to make lanterns out of pumpkins!

Apple Trees

Good news! All three of us apprentices passed our tree and shrub identification test for the diploma this week with 100%. This is something that I had been worrying about. Although I was OK with the common names of a few well-known species, such as oak and hawthorn, when it came to Latin names and a list of twenty different species, I didn’t have a clue. So I’ve spent the last few weeks practising my tree i.d. to anyone who’d listen to me, and thankfully it paid off. All the units that we’ll be covering in the diploma have now been chosen and we’ve made a start on a unit covering propagation. For this, we’ve been learning how to take cuttings from an apple tree, ‘Winter Gem’, in the orchard at Ryton Gardens that’s growing on its own rootstock. This is unusual for apples, as the top part of the tree is usually grafted onto the roots of a different tree to restrict growth, which means that new trees grown from cuttings would normally grow much bigger than their parent. However, as the ‘Winter Gem’ apple is growing on its own roots, cuttings should produce trees identical to the original.

There’s a definite autumnal feeling starting to descend on the gardens. Apple harvesting is now well underway, autumn-fruiting raspberries are ready to pick in the soft fruit garden, and in the pest and disease control garden I’ve already harvested some parsnips and the pumpkins are a very respectable size. The pumpkins are a white variety called ‘White Large’, so they should make interesting ghostly lanterns for Halloween, while the red-orange flesh will make a delicious soup.

It’s now time to select and plant bulbs for early colour next year, and I’ll soon be turning my attention to winter pruning.

Slug Control

One of the things people are most interested in when they visit the pest and disease control garden here at Garden Organic’s, is the slug control display. I’m sure most gardeners have at some time gone to check on their lettuce or bean seedlings, only to find them devastated by a night of slug gluttony. A variety of slug control methods are on display in the garden, from barriers such as plastic collars and bran, and the classic beer traps to nematode biological control (microscopic worms containing bacteria that kill slugs). All these methods seem to be doing their job in the garden. Unfortunately, they can’t stop the voles that are burrowing under the soil and nibbling at the roots and stems of plants. I’ve lost a chilli and lettuce and beetroot seedlings to them so far. Although, I have to admit they are more tolerable than slugs since they’re a lot cuter!

There’s also been a lot of interest in the cage covering the brassica bed, made by one of our volunteers from plastic pipes, canes and enviromesh. It’s done a fantastic job in keeping cabbage root fly, caterpillars and pigeons at bay and we now have a beautiful crop of blemish-free cabbages. Another use of enviromesh in the garden is as a barrier around carrots to keep out carrot flies.

Encouraging wildlife into your garden that eats pests is also a good way to protect crops. A pond for toads and frogs, or a pile of logs and leaves for hedgehogs will help to control slugs and snails. We have loads of ladybirds and hoverflies in our gardens that can be relied upon to keep aphid numbers under control.

I’ll be continuing to keep my eyes and ears open for more tips on pest and disease control.

Summer Pruning

July has flown by. There’s been plenty to keep us busy as harvesting of fruit and vegetables gets underway, and the weeds keep insisting on growing! Harvesting in the pest and disease control garden started with broad beans, peas and strawberries, and has now moved on to French beans, potatoes and barrow loads of courgettes and the inevitable marrows. One thing that I’m particularly excited about is our experiment growing melons in straw bales. Beth, who previously looked after the garden, carved planting holes in the bales and soaked them with water to start decomposition. I’ve planted melons in peat-free compost in the bales, and the heat produced from decomposition of the straw should help the melons to grow. So far I’ve spotted two golf ball-sized fruit and am keeping a close eye on their progress.

The main tasks in the soft fruit garden this month have been summer pruning and fruit picking. Summer pruning of gooseberries and red and white currants is something I hadn’t done before. It involves cutting new growth on side shoots back to five leaves, but leaving leaders, which are the shoots that extend the main branches, un-pruned. This reduces shoot growth and concentrates the plants’ energy into the fruits. A RHS fruit group visiting the gardens this month enjoyed sampling all the different soft fruit varieties on offer.

I attended a really interesting workshop on green manures a few weeks ago, which covered the different plant species that are used and the benefits of using each. This is something I will definitely be putting into practice in the future. I’ve also had training on using garden machinery this month, which I found surprisingly good fun!

I’m looking forward to another bountiful month in August, and making lots of preserves with the harvest.

My First Day

I spent my first day with Garden Organic working on their stand at the Chelsea Flower Show. What a fantastic way to start my year as a Seeds of Change apprentice! It was a fun day chatting to people about Garden Organic’s work and gardening in general. It left me eager to get my hands dirty in the Garden Organic gardens at Ryton the following week.

I’m really excited about the gardens I’m looking after this year. They have a good combination of fruit, vegetables and ornamentals, so I’ll be learning about a broad range of plants and gardening techniques.

In my first week I worked mainly in the soft fruit garden. There are a number of varieties of berries and currants in this garden, so keeping labels up to date for visitors is really important. It’s also an ongoing task trying to keep on top of weeding at this time of year. The next major tasks will be summer pruning, sowing more annual attractants and hopefully picking some great tasting fruit!

The pest and disease control demonstration garden is a lovely space with loads of different vegetables, as well as having ornamental and wildlife areas. Again, up-to-date labelling is important here to explain the different organic techniques being used. I’ve been planting out cucurbits and celery and sowing coriander this month, and I’ll be sowing more seeds soon to ensure there’s a succession of crops.

I’ll be spending more time in the shrub border over the next month, pruning and planting new shrubs and ground cover, and generally familiarising myself with the plants.

I think July is going to be a busy but rewarding month, when harvesting of crops will begin in earnest!