NOTES FROM THE GARDEN – SEPTEMBER
In gardening terms this time of year is definitely about bounty. Reaping the glorious rewards of your hard work; literally the fruits of your labour! But it is also a time of evaluation and looking forward to, and preparing for what is to come. There is definitely never a dull moment in the gardens at Spitalfields City Farm.
The gardens look pretty lush at present, as we bask in the last of the summer rays before the temperatures dip for the cooler months to come. Sunlight hours are starting to slip away and we notice the sun dropping lower in the sky as we walk to appraise our work each evening. There is much to harvest for sale in the shop. And what is not sold is turned into luscious jams, cordials and chutneys by our industrious volunteers. The tomatoes just keep coming and are joined now by orchard fruits: apples, pears and plums of many varieties. Fragrant figs are bought within minutes of filling the shop baskets and peppers and chillies are just starting to crop.
This harvest is a cornucopia of fruit and vegetables
grown by the garden team and volunteers at Spitalfields City Farm
It is right and intelligent as a gardener to take stock of your successes and failures at this time of the year. Not all is glut and provenance! The frankly weird weather this year has skewed crop seasons beyond recognition. We have yet to harvest any aubergines and chayote, something unknown in our memory. They are blossoming and the fruits are setting, but this is months behind schedule. We guess Mother Nature has her own ideas – sulking and pouting at the damage we inflict on her maybe? Our NoDig policy and organic growing practises are, we believe, the right way to grow – many visitors agree, partly noted by the amount of farm manure and comfrey feed we sell. Our advice would be to take stock of your own wins and losses this year and to think now about what you would do differently next season. Not as long away as you think!
Talking of next season, we are now in a time known in gardening circles as ‘The Second Spring’. This is when we plan for late Autumn, Winter and through as far as April harvests next year. Every moment counts in the race against time – to get the late summer plantlets into the ground and settled before the less clement weather arrives. We are currently sowing and army of lettuce, chicory, numerous kale varieties and Japanese brassicas. Our tips to you would be to sow Lambs Lettuce, Winter Purslane, hardy winter lettuce varieties (which will grow in temperatures down to -5 degrees) and purple frills mustard. If you like zip in your salads and stir fries try Komatsuna, Tatsoi, pak choi and even chrysanthemum greens! But get sowing soon as the window of opportunity is shrinking fast.
Grenoble red lettuce in our polytunnel
transplanting small seedlings
We are also in seed saving mode at the farm. The obvious candidates are tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, beans and the ubiquitous kodu. This year we are enlarging our repertoire by saving select lettuce seed, sorrel and shiso, a tasty leaf vegetable beloved in both Japan and India. We’ll also be selling our seed as soon as it is sorted and packaged, and do feel free to seek out our garden team and ask advice about seed saving next time you are at the farm. It’s a thrifty practice that can only improve the diversity and quality of vegetables we eat.
Saving tomato seeds for next year
Extracting poppy seeds from this years seedheads
If you would like to know more about NoDig, take a look at Charles Dowding’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CharlesDowding1nodig
For more information on Japanese crops (which suit the British climate well), seek out a copy of Joy Larkcom’s book ‘Oriental Vegetables’ at your local library. In fact, we feel sure that any of her fantastic books will inspire and delight gardeners.
- Tanya Reynolds, Community Gardener