NOTES FROM THE GARDEN – OCTOBER

As the summer harvest comes to an end and the temperature dips, we settle into autumn and the last of the warmth before winter. October is a time of preparation; an end to one season but also the beginning of another.

It is strange to us gardeners that people refer to the growing season as over. They talk of the end, of how glorious summer was, and don’t worry it will be back again soon! Our regular volunteers are made of hardier stuff. We relish each season, glory in its harvest and play to its strengths. Sunny October days show billows of cosmos blossom against bright blue skies – a truly glorious backdrop against which to gather in some enormous pumpkins for the Halloween celebrations. And we still have harvest coming – celery, sweetcorn, cauliflowers (a farm first), celeriac and the exotic chayote fruit.

Colourful cosmos blossoms

Fiesta sweetcorn (decorative)

Bumper sized pumpkins

West Indian chayote

During October, in addition to continuing to supply local shops with our new season salad bags, we have cleared away spent summer crops and been preparing for the winter growing season ahead. It is our intention to put on a growing show right through the winter months, so visitors will be rewarding with an equally delightful display of vegetables as were seen during the summer.

The race in Autumn is always to get the new batch of plantlets in the ground as early as possible to get them rooted in before the sun weakens and the days shorten to less than 10 hours of daylight (a key marker below which plant growth slows to a near halt). Wave after wave of tiny plants are bedded in: chard, broccoli raab, purple sprouting broccoli and chicory join the battalion of cabbage, cauliflowers and lettuce already growing and we are still sowing! More cauliflower, garlic, onions of many varieties, heritage salad varieties and broad beans. All are winter hardy; some to temperatures as low as minus 15. Fingers crossed we don’t have to test this!

‘Cordesa’ savoy cabbage

Germinating broad beans

Preparing new season salad bags

Handsome ‘Giant Prague’celeriac

Apart from planting, winter affords us time to take stock and get the bigger jobs underway that are not possible in the busy warm season. Deep cleaning tools and polytunnels, redefining layouts and refurbishing planting beds. Our food forest is about to undergo a bit of an overhaul. This wilder area is planted with perennial crops (those that grow back year after year). We’ve recently added 9 rhubarb plants, 31 raspberry canes and loads of new strawberry runners. We hope to add even more to this delightful area in the coming months and look forward to taking visitors on educational forays next year.

If you are out and about during one of the sunnier winter days why not come over to the farm and see what’s growing – we’d love to show you around.

- Tanya Reynolds, Community Gardener