GreenFriends™ UK

Gardening Corner: July 2010

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"Everything is pervaded by Consciousness. It is that Consciousness which sustains the world and all the creatures in it. To worship everything, seeing God in all, is what religion advises. Such an attitude teaches us to love Nature."
From Man and Nature by Amma

Encouraging Insects

There are lots of insects that are really important to the gardener. A number of insects are important pollinators of  flowers, including honeybees, bumblebees, hoverflies and many others. There are a lot of crops that rely on insects like these, including fruit trees and bushes, as well as courgettes, pumpkins, squash runner beans and peas. So it makes sense to have plants and trees around that specifically attract pollinators. We have found that bees love the following plants and shrubs: lavender, marjoram, chives, hebes, mallows, meadow cranesbill, in fact alot of pink and blue flowers, but flowers of other colours as well such as yellow. And so we are filling gaps in the allotment with flowers. But not only do these insects help us, but they are nice to look at as well, bumblebees are so cute! Pollinators are also suffering like alot of Nature, from the impact of the human race on the environment, so doing anything to encourage will help. Here is a photo of our meadow cranesbill:

Elder Flower Cordial

At this time of year we try to make a delicious refreshing summer drink, elderflower cordial. You can obviously buy it nowadays, but it is easy and fun to make, and it also tastes better than the shop bought stuff! You need :         

3 pints of boiled water
juice and zest of 2 lemons
3.5 pounds of sugar (we actually use a bit less - 2 pounds)
30 elderflower blossoms (picked when it is sunny and they are fully opened, but not turning brown)

Method:
Dissolve the sugar in the hot, freshly boiled water, in a large bowl. When it is cool add the lemon zest and juice, and put in the flower blossoms upside down into the water. This is so the pollen, which flavours the cordial, falls into it. Cover with a tea towel (to stop wasps falling in) and leave for 24 hours.Then strain through muslin or a piece of fine net curtain, and put into bottles. Freeze any that you won't use straight away, as it can ferment! Finally, dilute to taste. On a hot summers day there is nothing more refreshing than a glass of this drink.

Gardeners of the Past

Its perhaps worth mentioning here the huge debt we all owe to farmers and gardeners of the past, who through selective breeding over many human lifetimes, have left us a legacy of so many tasty vegetables and fruits. The names of these people are mostly totally unknown, and we have no idea just how many people were involved, over a period of not hundreds, but thousands of years. Although Mother Nature provided the ancestors of the plants we eat, alot of the lovely tastes, colours and shapes of these vegetables and fruits are due to the often painstaking efforts of these farmers and gardeners. So we just want to say thankyou to them all.

Greenfly

A very effective and safe way to protect your plants from greenfly, is garlic spray. We soak crushed garlic cloves in water for a few days, strain and put it into a mist sprayer. The greenfly soon leave when you spray this on them. Not nice in a way, but it definetly puts them off, they don't seem to return.

Allotment Diary

Alot of the more difficult work is done now. The beds are dug (mostly!), the weeding is done (well, mostly again), so now you can have a breather (short one), while you get ready for the harvest season, which begins soon, all being well. There does seem to be a short July lull every year, when watering seems to be the main task.

There is still time to seed up some plants. Lettuces, beetroot, carrots can all be sown to produce summer crops. We put lettuces and carrots into containers to protect against slugs (or at least to try!). We use a mixture of compost and soil, give them plenty of water, and shade them with garden fleece while they are young. Beetroot we have sown into the ground, under fleece and with plenty of water.

We have also sown swede directly into the ground recently, giving them lots of shade with fleece, and in one area, net curtains. It does make the allotment look pretty! This netting and fleecing young plants can also protect them against being eaten by birds. Perpetual spinach, kale, and leeks we have sown in pots in the greenhouse, once again with fleece on them. We will plant them out in July hopefully, a little later than usual.

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are looking good. We use a small paintbrush to pollinate the flowers, as we don't want to encourage too many insects to come in, just in case they die. The aubergines, chillis, peppers, and cucumbers are also coming on nicely.

Outside, the potatoes and onions are growing well, the beans and peas are all doing their stuff (those that the slugs havn't got) and the courgettes, pumpkins and squash are beginning to settle into their new life in the vegetable bed. This photo shows the potato bed:

Happy gardening and see you all next month

- Richard and Kaivalya

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