GreenFriends™ UK

Gardening Corner: November 2009

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Recycling at Amma's London Programme

In a later enews we will give more details on the quantities recycled at Amma's London Programme, but for now suffice to say that many bins of different sizes were filled with paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, food containers, cans, foil, glass, tetrapacs , food waste, flower waste, paper cups and plastic wrappings, totalling quite a few tonnes (yes I did say tonnes !) of waste. A big thank-you to everyone who helped with the recycling seva, who crawled in and out of bins for three and a half days and generally had a smashing time. And as mentioned last month in the enews, Amma always stresses the importance of the responsible disposal of waste, so this is definitely in keeping with Amma's message.

What can you grow now?

Garlic

Garlic can be planted in the autumn for a summer crop, and it is one of the easiest things to grow. We buy organic garlic bulbs, split them up into individual cloves, keeping the skin on and plant them in the ground (the pointy end up is the right way). Last year we accidently planted one upside down and the shoot curled all the way round to find the light, and the roots grew down to look like hair! Amazing! The soil does not have to be particularly well fertilised, and as long as it does not get flooded, and is kept moist when there is no rain, you should get a harvest next summer. Plant the bulbs a couple of centimetres below the soil surface – and watch them grow.  They slow down in the middle of winter, but need the cold spell to grow.

Harvest

The main harvest time is all but over now on the allotment. We have weighed all the produce that we have harvested, which we have done for the last few years, to enable us to compare year by year what happens. On the whole it has been a very good year, despite the somewhat wet weather. This section will include some figures to give you an idea of what you can grow from a plant or a few plants.

• From one courgette plant on which we allowed the courgettes to grow big like marrows, we harvested 4 marrows totalling 26 lb. This plant took up about 10 square feet. People have grown courgettes in large containers and in grow bags.
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• From one exceptional pumpkin plant we harvested 4 pumpkins totalling 56 lb. This plant was a lot bigger so you may not want to grow it unless you have a big space. (Can you guess that we like marrows and pumpkins).
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• From 5 chilli plants in the greenhouse we have got 96 chillis or just under 20 per plant. These are only the size of an average house plant, so are a lot more manageable than the previous 2. You can grow these on window sills.
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• From 14 runner bean plants we harvested 24 lbs 7 oz of beans, or getting on for 2 pounds per plant. These took up maybe 30 square feet.

Allotment Diary

As said above, the harvest is over now apart from the odd stray raspberry. This is the start of the quieter time of the year, but there still are a few jobs to do. For example we are cutting back the hedge at the moment, as we do not want it to shade too much of the allotment next year. However hedges are important habitats for birds, insects and other creatures so it is a trim rather then a radical cut. There is also a bit of digging to do, but a lot of the allotment is covered with green manure, as explained last month, and so will be left like that until spring. We also plan to do some pruning of the fruit trees and bushes, but not until the end of winter. This is the time when next year’s growing can be thought about and discussed.

We still have a few crops in; kale, spinach and beetroot from the summer which we are harvesting and will produce a crop for most of the winter. There is also a bed of leeks and a bed of mixed swede and salsify (a European root) to harvest from December onwards.

Finally, we feed the birds all winter long. The small birds particularly suffer terribly in the winter, so we put out fat balls, peanuts and mixed seed for them, with a large bowl of fresh water as well. Gardens are a very important habitat and source of food for birds these days, as large areas of countryside are so intensively farmed that they have become poor environments for wildlife of all kinds. We have many different species visiting us including the common ones such as house sparrows, blue tits and robins. You will be glad to hear that we think Fatty Arbuckle, our overeating squirrel, has been thwarted by the cages around the food.

Happy gardening and see you all next month

- Richard and Kaivalya

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