With Autumn upon us, I thought it would be a good time to write about my exploits in the garden growing fruit, vegetables and herbs.
The strawberries were a real success. Although they stopped cropping by the time August arrived, the plants produced many runners from which I was able to obtain new plants. I potted them up so they had time to develop roots before Winter comes. The leaves of the strawberry plants are starting to become scorched by the first frosts, but will be left in situ to overwinter. When Spring arrives they should come out of their dormancy and put on new leafy green growth, ready to produce a new crop of strawberries.
I tried a new method of propagating my sage plant. Last year I tried to root cuttings without success. This year I tried layering. In Spring I took one of the side stems from the main sage plant and, while it was still attached to it's 'parent' plant, buried the lower part in soil with the tip of the plant proud of the soil surface. Hopefully roots will have grown where the stem has been buried which can support the new plant. The stem has to be buried for a year, so I will know next Spring if the layering method was successful.
I also grew Scarlett runner beans, carrots and beetroot for the first time this year, all of which did well. I trained the bean plants up bamboo canes and could crop the bean pods every few days at the height of their production. The plants have stopped producing now that it's turning colder so they will be cut down soon. An added benefit of growing beans is that they fix nitrogen from the air into the soil, making the soil more fertile for the next crops to be planted in their place.
I have been harvesting carrots and baby beets for a few weeks. As this was my first time growing them I only planted a small amount to see if they would grow. Next year I intend to sow a larger area, and plant successive sowings, so that I'll get to harvest more throughout the growing season.
Finally we have the potatoes. I grew them in a bag, and layered the soil over the leaves every two weeks throughout the growing season until the bag was full. This was done so that the potato plant would produce more potatoes from the buried stems. It did not work. I found that when I cut the bag open, almost all the potatoes that had developed had grown in the initial 10cms of compost I put in the bottom of the bag. There were dozens of golf ball sized new potatoes, but the bag wasn't filled with them.
Next year I plan to fill up a third of the bag with compost before planting the chitted potatoes, so the developing tubers will have space to grow. Also I noticed the compost in the middle of this years bag was on the dry side, which may have contributed to the lack of tubers developing along the buried stems.
All there is left to do this year is to tidy up the garden and plan what I'm going to grow next year.
The strawberries were a real success. Although they stopped cropping by the time August arrived, the plants produced many runners from which I was able to obtain new plants. I potted them up so they had time to develop roots before Winter comes. The leaves of the strawberry plants are starting to become scorched by the first frosts, but will be left in situ to overwinter. When Spring arrives they should come out of their dormancy and put on new leafy green growth, ready to produce a new crop of strawberries.
I tried a new method of propagating my sage plant. Last year I tried to root cuttings without success. This year I tried layering. In Spring I took one of the side stems from the main sage plant and, while it was still attached to it's 'parent' plant, buried the lower part in soil with the tip of the plant proud of the soil surface. Hopefully roots will have grown where the stem has been buried which can support the new plant. The stem has to be buried for a year, so I will know next Spring if the layering method was successful.
I also grew Scarlett runner beans, carrots and beetroot for the first time this year, all of which did well. I trained the bean plants up bamboo canes and could crop the bean pods every few days at the height of their production. The plants have stopped producing now that it's turning colder so they will be cut down soon. An added benefit of growing beans is that they fix nitrogen from the air into the soil, making the soil more fertile for the next crops to be planted in their place.
I have been harvesting carrots and baby beets for a few weeks. As this was my first time growing them I only planted a small amount to see if they would grow. Next year I intend to sow a larger area, and plant successive sowings, so that I'll get to harvest more throughout the growing season.
Finally we have the potatoes. I grew them in a bag, and layered the soil over the leaves every two weeks throughout the growing season until the bag was full. This was done so that the potato plant would produce more potatoes from the buried stems. It did not work. I found that when I cut the bag open, almost all the potatoes that had developed had grown in the initial 10cms of compost I put in the bottom of the bag. There were dozens of golf ball sized new potatoes, but the bag wasn't filled with them.
Next year I plan to fill up a third of the bag with compost before planting the chitted potatoes, so the developing tubers will have space to grow. Also I noticed the compost in the middle of this years bag was on the dry side, which may have contributed to the lack of tubers developing along the buried stems.
All there is left to do this year is to tidy up the garden and plan what I'm going to grow next year.
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