AUTUMN IN THE GARDEN

AUTUMN IN THE GARDEN

The garden has now gone into its autumn phase. Long hot summer days are now a pleasant memory still widely under discussion, but cooler nights and more frequent showers are normal. Autumn tints are seen on numerous trees. In my garden the

Anna prepares apples for storage

Japanese maple Acer Sangokaku has turned a brilliant orange scarlet and many others are on the turn. The fruit bushes of saskatoons, chokeberries and blueberries have all put on their autumn tints as well as deciduous azaleas.

Japanese maple

Trees and shrubs grown for their berries such as the rowans and cotoneaster have been very prolific, although the recent gales in September have brought a lot down and shredded many leaves of plants all over the garden. A trip out in the country foraging for my elderberries for a good home brew of elderberry wine was a waste of time as the gales not only blew all the fruit off it also shrivelled up all the foliage. Birds which need a good supply of berries to take them into winter will be in short supply this autumn. Even the cotoneasters have lost a lot of their berries.

Cotoneaster exburiensis

Back home on the allotment autumn raspberry Polka and Autumn Bliss both suffered badly, ruining the crop which still had to ripen, and my grape Phoenix broke in half, but a quick repair job might just work to last a couple of more weeks before harvest. Other outdoor grapes were well tied in, so did not suffer, but they still need a few more weeks for the grapes to sweeten up.

Mahonia mainly grown for an evergreen ground cover and spring scented yellow flowers also fruits very well and this year they seem to be just fine. However my Fuchsia Mrs Popple which normally fruits so prolifically that in some years I have gathered up enough berries for liquidizing into a healthy sweet fruit drink. This year the hot dry summer was not in its favour and I have not seen a single berry from over six large bushes.

Calluna H E Beale

French Marigolds

Flowering plants in October have to be tough, so geraniums which started off with numerous huge flowers in late spring slowly gave up flowering with lack of any vigorous growth in the hot summer sun. They are now bouncing back with good growth and plenty of flowers. Begonias were at their best when the gales arrived blowing off the flowers and shredding a lot of leaves. However French marigolds and Calendula are having an autumn burst of colour, and Calluna H. E. Beale is now in full flower and a gorgeous site. Definitely one of the best heathers for flowers,

Mahonia berries

though once the frosty nights prevail it is the golden foliage of Calluna Goldsworth Crimson that catches your eye. Nerine bowdenii is slowly losing its leaves as the flowers will soon open up with a bright splash of pink. Roses have mostly gone over, but there is always some that flower well into winter.

Apples, pears and plums are now mostly harvested, cleaned up and boxed for storing. However there were too many lost from damage as the gales brought large quantities down. Many bruised and with only slight damage are retained for immediate use in the kitchen as well as prepared for the freezer. Bramley still has half the crop on the tree and Red Falstaff on a dwarf rootstock has survived the gales. They should start to colour up and be ready to pick by mid October.

Dave growing Shark Fin Melons

Autumn leaves will soon be falling. Now is a good time for the final session of weed killing while there is still some warm sunshine, so we go into winter with clean ground. I pick off any big annual weeds for the compost heap then hoe the rest, but on paths I use a spray of glyphosate while it is still legal. It is the only chemical weedkiller left but is under threat so for chemical free gardeners, I’m afraid it is back to the hoe; but just think of the benefits of all that exercise.

Wee jobs to do this week

Shark skin melons have had a great season up at City Road allotments. Someone had bought some seeds and passed the plants around as a trial. They are very vigorous and tend to run riot expanding over the soil at speed unless some pruning is done. They have enjoyed the summer and are now ready for harvesting. It will be very interesting to see who can come up with the best recipe for using the new Shark Skin Melons which are more savoury than sweet.

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THE AUTUMN HARVEST CONTINUES

THE AUTUMN HARVEST CONTINUES

There are definite signs around that autumn has arrived. First it was the return of Strictly, then followed by The Apprentice, and then after

Pumpkins ripening up

the cool wet end to our tropical summer the sun returned as it always does for the tatty picking season. I hope this is a one off period of weird weather, though it would be nice to have a bit more of those long hot summer days. Garden plants are quite bewildered. Just when everything was coming

A few windfalls after the storm

along perfectly, and we made up the three weeks lost when spring never arrived, they had really enjoyed the great summer, especially as John, the head gardener was always around with the hose to prevent anyone drying out. Harvesting held great promise with first crops giving high yields, then in came the storms with severe gales. Autumn raspberries got shredded, berries were blown off the plants and apples and pears got such a fright that they just about dropped all their fruit. Even the late maturing Red Devil landed on the ground.

Good crop of beetroot

Pears on Beth all came off, but Concord held on. Christie and Beurre Hardy got picked the day before the storms arrived, but only to find more than half suffered extreme deformity as well as codlin moth damage. The deformity could be down to the dry summer or it could be the dreaded stony pit virus, which would mean the trees would have to be dug out. I will have to wait till next year to see how they perform. Heritage apple varieties Pearl and Park Farm Pippin all got blown off the trees so not sure how much crop I have for each of them.

Apple Pearl

Dahlias and Cosmos both had to be dug out as neither seemed to have any intention of flowering. Cosmos grew huge at well over four feet tall and spreading but not a flower bud in sight. Chrysanthemums fared a bit better, though again some early varieties have still to flower.

Pears ready to pick

Potatoes were all lifted earlier than usual. First early Casablanca gave a good crop but only as they were well irrigated. Main crop Setanta lost all its leaves through drought by end of August so lifting got underway early September. Crop was light with very few large potatoes.

Carrot crops were a complete disaster. Even those hiding between

Swedes

rows of onions and leeks were found by the carrot fly. Not even one for the table and my experiment with a row of salsify never produced a single usable root as every one had forked. However a row of parsnips is looking great with loads of strong foliage, but I will wait till the first frosts before I start to dig them up.

Swedes and leeks have both loved the summer and should keep me well supplied with fresh vegetables in winter, supplemented with kale, sprouts and cabbages which have all grown superbly. Beetroot are another success story as the first thinnings of baby

Codlin moth damage on pears

beet were plentiful and large roots of both the round Detroit and longer roots of Cylindra have given very high yields.

Pumpkins have never been better, but ripened well ahead of their normal season, then lost all their leaves to a devastating attack of mildew.

Figs just keep coming. Picked over 140 so far, starting at the end of July and with more to come.

Grape Phoenix

Grape Black Hamburg under glass is looking great with numerous bunches of large grapes which should be ready by early October. Outdoors, Regent, Rondo and Brant are all having a fantastic year with great potential and hopefully sweet enough grapes for wine brewing without the need for adding sugar. However Phoenix was so heavily laden down with crop that when the storms arrived the support could not withstand the winds, so it broke and the vine main stem split in half. It has now been tied back into place and I will just have to wait to see how the crop is affected.

Wee jobs to do this week

Impatiens (Busy Lizzie) and geraniums can now be propagated from cuttings taken from outdoor

Rooted geranium cuttings

plants in tubs, baskets and borders. Impatiens cuttings need to be taken soon as the plants die down quickly as soon as the weather turns colder. I take shoots about four inches long and put four together in a small glass jar filled with water. Place it on a light north facing windowsill. The cuttings will root within a month. Geranium cuttings are best with the top four inches of shoots snapped off just above a leaf joint and placed in compost on a light windowsill. Keep them growing till late winter then pot up.
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PLAN NEXT SPRING’S FLOWERS

PLAN NEXT SPRING’S FLOWERS

As summer draws to a close the display of bedding plants begins to look a bit tired. Now is the time to look forward to next year’s spring flowers.

Allotment flower border

The spring this year was wet cool and lacked sun, but this allowed spring flowers to last a long time, giving us the chance to review the show and make plans for the next year. At the moment my tubs are still flowering as tuberous begonias and geraniums continue to flower well into autumn, but hanging baskets

Drift of Aconites

with petunias, impatiens and lobelia are finished. These will be the first to get planted up with spring flowers, and most likely with pansies. I had some terrific colours in my mixed pansies so I saved the seed and sowed it in August. I now have well over a hundred strong plants in cellular trays ready for planting out. Each hanging basket takes about a dozen plants with six for the top and six inserted around the sides as I hope to achieve a round ball of greenery covered in flowers. The rest of the pansies can go in other tubs and flower borders as well as areas of spare land where shrubs have been removed. One

Mixed tulips in rose bed

Ceanothus was fine for nearly twenty years, but then started to die off so it got removed. The pansies will give us flowers while we decide what to replace it with.

Last year we bought some really good polyanthus which got lined out once their spring display finished, and now they can be replanted back into some tubs. I also have a good batch of wallflower grown from seed on my allotment for planting in larger tubs and underplanted with tall tulips. My favourite tulips are the Darwin Hybrids Apeldoorn (red) and Golden Apeldoorn (yellow) but another border above a wall will get the tall

Mixed Fosteriana tulips

Fosteriana tulips Red Emperor and the white scented Purissima. This border is also planted with tall scented Oriental Lilies flowering in mid summer. We keep the soil bare, remove the old tulip leaves six weeks after flowering then sow some fast growing annuals such as Candytuft, Cornflower, Godetia to grow underneath the taller lilies.

More lilies are also planned for a summer display of large scented blooms amongst the Cornus in my coloured stem winter border. This border is attractive from autumn till the end of March when I then cut back all the shrubs to ground level. This gives the drifts of crocus space to flower followed by tulips before the Cornus starts to grow again. However there is a lack of interest in summer so a batch of the tall Oriental Lilies will get planted in this border.

Narcissus Dick wilden

Up on my allotment I keep a flower border at the front to add colour and impact and detract the eye from the rest of the plot just in case there may be an odd weed that has escaped my attention. This has been known to happen from time to time. Last spring there was a brilliant display of tulips, but very few white ones so I will buy some of the Fosteriana Purissima and plant these into the border. This border starts with snowdrops, then the yellow aconites and some narcissus ahead of the main tulip display. This year I will plant up the border with my spare pansy seedling plants to accompany the tulips to give two levels of flowering plants.

Over the years I have added Crocus all over the garden and allotment front border, so no need for any more, but they are perfect amongst tubs of pansies and polyanthus. Then after flowering I can always manage to find a spot to plant them out for future spring

Narcissus Replete

flowers. The herbaceous border is always a favourite for spare bulbs as the permanent plants are slow to grow by which time the dwarf bulbs have flowered, produced their leaves before the herbaceous plants need more space.

Drifts of daffodils and narcissus make a great show amongst deciduous trees and shrubs and although the garden is not short of these, you always find another variety well worth trying out. Growers can always breed something different to catch your eye. Last year it was Westward, Sir Winston Churchill, Dick Wilden and Replete, and this year it is White Lion, My Story and Decoy.

Wee jobs to do this week

Plant strawberry plants from runners taken from older but healthy

Strawberry runners of Flamenco

beds. As they will be down for three years dig over the soil before planting and incorporate compost to feed the growing crop. Space plants out at a foot apart in rows three feet apart to allow for easy picking and give new runners a chance to grow along the row as these young plants will give extra crops.

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PRESERVING THE AUTUMN CROPS

PRESERVING THE AUTUMN CROPS

Autumn is the traditional time to harvest many crops such as potatoes, apples, pears, plums, sweet corn, pumpkins and grapes. Soft fruit is used for immediate use (strawberries, raspberries, brambles and tomatoes) with surplus for the freezer

Anna cooks fig jam and chutney

or jams and chutneys. In the past, although I was getting bumper crops of figs, picking was done over several months so they were all consumed as fresh fruit. This year however the tropical summer has brought on the ripening so fast that surplus figs had to find a home as two people could not consume

Fresh picked tomatoes

forty figs over three days. Anna found some great recipes for both fig chutney as well as fig jam. The fig chutney has apples, onions, sultanas added with brown sugar, cider vinegar and some salt, ginger, a clove and some ground nutmeg.

Apple Discovery

The jam is pure figs and sugar in equal weights with a vanilla pod and some lemon juice.

Potatoes harvested in autumn and onions in late summer are all dried off and stored in a dark cool but frost free shed or garage. Beetroot can be lifted and stored dry in boxes of sand or dry soil, but with mild winters mine have been happy outdoors where they are growing, and if frost threatens they get happed up with soil for protection. Some beetroots however are continually called for in the kitchen for a delicious beetroot soup, or in a borsch dish, as well as the traditional pickled beetroot. Leeks, Swedes, parsnips, cabbage and sprouts are all happy left in the ground and used as required. They will all happily survive till the end of winter.

Brewing fruit wines

Pumpkins in a normal year are harvested at the end of October, but this year mine are ready in mid September. The leaves suffered mildew then some damage as I harvested the sweet corn which shared the growing space as an experiment as they are happy together growing at different heights. The pumpkins will now be brought home to brighten up a shelf in the house. They usually last well into the next year, but are very popular when sliced and roasted as well as an ingredient in soups.

Summer crops of gooseberries, black and red currants are either in the freezer or converted into jams. Surplus raspberries and strawberries are also in the freezer to be used for jams, compote and summer puddings. In summer the gooseberry crop was huge,

Roast pumpkin slices

so a fair bit got frozen but some got combined with mint to make a savoury but sweet gooseberry jelly, and still enough for five demijohns of vintage gooseberry wine. Sweet corn gets harvested in one task once ripeness is at its best. Sampling is started ahead to see how the crop is progressing. Some are kept in the fridge for immediate use over a couple of weeks, but then the others are frozen. Preparing them for the freezer starts on a sunny day outdoors where we strip off all the leaves and remove the tip if it lacks corn. They are then blanched in boiling water for a couple of minutes, removed and plunged into cold water before laying out to dry and then bagged up for freezing. The freezer space

Setanta potatoes

gets filled early with the gluts of soft fruit and vegetables like the broad beans, dwarf French beans and peas, but room is needed for the surplus raspberries and strawberries as well as the sweet corn. This is where my wine brewing helps out as I can utilise the previous year’s surplus of saskatoons, chokeberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. Once they are defrosted they are perfect for a homebrew and release space in the freezer for the next crop. At this time of year there is no shortage of produce.

Pears do not store for very long, so surplus can be peeled, cored and diced then slightly cooked with a dash of water and some vanilla. Once cold they can be frozen for future use in sweets, with yogurt, custard or with breakfast cereals. Tomatoes have had a brilliant year, but now there are huge surpluses for freezing to be used later on for soups and pasta sauce.

Wee jobs to do this week

As autumn weather brings down our temperatures our greenhouse tomatoes and grapes come to the

Solaris and Siegerrebe grapes

end of their season. No need for any more feeding but keep watering if required. Tomatoes can hang on the vine for many more weeks, but pick them as they ripen. If you have a few grape varieties, the early ones like Siegerrebe, the seedless Flame and Solaris will have been picked but Black Hamburg ripens slowly over many weeks so just pick those that ripen and be patient for the later bunches as Black Hamburg can continue to ripen up to the end of November.
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AUTUMN BEGINS

AUTUMN BEGINS

September is a very busy time in the garden as so many crops are in need of harvesting, then cleaning, processing and storing. The tropical summer weather has given everything a huge boost but now we have more produce than we can use

Anna picking Discovery apples

so we have to find a home for our surplus once the freezer is full. Peas, Dwarf French beans, broad beans, raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, figs, brambles, blueberries, sweet corn and gooseberries are all packing out the freezer. So wine brewing  and jam making are in full throttle to

reduce surplus berries. This year I tried to vary sowing dates for cabbage and cauliflower by a couple

Cabbage Kilaton

of months to avoid a massive surplus as they all ripen together, but the later sowings did their best to catch up so we still got twenty cabbage and twenty cauliflower all ready to eat over a few short weeks. Two small Scots people can only eat so much. We have a bad clubroot problem so it is not possible to use different varieties other than clubroot resistant, and they are all summer crops. Both cabbage Kilaton and cauliflower Clapton have had huge heads this year. It took us a fortnight to eat one cabbage.

Potatoes are also cropping very heavily. We are still trying to eat our way through the first early Casablanca before we start on second early Charlotte, but maincrop Maris Piper has been lifted and awaits our attention in store. Setanta, our other maincrop, is still in the ground but ready to lift as the foliage is going over. Land cleared of potatoes, onions, peas, French beans, sweet corn, cabbage and cauliflower and salads all coming early and getting harvested ahead of normal times has seen a lot of land left vacant, so it has left me plenty scope for sowing some late summer and early winter salads such as lettuce, spring onion,

Tomatoes

beetroot, rocket and cress. However other spare land without a late catch crop has been sown down with a green manure of clover and tares.

Tomatoes have also gone into surplus harvest mode as they responded brilliantly to the summer heat wave. Fortunately the wee cherry types are sweet and easy to eat fresh at all times of the day, but at some point soon the larger Alicante and Marmande will need to head into the freezer.

Summer raspberries are now finished, but autumn raspberries, Autumn Bliss and Polka are in great form with huge raspberries. Autumn Treasure is also a great cropper and comes in a few weeks after Polka so giving a longer cropping period.

Apples are going through a weird phase. Spring blossom was brilliant except Fiesta which shows biennial bearing behaviour with no blossom, and not one single apple this year. Others showed a huge crop, but then the June drop in July took out a fair bit, followed by my thinning to a manageable crop. However in August the trees started to drop even more apples long before they

Outdoor grape Regent

were ready, though Discovery and Red Devil seem fine both with a great crop of huge apples.

Grapes under glass matured early so I was picking small bunches of Siegerrebe in late August and Solaris in early September. Black Hamburg is well coloured up but I will leave these till early October apart from sampling a few grapes that look ready from time to time. Outdoors my three other vines, Rondo, Regent and Phoenix are all laden down with numerous bunches of large grapes, and now all beginning to show colour as I removed a fair bit of foliage to let the sun shine on them.

Raspberry Polka

Flowering plants have followed the sun and been at their best from spring till mid summer, but the wet spell in late summer spoiled the show. Dahlias and the annual Cosmos failed to show any flowers but put on a lot of growth. Both got dug out as it is too late now to expect a decent show of blooms. Chrysanthemums, gladioli, roses and sweet peas were all just fine so long as regular dead heading was practised. You know summer is just about gone when the cyclamen hederifolium comes into flower and the foliage of Nerine bowdenii the Guernsey Lily dies down soon to be replaced by the mauve pink flowers in September.

Wee jobs to do this week

Onions ready for storing

Onions that have been lifted and laid out to dry off can now be cleaned up ready to store either in onion sacks or if the withered stems are long enough pleat them into a rope. This makes storage a lot simpler as they do not take up so much room.
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OUTDOOR FIGS FOR SCOTLAND

OUTDOOR FIGS FOR SCOTLAND

I planted a young fig tree on my allotment plot over ten years ago. I first tasted a fresh fig about 50 years ago when I visited a farmer up north who had a bush in his greenhouse. It was delicious and I never forgot that moment, but it was years later before I decided to buy a fig and try it outdoors. My horticultural training in early youth, told me

John picks a few figs

they were not hardy in Scotland and needed winter protection, but today we have climate change and if Scotland gets a wee bit more of this global warming my fig should be just fine. Last year was a rotten year up north. The sun in summer rarely appeared, but we got plenty rain, yet my fig tree gave me

One days harvest of figs

well over one hundred figs. This year we have all had a bit of global warming so I think my crop will be even better. I picked my first fig at end of July and so far I have had over fifty. Fortunately they crop over a long period so it is easy to eat them fresh, but when gluts happen they are easy to freeze for future use.

History

Figs have been grown or collected for food for thousands of years. Sub fossil figs (over 9000BC) were found in a Neolithic village in the Jordan Valley. They were also grown by the ancient Greeks as well as the Romans for food. Human migration has resulted in them now being grown throughout the Temperate World. They are a major crop in California which has a Mediterranean

Early summer fig potential

climate. Continental countries with hot climates can harvest four crops each year, but in UK we only get two crops that overlap. The early crop is from small buds that successfully overwinter, then later more figs are produced from currant seasons shoots. In hot countries the fig is pollinated by a wasp which often stays behind in the fig but in our country our figs are self pollinating so no wasps to worry about. Figs originated in the Middle East and western Asia but have now naturalised throughout Asia and North America. It thrives in hot dry climates where its roots can grow deep into the soil to find water. Our hot dry summer this year is just what it really enjoys.

Culture

We need to use this knowledge to grow it successfully in UK and more so in Scotland with our damper climate in normal years. Left on its own without pruning it will grow into a small tree up to thirty

Developing fig fruits

feet tall, making harvesting a nightmare. In our climate on good soils it loves to grow vigorously, so we need to control vigour so it can concentrate its energy into fruit production.

Ripe figs in August

It is best to restrict growth by planting it in a prepared fig pit. Up north it is best to choose a south facing wall or fence to plant against and train it as a fan of sorts. Dig out a trench two feet deep, two feet wide and three feet long. Line the sides of this pit with slabs. Fork up the bottom to assist drainage. Backfill the pit with broken bricks again to help drainage just leaving about nine inches for top soil, but enriching the top soil with compost to create a rich medium. Add some fertiliser to get it started and as most plants come in pots you can plant at any time. Keep it weeded, watered and fed for the first year till it settles down. A two year old plant should give a few figs in the second year increasing to about twenty the following year, and getting better each year as it grows larger. Prune in winter to keep the height down for ease of picking, pruning off week shoots, cutting strong upright shoots by half and removing those that grow out of the fan shape.

There are numerous varieties available, but for us up north Brown Turkey is the most reliable.

So far I have not seen any pests or diseases on the figs, so this crop will be very organic.

Wee jobs to do this week

 

Semi ripe stem cuttings

Many shrubs and heathers can be propagated by taking semi ripe cuttings from end of summer to early autumn. Use shoots about four inches long for most shrubs and two inches for heathers. Trim the shoot below a leaf joint and remove the lower leaves, except heathers where they are left on to aid drainage and aeration. Insert about one to two inches apart in a shallow pot with a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand or grit. Water in and cover with a polythene bag to retain a moist atmosphere. Keep in a cool spot away from direct sunshine for the next three months. Plants should be well rooted by next spring.

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A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

A DAY IN THE GREENHOUSE

Tomatoes reach the roof

Tomato varieties

Greenhouse crops have been growing and cropping at luxury levels following the long hot spell though watering has been a necessary and frequent task, and to control the high temperatures both ventilators and doors have been wide open. Even at night the doors were opened just enough to keep condensation down but keep resting birds out.

Tomatoes have been getting fed twice a week and grapes grown in the greenhouse border 

Peppers

once a week. This year I tried some new tomato varieties alongside my regular Alicante which always gives a great crop of large tomatoes. Included were Marmande a beefsteak variety, Yellow Delight a plum type, Red Cherry and Sungold a yellow cherry variety. In previous years Sweet Million was one of my better cherry types. This year Alicante is still my favourite large tomato. Armande was a poor cropper and the misshapen fruits were not attractive. Yellow Delight was a real bully as growth outperformed all the others and had to be stopped once it reached the top of the greenhouse and wanted to climb up and over my grape vines on the other side. It gave a good yield of yellow plum tomatoes, but some were slow to turn colour and the fruit had no taste. However Red Cherry was brilliant with huge crops of small sweet fruit but Sungold gave even heavier crops of very sweet tomatoes. It was this year’s winner. However both cherry varieties had long trusses with well over twenty small tomatoes, and one Red Cherry truss had branched out with fifty four tomatoes. Now, that is hard to beat.

Grape Phoenix

Excellent growing conditions on all types sent main stems skyward. All reached seven trusses, with Red Cherry reaching eight trusses and Sungold with nine trusses before tips were taken out. Lower leaves remained very healthy so stayed on a long time before removing, but from mid August onwards I allowed some sideshoots to grow to provide healthy foliage to feed the crop.

Grapes both under glass and outdoors are having a great year. Although we will eat as much as we can, the remainder will go into demijohns for a vintage year brew. I am hoping this year, providing we get a decent autumn (dry, warm and sunny) I can achieve good wine direct from the grapes without having to add sugar to achieve ten or even eleven percent alcohol. Siegerrebe was first to ripen in mid August. It is a sweet musk flavoured grape, but attracts wasps which have to be dealt with before word gets out and the whole nest arrives for a feeding frenzy. Sideshoots are still being removed as well as a third of the leaves to let sun in to ripen up the bunches of grapes. Both Black Hamburg and Solaris are ripening up well, and outdoors Brant has masses of bunches of huge grapes. It is outstanding as it is not normally grown for grapes as they are normally quite small. Rondo, Regent and Phoenix are all having a great year and potential harvest looks very promising.

Cucumbers started off with excellent growth, but then mildew arrived to hold them back. They like a moist atmosphere, but other crops like it dry otherwise diseases get a hold, so maximum ventilation is practised which may not suit the cucumbers.

Pansies

Peppers are the best ever as this hot summer is right up their street.

Freezer space is going to be tested this autumn.

Pansies normally grown for my spring display continued flowering right up till July, but then I let them go to seed. This was saved and sown, and now I have loads of young seedlings to grow on for next years spring and summer display.

Wee jobs to do this week

 

Land cleared early of peas, onions, brassicas and early potatoes and sown

with an autumn crop of salads (lettuce, spring onion, radish, rocket, cress, etc) will need weeding and the new rows of seedlings will need thinning. Some of the thinnings can be used to make new rows where space is available. These salads and baby beet will be much appreciated as we go into late autumn and early winter, and if we go back into mild winters these salads will be fine for many months.

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SWEET CORN

SWEET CORN

August is a great month for healthy eating as the garden and allotment are at the peak of the harvesting season with a huge variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. Sweet corn tends to ripen all at the same time so harvesting the cobs is a once over task. However, to know when best to cut the corn, sampling is done every few days to test the softness and sweetness. Sample when some of the cobs tassels have turned a dark brown colour. Push your

Sampling some sweet corn

fingernail into the corn and if it is watery it is not ready, as it should be milky when tested, but if it is left too long it will go pasty. I tend to pick a few cobs to sample for the table about two weeks before final harvest. The corn has a high sugar content at this stage, but the sugar is slowly converted to starch if harvesting is delayed. However for folk watching the calories, one cob has less sugar than an apple and only half as much as a banana. Some newer varieties have a higher sugar content known as super

Anna pots up sweet corn seedlings

sweet and are delicious to eat fresh straight off the plant. The sweetness in the corn is created by a recessive gene so keep the sweet corn block well away from other sweet corn plants otherwise cross pollination may cause loss of sweetness and make the cobs chewy.

Sweet corn has amazing health benefits both as a freshly eaten cob straight from the plant and also when cooked as many of the benefits are enhanced. They are rich in phytochemicals that promote healthy vision, rich in vitamins B and C, plus the minerals iron, magnesium and potassium. They are also rich in fibre which feeds the good bacteria in your gut, and aid digestion.

Culture

Sweet corn is still seen as a novel crop in Scotland though it has been grown here by amateurs and

Sweet corn and pumpkin

farmers for many years. Our soils and climate (most years) are perfect for its growth and cropping, and this year my plants (variety Incredible) are huge with some showing a third cob on very vigorous plants. To get a strong and vigorous plantation grow on well manured and fertile soil. As planting is most often done in June, there is plenty of time to dig over the plot in winter adding plenty of compost and leaving the surface rough for winter weathering. In early spring break down the soil, rake level adding some fertiliser then sow down a fast growing green manure crop. This will add humus and assist drainage. Trample this down before it flowers probably in early to mid May then dig in the green manure. This will give it time to begin to rot down before planting then it will release its nutrients while the sweet corn grows. Sow seed indoors individually in cellular seed trays in mid March, then pot up into bigger pots when the plants are about six inches tall. Harden off in May then plant out in early June, but all depending on prevailing weather. Plant about two feet apart in square blocks to assist wind pollination. Give them

Sweet corn Incredible

wider spacing if you grow then together with pumpkins in the same block. Keep weeded and water in dry weather.
Varieties
Incredible sugar enhanced variety, very reliable. Grows quite tall.
Lark F1 tendersweet variety
Sundance F1, Early
Swift’ F1 Extra tender sweet. Plants have two to three cobs
‘Golden Giant’ AGM Supersweet, Large, good quality cobs.
‘Earlibird AGM Supersweet early variety with vigorous plants with good sized, uniform cobs.
‘Lark’ AGM Extra tender sweet. High yielding top quality cobs.

Wee jobs to do this week

Rhubarb crumble and jam

Rhubarb is growing very strongly now that the rain has returned and the plants have had really warm weather, so keep pulling off good stems for immediate use or if the crop is heavy it can go into the freezer for future use. Give the plants a feed to boost more growth as there is still time to pull more stems off before the plant slows down in autumn. Brilliant for crumbles, stewed rhubarb and added to saskatoons for a fantastic jam.

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