Wednesday 1 October 2014

For the pruning OCTOBER

These sunny days whipped with the chill of the mountains breath are amazing.
This month is a busy one in the garden, especially if you didn't get the most out of september with your prep, sow and weeding goals like me.
Gulp.
Best get stuck in then!

The start of October is all about getting leafy crops into the ground team! From late September until the 5th get as much as you can in. Think variety not quantity though and you will avoid having all your lettuce ready for harvest at the same time. Best to pop a few in every phase and insure that you have an abundant supply all season rather than feast to famine style harvesting.
This month in canterbury I am sowing peas, beans, lettuce, zucchini, a handful of various brassicias and basil galore indoors.
I also rather neglected my rhubarb crowns in August and September and they are really beginning to start a growth phase so I will split any yet un sprouted crown off at this time too. Be sure to lay down a rich bed of manure for them to go nicely back into. They love rich soil, I have mine In a very shaded spot in our current house and expected them to hate it but they have really thrived, throwing up the fattest sweetest stalks. The variety I have currently is missing that lovely rhubarb ruby blush and the stalks remain on the greener side but the flavour more than makes up for it, plus I have been given some skinny red stalk variety crowns which will be mingling in the patch and hopefully coming up just as happy and delicious as the tasty green ones.

From the 6th til the 11th weed and prep any up and coming beds. Lay down compost, plenty of manure and dig in any mulch that you have left from holding the weeds at bay over winter. If you have leafy crops awaiting some liquid feed between the 6th and the 9th is the perfect time to give it to em!

Root veges have the best chance for success if you sow them either side of the last quarter of the moon phase, so pops em in on the 12th and 13th and again on the 19th and 20th. If you mix carrot and radish you maximise space in the beds as your radish will be ready to eat earlier and harvesting them will act as a thinning out process for your slower growing carrots.

Sowing take centre stage again at the end of the month and from the 27th up through to early November it is again time to get and leafy of above ground harvesting seeds in.

Happy planting for summer

xx
Jes