Re-Thinking your Garden
The days are getting shorter, the new seed catalogues are arriving and for most of us who work fulltime the gardening hours are now restricted to weekend afternoons. It is the time when we go back into dream mode and remember those glorious summer days and we also look ahead and wonder what the next gardening year might bring. It is the time when we write another wish list.
Re-thinking our garden now can be the start of an exciting new journey into the world of growing food. It can set us free by questioning “common knowledge”, because what we assume to be true is not necessarily true. I suggest to move on from the question: “What is the best way to grow food?” to the more interesting question: “How can I grow the best food in my garden?”
Here are my thoughts: The 7 Magic Steps to a “NEW” Garden
1. Stop doing what is not working. Rather than being disappointed and getting stressed because your potatoes are blighted again look for alternatives. Just because we are living in Ireland does not mean we have to grow potatoes. Try Oca instead or Jerusalem Artichokes and if you really want potatoes try an early variety like Red Duke of York or Orla. Also try blue and purple varieties, like Emmalia, Salad Blue or Purple Majesty.
2. Don’t grow what is already available in good supply locally, there is no need to compete with cabbages and carrots from the farmers market. Grow what you cannot buy. Try Romanescu, Broad Beans, Globe Artichokes, Strawberry Spinach or Kai Lan, an “untidy cross between sprouting broccoli, kale and asparagus” (Marc Diacono in his book “a taste of the unexpected”.)
3. Don’t just grow tomatoes grow sensational tomatoes, grow a variety that excites your taste buds. After my own trials this year I recommend Gardenberry, Santonio, Indigo Cherry Drops, Arielle, Sungold and Yellow Submarine. It is worth taking time to choose a variety, because some will suit your microclimate better than others, some produce quicker, some are less likely to fall to pests and diseases and some will convince you on taste. Also give bush-tomatoes in pots a try, you will be surprised. Try Balconi, Cherry Falls and Tumbling Tom.
4. Heads of lettuce or lettuce leaves? I’ll go for the latter and suggest you grow your own salad bags with a mixture of different flavours, multi-colours and textures from soft to crunchy. Try Baby Leaf Mix, Salad Bowl, Kamalia, Till and Cerbiatta. Sow in small quantities and often (every 2 weeks) for regular supply.
5. Plant fruit trees – growing fruit is easy. If you are short of space grow dwarf varieties. Move on from apples and pears and try Quinces and Hazelnuts (outdoors) and Apricots and Figs in a half barrel in a polytunnel or conservatory.
6. Grow Alpine strawberries, grow from seed and line the edges of your vegetable beds and the borders of your herb garden with dozens of plants. They are productive over a very long season from April till November. Try a red variety like Alexandria and white strawberries “White Soul”, which I discovered a few years ago, they are delicious.
7. Be open to invasions from wild plants and harvest what they offer. The often maligned Dandelion gives you flowers for lemonade and wine, leaves for salads and roots for coffee. Daisies can be used as chives and chickweed and Hairy Bittercress can enhance your salad.
“Whatever form your garden takes it should be a place of happy productivity, somewhere you look forward to spending time and where you can anticipate the delicious produce you hope to harvest from it. Getting there is all down to the questions you ask yourself indoors, before the surface of the earth is broken.” (Mark Diacono)