New garden season
With the echoes of Candlemas, and perhaps Imbolc for some of us, we make our ways into the nourishing realm of spring. The snowdrops are living up to their name and painting the soil with green and white, and the daffodils are poking their heads up, although their shining yellow flowers remain hidden behind a green veil.
With all this in mind, we at the garden would love to give you a sense of what will be growing in the fields this season. Much of what we planted last year worked very well, and so those who were here last year will probably recognise many of the vegetables in their vegetable boxes over the coming year but, for those who weren’t here, and since it’s been a long time since the start of last year’s season, I will go through all of it here.
The season will start with onions, leeks and a couple of cabbage varieties being sown into soil blocks at the Stormy Hall greenhouse.
In March we will sow the cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers again inside the greenhouse, the leaf beet into both the polytunnels for early crops, and outside for later in the year. The broad beans will be sown out into the field during this month as well.
In April the squashes will have their moment, with the spaghetti, Hokkaido, Zappho and Pattison varieties being grown in trays, as well as the courgettes, six more cabbage varieties, the kohlrabi, and the cauliflowers. We will also be directly planting the potatoes and the peas.
Most of the planting will be done by May, and some seedlings will have even been transplanted by then, but there are a few more seeds to sow. This is the month when we sow parsnips, swede,dwarf beans, kale, carrots and beetroot.
The final month, June, is when we sow the turnips and fennel.
Assuming everything germinates well, and the weather follows some sort of predictability, we expect a very similar year of produce, hopefully with more cabbages, as not all of them grew last year. With gardening, nothing is certain and only time will tell. We hope to be able to feed everyone again this year.
With all this in mind, we at the garden would love to give you a sense of what will be growing in the fields this season. Much of what we planted last year worked very well, and so those who were here last year will probably recognise many of the vegetables in their vegetable boxes over the coming year but, for those who weren’t here, and since it’s been a long time since the start of last year’s season, I will go through all of it here.
The season will start with onions, leeks and a couple of cabbage varieties being sown into soil blocks at the Stormy Hall greenhouse.
In March we will sow the cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers again inside the greenhouse, the leaf beet into both the polytunnels for early crops, and outside for later in the year. The broad beans will be sown out into the field during this month as well.
In April the squashes will have their moment, with the spaghetti, Hokkaido, Zappho and Pattison varieties being grown in trays, as well as the courgettes, six more cabbage varieties, the kohlrabi, and the cauliflowers. We will also be directly planting the potatoes and the peas.
Most of the planting will be done by May, and some seedlings will have even been transplanted by then, but there are a few more seeds to sow. This is the month when we sow parsnips, swede,dwarf beans, kale, carrots and beetroot.
The final month, June, is when we sow the turnips and fennel.
Assuming everything germinates well, and the weather follows some sort of predictability, we expect a very similar year of produce, hopefully with more cabbages, as not all of them grew last year. With gardening, nothing is certain and only time will tell. We hope to be able to feed everyone again this year.
Nick Kellner
Homefield garden apprentice