Little Green Space
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Little Green Space |
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LITTLE GREEN SPACE Originally published in the Peak Advertiser on 14 June 2010
As I write this, the weather is finally hotting up, and the
risk of frost has gone. So it's time to start thinking about all those
tender veg that will need to be planted out soon. I'm talking courgettes,
pumpkins, squash, beans and sweetcorn, all of which we have growing in
pots in the greenhouse. Here in the Peak District we're usually past our last frost
by the beginning of June – Right now, though, we are in the middle of a heatwave, and
it’s hard to imagine we’ll be back to freezing temperatures any time
soon. So with this in mind I have been "hardening off"
all my tender plants, in preparation for planting out. The greenhouse door
has been opened up each day for a few weeks now, and closed again at night
to keep warmth in and protect against frosts. Planting out Now we’re in the grip of warmer weather, I have taken
everything out of the greenhouse, to give it a chance to get used to
outside conditions. My friend Alison has another tactic for hardening off:
she plants veg into their final growing positions and covers individual
plants with empty plastic bottles with their bottoms cut off. I’ll finally plant everything into the veggie patch in a
few days time. There is some dispute as to the best time of day to do
this. Some say plant out early in the day, to give the plants a few hours
of warmth to settle into their new homes, before the temperatures drop
during the night. Others say wait until you have enjoyed your cup of
afternoon tea, so that the heat of the sun won’t scorch the plants and
cause them to shrivel. However, as with so many things in gardening, the decision
about when to plant out depends on common sense – so if a cold night is
forecast I’ll plant my veg out in the morning, but if the day’s a
scorcher, I’ll wait until late afternoon. Water works One thing’s for sure: if the hot dry weather continues once
those plants are in place, we’ll need to make sure that the vegetable
garden is getting enough water. Most gardeners recommend a thorough soaking once a week.
Watering little and often causes the plants’ roots to grow up to the
surface in search of a drink, whereas what we really want them to do is
reach down deep into the depths of the earth. Our new orchard needs lots of water in this weather too. With
no water butts or taps to hand I needed a way to get water to the trees
without risking a back injury lugging heavy buckets backwards and
forwards. So I set up a simple, gravity-fed irrigation system using the
stream (which conveniently runs alongside the orchard), an old length of
hose and a funnel. And, amazingly, it actually worked! The only effort
required – after the splashy scrabble through the stream to get the
funnel in place – is to move the end of the hose from tree to tree every
half hour or so. Much better than lugging! And the time saved on watering the orchard means more time
for other jobs – such as picking off all the blossoms from the fruit
trees. This is a pleasant, relaxing job on a warm spring day – but
it’s heart-breaking too. Each blossom has the potential to become an
apple, peach or plum – until I pinch it off, that is. But it’s a job that’s necessary in the first year after
planting. If left on the tree, the blossoms may well become fruits, but
the tree will have wasted energy forming them – energy that could have
gone into forming a strong root system. If left to grow, blossoms on new fruit trees tend to develop
small, poor quality fruits anyway – and the tree stands less chance of
becoming a prolific cropper in future years. So alas the blossom must go. And with fifteen new fruit trees
planted this year, it’s a job that could take some time – but if the
sun keeps on shining, I won’t mind at all! Old English We’ve managed to get hold of some old English varieties of
apples: Orleans Reinette, an 18th century variety, and
Ashmead’s Kernel, which is nearly 300 years old. Getting these was largely due to the hard work and tireless
research of Lorna Cross, of Lorna Cross Nurseries in Tansley, who sourced
the fruit trees for us. Newer species are easier to get hold of, as they
have become more popular recently, due to their tendency to produce more
fruits and be less susceptible to disease. But this is a shame, as the newer varieties are often less
flavoursome. And planting older species of fruit trees – just like
raising rare-breed pigs or chickens – is a great way to help protect
biodiversity. As modern varieties of crops and livestock prove
increasingly more efficient – more disease resistant, bigger, more
prolific – the older varieties begin to die out. About 30 per cent of
farm animal species are at risk of extinction because of this, and relying
on an ever-dwindling selection of crop types can't be a good thing. 2010 is International Year of Biodiversity, a celebration of the enormous
variety of life on Earth, so it's a good time to really think about the ways
we all garden, farm, and shop. Orchards
are a vital habitat but have been disappearing from the British landscape
over recent decades. This is a sad thing, not least because orchards
support such a wide variety of wildlife. Bees, butterflies and hoverflies
visit orchards to feed on nectar in the blossoms, and bats and woodpeckers
are also frequent visitors. As if to prove this point, we saw our first woodpecker in one
of our trees a few weeks ago. They are unmistakable birds, with their
black, white and red plumage, and it was a delight to spot one. Penny at Little Green Space www.littlegreenspace.org.uk |
