Harvest time begins as the evenings lengthen
You only have to look to the sky these days or step outside and feel the nip in the morning air to know that summer has come to a rather abrupt end in Ireland, and the shorter day length acts as a signal to gardeners that harvest time is upon us.
As any regular reader of this column will know, like most people I’ve limited space and even more limited knowledge when it comes to growing food at home. But you don’t necessarily need that much space to grow a lot of vegetables and fruit, and trial and error is all part of the learning process. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
This year I had tried to grow organic Corn from kernels, which was an almost total failure. Some other crops like Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli did grow fine from seed in pots with little care or attention paid to them, but I was a bit neglectful and some of those went to flower and others were munched by insects before I got round to harvesting them. The Carrot and Leek seeds meanwhile never germinated and there is no sign of the asparagus bare roots.
But for every failure there was a success. Right now in the greenhouse I have some Winter Squash ripening on the vine. It’s a bit of a jungle in there as the vines of the squash and those of the various tomato plants are all wrapped round the greenhouse frame and there’s a bumper crop of Tomatoes coming along nicely too. Both crops should be ready to pick in the weeks to come.
This is the first time I’ve grown squash successfully, and I really wish, with Halloween coming up, I’d tried the more popular Squash, the traditional Pumpkin, again this year. Last time I tried to grow Pumpkins in the ground outdoors, but after they reached flowering stage the slugs devoured them. This time I grew the green kabocha squash from seed in a large window box type planter and just made sure it was kept well watered and fed with seaweed fertiliser. Under the protection of the greenhouse it has thrived and taken over the space. The squashes are ready to harvest when the stem connecting it to the rest of the plant starts to wither and dry up.
Other vegetables I’ve grown successfully for the first time this year in containers, grow bags or in the ground include Green Beans, Potatoes, and bullet proof, quick growing vegetables from seed like Swiss Chard, Beetroot, Lettuce, Cress and Radishes. All of these, except the Lettuce unless it is a winter hardy version, can be sown outdoors any time of year and I’ve been doing just that over the past few weeks in the hope of getting a few things matured through winter into spring.
If you have very limited space like me, I’d avoid sprawling crops like Cabbages and Squashes that take up a lot of room and a lot of nutrients from the ground.
The best thing about growing your own food is you really can taste the difference, and going straight from the soil to the saucepan or pot to plate ensures that at least some of the food we eat hasn’t had time to leach any of its incredible nutritional benefits.