December 2024

NEWS I am back on Facebook. Use this link, and ignore all the other pages pretending to be me.

Winter vegetables

Our climate is temperate oceanic, mostly above freezing in winter. During November, the average temperatures were 11.5°C, 53°F by day, and 4.5°C, 40°F by night. Nonetheless, we had six nights of frost, including one of -4°C 25°F on 20th November, which damaged outdoor salad plants, such as salad rocket and mustard.

Other vegetables such as the Brussels, savoys, parsnips and beetroot, especially the Cheltenham Green Top, survive light frost and sweeten in flavour.

The flavour of these beetroot is different to red, round ones. Sweeter, paler in colour, with a dense texture. They grow more slowly and do not get as heavy.

With some of the root below ground, they stand frost better than round beets which sit on top of the ground. I find that below -5°C they can go mushy on top.

I value chicory hearts (radicchio) in December as one ingredient in salad bags that we continue to sell until Christmas. Growth of new green leaves at this time, even in the polytunnels, is slow because light is so lacking on the 51st parallel.

Whereas these plants, like Chinese cabbage, have stored energy in their hearts, and stand frost to about -4°C, unless the hearts are very firm. That's why I sowed these later than normal, to see if the smaller hearts would survive longer outside.

Sown 22nd March, planted between garlic 10th May. You need to get all of these key details right in order to grow such amazing celeriac, and it's the same for vegetables generally. They all have special requirements, except they all grow well in compost-mulched, no dig soil see my No Dig and Compost book offer.

I recommend my Growing Guides about each vegetable, for the information you need. Especially since they're on offer at the moment, 25% discount until Monday 1st December.

My only disappointing harvest this autumn is carrots. They grew fine, even from sowing late on 9th July, after peas. However, the root fly is endemic here in autumn especially, perhaps because there are so many wild carrots nearby. Even with mesh cover on top, we discarded 2/3, and most of the rest have some damage.

The yellow carrots are Jaune du Doubs. They are a little fibrous in texture and less flavoursome than orange ones, I find.

Winter soil care

It's time for mulching, unless already done.

I spread 2 to3 cm of compost once a year, that's about an inch. Difficult to measure, but enough to cover the soil completely on all beds, whatever they're going to grow next year.

Two thirds of what I use is homemade, and the rest is purchased green waste or mushroom compost. Some horse manure under cover in May, a little cow manure if I can buy it.

My paths are just 40 cm 16 in wide and I want their soil to be fertile because plants root into them. Hence, taking time to sieve and spread old wood chip.

The ash wood chip I received last year has too many large pieces which will not decay within 3 to 4 years. Plus they're not pleasant to walk on in the summer when the ground is hard. Behind the sieve is a large and growing pile of large pieces, which we shall sieve again next year. Plus some is useful as brown in compost heaps.

Mustard Sinapis alba (on right above) is dying after the -4°C frost, and it makes a great mulch for winter, turning into yellow straw by February. That's when you see the garlic planted with it in some beds, becoming more visible.

Trial beds dig, no dig

On 2nd December, I shall be digging one bed of this trial, incorporating compost, while Adam spreads the same quantity of compost on the surface of the other, no dig bed. Then we transplant broad beans for the winter, in both beds.

Harvests in 2024 have been mostly larger from the no dig bed with totals to date of 101 kg no dig and 87 kg dig.
More harvests from less effort.

Awards ceremony, Savoy Hotel in London

The Garden Media Guild run annual awards for journalists, authors, creators and photographers who cover gardening topics. I entered our Future Gardeners Forum and newsletter, for the Beth Chatto Environmental award, and won!

The judges wrote:

‍There was an outstandingly high standard of entries this year, with every entry offering a different and inspiring perspective to a horticultural or gardening issue related to the environment. We wish everyone could read them all, but we agreed that this year’s winner was the entry that has the potential to reach, inspire and influence a wide range of people, from teachers, parents and community workers, to amateur and professional gardeners and more, across different countries and cultures. It was inspiring, and inclusive, and made us want to get involved.

‍The grand lunch was in London last Friday and many of the team and friends attended. We were in a room of 400 people.

25% off until 2nd December midnight, dawn on 3rd for the Americas

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Winter garden beauty

In my eyes at least, beauty in a garden is from tidiness, a clear sense of purpose, and productivity when it's a food garden.

On that note, do keep weeding your beds through winter. It does not take long, catch the weeds small, and then you are ready for spring.

Plus with open beds like these, there are fewer slug habitats. See my Pest and Disease mini-Course for more on that. This weekend it costs just £16.50 or $21.

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