Happily, despite the very dry
period during May, June and July,
most of our crops have been doing
very well. Some of our beetroots
are huge glossy dark red globes;
the kohlrabi looking even more
martian-like in its largeness;
the squashes giant- size and
magnificent; the runner beans
ravishing; the swedes bursting in
their voluptuousness; the hamburg
parsley so tender I cannot think
of a more scrumptious root
vegetable; the salsify so
beautiful with its purple flowers
we forgot to harvest its roots
this year; the martian sweetcorn
stunning in its purple-coloured
hue, and all vegetables providing
bountiful harvests and looking
and tasting delicious.
The garden has proved be very
productive this year, allowing us
to gorge ourselves silly on
organic fruit and vegetables. We
also have a very small local
vegetable box scheme feeding a
select few of our friends and
neighbours.
With much work undertaken in
the cellar and shelving
constructed, we now have a
wonderful storage place for our
squashes, beetroots and apples.
The carrots and swedes we hope to
make clamps for to store outside
in the garden.
We have fed the walled garden
with a generous amount of local
horse manure, and this has, along
with our compost and nettle and
comfrey tea, provided the garden
with all the minerals and
nutrients that it requires to
grow healthy plants.
The garden is now 100% in
cultivation with another
vegetable bed having been created
where before there was
unproductive “lawn”. Leeks are
adorning this bed, and are also
growing in another three to
provide us with comforting leek
soup throughout the cold winter
months. (Our leeks have fared
very well after their ordeal of
having been trampled upon and
munched on by two of our resident
cows one night whilst still in
their nursery bed, young leeks
being a bit of a delicacy.)
Medicinal herbs – gromwell,
chamomile, milk thistle,
Echinacea, ashwagandha, wood
betony, black cohosh, Japanese
eupatorium, golden rod, white
horehound, motherwort, gotu kola,
and others, have been added to
the collection of useful plants
in the gardens of Monkton Wyld
Court and we hope to expand
further on this, to grow yet more
unusual (and well known) edible
and useful plants.
Other plants have been
successfully sprinkling
themselves around the walled
garden. The naughty thorn apple,
Datura, has been happily
germinating and growing into
glades of spikiness. These plants
are quite poisonous – and this
may well be why they chose to
grow specifically amongst our
rows of oriential salad leaves!
Fortunately they do not disquise
themselves too well amongst
these. We have also had many
tobacco plants magically
appearing, germinating amongst
our newly pricked out seedlings.
These are larger than the usual
varieties, growing to over a
metre in height, and we have no
idea how they managed to
introduce themselves, but we are
glad they did.
An area of land below the
garden has been cultivated and
planted up with potatoes, along
with a green manure crop of
clover and trefoil which, with
the aid of certain bacteria that
live in their roots, help to fix
the atmospheric nitrogen,
transforming it into a form that
plants can take up. This improves
the soil ready for the next crop.
Another area of land next to this
is also in the process of being
cultivated, the docks that have
dominated gradually having their
deep strong roots unearthed.
The apple trees are bearing a
generous heavy crop this year,
branches straining under the
weight. Many of these apples will
be stored in our cellar, others
juiced, and some hopefully made
into glorious apple pies and
crumbles.
Our grapevine that gracefully
stretches itself across the roof
of the greenhouse has been
providing us with the sweetest
and most wonderful tasting grapes
that many of us have ever
tasted.
Seed saving is in full swing.
We have been selecting many
plants for their vigour, size,
shape or colour, to save their
seeds for the net generations.
Processing some of these seeds –
de-husking and de-chaffing, has
been the joyful work of patient
volunteers during rainy days. For
me it is a wonderful thought that
each of these seeds contains all
the potential for an entire new
plant that will itself set seed
and bring forth future
generations.
As a gardener, during the long
and hot summer months, I long for
this time of year, with the touch
of its crisp wind and freshness,
the darkening days drawing in the
mysteries of the night, the
promise of the deep rich
earthiness after leaf fall. It
also means, of course, that I can
begin to wind down with a shorter
day length – a bottle of real ale
at sunset whilst sorting through
seeds that contain all the
potential of the future provides
a way of relaxing after a day’s
work as the seemingly eternal
busy summer days wind down.
