October Crops

The warm September has extended the growing season and the salads and tomatoes are doing especially well. The fennel [above] looks very beautiful and smells great, but I'm not sure the heads are large enough to eat. I suspect a lack of water at a critical growing time might have reduced the bulb size somewhat.


The tomatoes have been a great success, the small orange 'Sungold' variety proving specially sweet.
They're definitely on my list a favourites for next year!






We can look forward to these Cos lettuce and Swiss Chard providing some colour and flavour in the weeks to come. The Swiss Chard is the multi-coloured 'Bright Lights' variety. Click on photo for more detail!



Mixed salad leaves and rocket make an attractive display and a delicious salad (which has been going down very well with home made pizza recently chez Dutton! Brilliant pizza dough recipe available on request.......)

The mizuna leaves look great and add a bit of spiciness to the salad [right]
Look out for the leeks that are doing really well. The difference between home grown and shop bought is massive!

Remember, if you want to help out with the garden email me or say hello when you see me in the playground. Thanks!!

Oh, and an historic day at Belleville School - A masterclass in organisation!

New academic year!

[Above: Mr Grove's sweetcorn. Please do not touch!]
STOP PRESS: APPARENTLY THERE WAS AN UPTURN IN THE AMOUNT OF VEG BEING EATEN BY THE CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL CANTEEN DURING THE LAST ACADEMIC YEAR, AND THE STAFF THINK IT'S BECAUSE OF THE VEG GARDEN!

Welcome to a new term at Belleville School.

The main frustration over the summer holiday has been that the school is closed when many of the crops have been ready for harvesting, especially beans and tomatoes, but also courgettes and carrots, in fact just about everything we were growing. Fortunately Lollo Roja has been able to harvest some beans and tomatoes for the restaurant, but nonetheless, there remains a problem of what to do in the summer when the school is closed and so many people are away. Maybe next year we should aim to have open days every Sunday morning when parents can come along and pick their own?

Here's a quick run down of successes and failures over the summer:

Failures

1. Fennel - it looks beautiful but no bulbs have formed at all, which according to the books is normally caused by low temperatures but, given the summer we've had (decent?) I'm wondering if it might not be lack of water at crucial times. Apologies for poor picture quality - blame Nokia!


2. The climbing french beans were great in that they grew very quickly in great profusion, but they did tend to pod very quickly if you didn't pick them in time. Next year, borlotti beans!

3. Dwarf beans. Hopeless. Not sure why. Probably my fault.

Successes:

1. Tomatoes. Very sweet orange coloured cherry toms were my favourite. Unfortunately I lost the seed packet so might not be able to grow them again.

2.Companion planting. That's where you grow one plant in close proximity to another for their mutual benefit. In this case I grew Nasturtiums next to the climbing beans, and they were successful in attracting the blackfly away from the tender beans which often get overwhelmed by the nasty bugs. Very green!

3. Pumpkins. Last year they all went spongy when only a few inches across, but it turns out we weren't watering enough. It was such a wet summer that the soil was normally wet, but because the raised beds are on top of concrete they were bone dry just under the surface, so the thirsty pumpkins shrivelled and died. In other words I killed them! This summer I tried to give them long soaks and that seems to have done the trick.

4. Carrots (partial success). We grew heirloom varieties, none of them orange, and although they tasted great they didn't have the modern carrots size and shape. The above the ground plant was often massive while the carrot was quite small. Modern varieties reverse those characteristics.

Also, the peppers again showed how easy they are to grown, the potaoes tasted great but were pretty small, and the strawberries are still going nicely.
But the biggest success of all was the recruiting of Evie who is going to run a veg gardening club after school every Thursday. Great news! More about that soon...

July update

PICK YOUR OWN THIS SATURDAY AT 10am

Above: (new 'superfood') Curly Kale, still going strong.
Below: Our extra produce is being sold by Dandelion in Northcote Rd. They seem to be pretty pleased that our courgettes are grown 150 yards from the shop are replacing those that were grown 150 million miles away in Costa Rica!














We've also supplied Lola Rojo with french beans and they'll be harvesting during the second half of August and beyond perhaps.
Here are some photos of what's else is on offer this Saturday.....
Right: Climbing french beans. You need to be tall to pick these!
Below: The tomatoes are ripening rapidly and there should be quite a few ready for picking on Saturday. The photos are a couple of weeks old.














Below: Pumpkins won't be ready until Halloween time, by which time they should be really large. They enjoy beer.

Right: The leeks also need more time to grow.

Left: We've already had loads of courgettes but there should be some more on Saturday?

Below right: The carrots (any colour but orange) have shot up (or should that be down?) recently. We could maybe pick a few to thin them out?



Below: For some reason the peppers are growing upwards rather than downwards.

Below: We'll have a dig for Pink Fir Apple potatoes (stock photo below). Seriously, they taste great, and they only need a scrub, no peeling required. Not sure if they're ready yet?

Dig For Victory!

YOUR GARDEN NEEDS YOU!!

Are you a lower playground parent or will you be a lower playground parent next year?

Do you enjoy the vegetable garden?
Do you feel sad when you see the plants looking thirsty?
Would you like to earn the respect of your children?
Well now's your chance to help!

We're looking for volunteer 'drought wardens' to check on the garden at drop-off and pick-up time, and to water the garden if it looks dry. It would only take a few minutes although if you have longer to give the soil a good soaking, then that would be great. For more info see below:

The hose is easily attached to the tap
Don't water if the soil is already damp
When you water it's better to thoroughly soak some of the garden then wet the surface of the whole garden
Most veg require lots of water, but parsnips, garlic & onions need a little less when they are a decent size
The raised beds dry out very quickly and very deeply because they are laid on tarmac. It's a good idea to sometimes leave the hose on the surface of the soil while the water soaks in
Tomato leaves don't like being wet for too long, but on a warm and sunny day this isn't a problem
In order of water requirement: Potatoes, beans, courgettes and pumpkins, carrots, tomatoes, salads etc
If the gate is locked when you are finished you can leave via the school office

For some further entertainment try these excellent sites which are sure to give you a lift in these difficult times!
http://outonafunkytrip.blogspot.com/
http://skatalitesindub.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your kind attention - Ministry of Food

Courgettes in a pot

CLICK ON PIX TO ENLARGE

For anyone who bought a courgette plant at the summer fair (and there were quite a few of you), just repot into a large pot with compost, keep moist and find a sunny spot. My plant was grown from seed at the same time as the ones sold at the fair, but re-potted a week or two earlier, so yours should be ready to produce courgettes any day.

These shallots were grown at the school and will be for sale at drop off on Monday along with some bags of curly kale, one of the world's healthiest foods apparently!

How to grow leeks?

There are various ways to grow leeks but this year I sprinkled some seeds into compost filled 5" pots and transplanted the resulting seedlings (in big clumps) into one of the raised beds when they were a reasonable size. I dug these up today. In the photo on the left you can see how the roots have formed a healthy looking root ball.




At this stage (or before) it's a good idea to mark out your lines (with string?) and make your holes. These should be six inches apart and six inches deep and the rows should be around a foot apart.




I then shook out some of the soil (photo left).












The individual leeks then have to be teased apart (above) and then the roots and leaves are trimmed (right).
The leeks are then dropped into the holes and 'puddled in' (left) which is a gardening term used by the real experts. It means filling the hole with water, which doesn't sound as technical as 'puddling in'. This process settles the roots and fills the bottom of the hole with soil so the leek can get into growing mode again.

They look neat in their rows which I've covered with netting in an attempt to stop foxes digging them up. They look for disturbed soil which, because they are stupid, they hope might contain a chicken.

I'd actually grown four clumps of leeks so I planted the remaining ones at Honeywell Nursery (below right) with the able assistance of Sam Watson.

Bloomin' June

[Above] Veg Club member Javonte takes a look at the potato plants

[Left] Curly Kale, an early kids Veg Club project, grown from seed. They grow into spectacular plants and are a staple of the Able & Cole veg boxes later in the year. Ha!

[Right] Dwarf beans. There's one clearly visible in the middle of the photo. Behind the beans are the canes for the climbing beans which are just beginning to curl around the poles.

[Left] The clumps of leeks in the foreground are waiting transplantation to rows in one of the other beds. The wild garlic is ready if anyone wants some?

[Right] Onions, shallots and garlic coming along nicely. You can also just see carrots in the outside rows planted by a kind Veg Club member - just where I was going to plant the leeks. Still they're coming on ok. I've also sown five rows of 'heirloom' carrots in the first raised bed... yellow, cream, white and red. Anything but orange. They never used to be orange you know.

[Left] Pak Choi. I'll be selling some at pick up on Monday. I've tried it. It's very nice.

[Right] Pumpkin plants. Last year the butternut squash was a disaster. These are Halloween style pumpkins.

[Left] Strawberries. Everybody likes strawberries. Not sure if there will be enough to sell as they don't ripen at the same time. Although there might be, as there are loads more than last year. I think they taste better than the ones in the shops. Javonte agrees.

[Below] I'm quite excited about my tomato plant cage. I borrowed the idea from something I saw at the Chelsea Flower Show a couple of years ago. Their's was much better.
Don't forget to prune your tomatoes if you bought any off me. And put them in the ground if you can. And support them well with big canes. And feed them when the first tomatoes are full size. They should be great!
And if you could donate to the African school project on the left it might actually get built, as they've almost reached their target.