"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments"

Janet Kilburn Phillips

Yes! It's Pumpkin time!

Hi Everyone. We are well and truly in autumn now and you might be thinking that's it for the growing season. Well, if you are, you are wrong my friend. There's still more we can grow. However, I have to admit things are winding down a bit now, but there's lots we can be getting on with.

So what have we got in store for you this month?

What to sow and grow in October.

Gorgeous Garlic

Know your Spinach

Linda's Mini pond.

Can you dry any beans?

And lastly, Lottie news and members questions.

🥦🍅🥒🌶🍠🌽🍓🫑🫐🍐🥕

What to sow and grow in October.

This is the month to start thinking about getting your Garlics in. You can plant them direct into the soil or start them off in plug pots undercover. Winter Lettuce and Onion sets are good to go in as well.

If you know someone with a Strawberry bed, you might be lucky to get some of their Strawberry runners so as to start off a bed of your own. If you already have a Strawberry patch, now's the time to snip off those runners and give the mature plants a pre winter tidy up.

Like last month you can still sow or plant Spring Cabbage, Kale, Chard and Spinach, but they may need a bit of protection with fleece when there are frosts about later on in the year.

And lastly, towards the end of the month you can sow some Broad Beans. They will be quite happy over wintering and you'll then be miles ahead for a spring harvest.

🧄 Gorgeous Garlic 🧄

Unless you really hate Garlic I would suggest finding at least a large pot or a small bed to grow some some of your own. Once it's planted it needs very little looking after and nine months later you can harvest fully grown bulbs from single cloves.

There are three main types of Garlic, all of which are relatively easy to grow. There's Hardneck, Softneck and Elephant Garlic.

Hardneck Garlic is cold hardy and requires a prolonged exposure to the cold so as to split the cloves. Hardneck generally produces fewer cloves, but they are most often a bit larger than Softneck. Hardneck also has a shorter shelf life of around 3-5 months.

Softneck Garlic matures more quickly and doesn't produce 'scapes', which are edible flower stalks. They generally contain smaller cloves per bulb, but they store better, up to 9 months.

And lastly, Elephant Garlic, which is technically in the Leek family. Elephant Garlic is very large, has a milder flavour and it keeps well.

This year I will be growing some Softneck from three bulbs that I accidentally grew last year...it's a long story. I will also grow some Elephant Garlic for the first time that I will order from a seed company. And I will grow some Hardneck Garlic from a supermarket bulb that I will buy at a fraction of the price of a seed company. Supermarket Garlic?! 😲 Yes, if you're short of cash or just want to experiment, pick out a nice big bulb from any supermarket and give it a go. I've done it several years running now with really good results. I can't say I've ever seen Elephant Garlic on sale in supermarkets. Have you?

How do you tell them apart? As the name implies, the Hardneck Garlic has a hard stem at the top and the Softneck doesn't have a stem at all or is very bendy.

Know your Spinach

When I first started growing Spinach, many moons ago, before I even had an allotment I simply thought Spinach was Spinach. Then I discovered Perpetual Spinach and then very recently New Zealand Spinach.

So what's the difference?

True Spinach is frost hardy and needs to be planted in the cooler months like now, otherwise it will bolt (go to seed) in hot or warm sunny weather.

Perpetual Spinach is actually a Chard from the Beet family. It's very similar in taste to Spinach, but it is easier to grow and doesn't bolt so easily. If protected by fleece it may even go through the winter and give you an early spring harvest.

New Zealand Spinach is not actually a true spinach either, but it's similar when cooked and is considered a “summer spinach” because it thrives in hot, dry weather. New Zealand Spinach is slightly milder in taste and grows really well in the warmer part of the year, but will be knocked back or killed by any frosts.

Linda's Mini Pond

Last month I offered some free pond plants (which I still have), that I had potted up that had self seeded. Linda, who relieved me of a couple of the plants, very kindly sent me a picture of her mini pond she has made for her garden. It just goes to show that you don't need loads of space to have a little wildlife pond. Well done Linda, it's such a sweet little pond.

Can you dry any Beans?

This question was asked a good few weeks ago and for the life of me I can't remember who asked it. Sorry! I think they were asking if they could be dried so as to save the Bean seeds for storing in quantity and not just to save some seeds for planting the following year.

In answer to the question, all Beans can be dried so as to save the seeds to re-plant. There are some Beans that are best for eating the whole green pods, like Runner Beans, whereas some are better for leaving them on the vine to dry. Quite a few are dual purpose in that you can eat them green early on in the season and then leave them to dry on the vines to harvest at the end.

This year I grew two varieties, 'Trail of Tears', which has a small black bean when dried and Borlotti beans, which are bigger and pinky brown in colour. Both of these Beans are a climbing variety as opposed to a bushing one. I grew mine up over an arch, but they are just as happy growing up a bamboo teepee or some trellis.

Most seed companies sell at least a few varieties of Beans that are either grown exclusively for drying or are dual purpose. Look out for Bean seeds at seed swaps and of course once you've grown and dried them for the first time, you then don't ever have to buy the seeds again as you can just save a small handful for the following year.

Next year I fancy adding Cannellini Beans, which are the largish white Beans that go great in soups like Minestrone. What climbing Beans will you grow next year and will you eat the pods or dry them to save for later?

Lottie News!

Fox update! I think I can safely say that the Jeyes fluid experiment was not successful. This is where I had sprayed the Jeyes last night and this is what I was faced with this morning. I'm just grateful that they didn't actually get inside the poly tunnel and run amok. Back to the drawing board I think.

I started off last month by cutting down some of my Comfrey leaves to do a FPJ, fermented plant juice. A much less smelly way to make Comfrey fertiliser, although not as cheap as Comfrey tea, as you need to buy organic dark brown sugar. Let me know if you'd like me to expand on what the process is.

I also decided to do some softwood cuttings of my favourite Blueberry bush with the idea of having them in my garden at home. I have no idea if they will take or not, but if you don't try you won't know. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

So many things this year seem to be late in developing. It could simply be the strange weather including the heatwave, or perhaps my reticence to plant out early because of last year, but my Aubergines have only just started to show up; little dinky things they are. My sweet Chilli Peppers have just begun to go red even though they've been in the warm greenhouse.

The vertical grown Courgette has been very successful and I will definitely do the same next year. Next time I will take advantage of the space underneath to grow something else.

My Spinach seedlings are almost ready to go out, but I think I'm going to have to make a few more slug pubs beforehand. Since we've had a bit of rain, Mr Slug and his mates have been back, eyeing up the juicy baby veg.

Members Questions - Kiersten Asks...

...Why have my cucumbers gone yellow?

The most common reason for Cucumbers turning yellow will be that you have waited too long to harvest them.

When Cucumbers become over ripe, their green colouring produced from chlorophyll begins to fade, resulting in a yellowing pigment. Cucumbers then become bitter with size and yellow Cucumbers are generally not fit to eat.

In some cases under watering or lack of nutrients can be another reason, but in this case I would say it's been left too long on the vine.

If you have a food gardening question you'd like to ask just pop me an email and I'll see how I can help. I don't proclaim to be an expert, but I will do my best to answer any of your questions.

In the meantime, if you know of anyone who might like to become a FG4A member do feel free to forward them this email and get them to visit the website and sign up, it's free!

Or you can always catch up with what I've been up to on Facebook or instagram.

Keep safe.

Christine x

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