The Self Provisioner by Neil M White

Author:Neil M White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Neil M White
Published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

If you can make these work, vary the theme. If you like these crops, stick with them (all of these store well either dried, in the cellar/garage or frozen so are great for self provision gardening).

Remember, self provision gardening is about growing crops to replace things that you’d normally buy (or aren’t able to buy) for a significant part of the year. This becomes harder if you have three types of bean, four different varieties of pumpkin and eight types of lettuce on the go at one time.

Summer

Your enjoyment of the garden in summer will depend on how organised you were during the previous two seasons. Did you plan and prepare properly. Was your crop choice on point. Did you get everything planted on time and in the right place?

If you did all that then guess what? You get to relax and enjoy the garden a little. I like to sit in my pergola, coffee in one hand, cigar or my pipe in the other while the summer sun sinks slowly behind my beech hedge. In the distance you can hear the gentle hum of bees as they do your work for you. Here are some other jobs to keep you going over the summer months.

1. Summer pruning and harvesting

One of the joys of summer is fresh, ripe fruits. Sun warmed and picked straight from tree to mouth - is there anything finer? Keep on top of your harvesting. Some plants like peas and beans need you to be on top of picking to keep crops of pods coming. Runner beans will ‘go over’ if you don’t do this. The pods become leathery and inedible and you’ll have to wait until the pods mature to harvest the dried beans. Asparagus needs regular picking - a large patch needs daily attention. Fruit trees such as apples may need summer pruning to remove vigorous growth and stimulate future fruit production.

2. Weed, Weed, Weed

You know you else likes summer? Weeds, that’s who. Those little blighters will grow in the hottest, driest weather. Or they wait for a nice damp humid spell to explode into seeds. The trick with weeding is simple - little and often. Take your stirrup hoe on your daily rounds of your garden and give the surface a little tickle. This has two functions:

● It will cut off the roots of any weeds, disturbing them and killing them. The morning is best for this as the warm summer sunshine will stress and kill the plant.

● Disturbing the top layer of soil and ‘fluffing’ it creates a barrier that prevents excessive water loss. You should do this after heavy rain as a matter of course.

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