I welcome you to the New Year, which has brought in some frosty weather in many parts of the isles bringing soil activity to rest and heal the garden from soil born pests and diseases.
I would like to share a few considerations to ensure you will have a productive garden in the New Year.
Considerations of size
First of all, it is essential that you are clear about your food needs and a how many you are in your household.
If you are just looking to grow basic vegetables without potatoes and sweet corn, which take a lot of space, you can grow all your vegetables on 50 m2 for one person or about 150-180 lbs/year.
For a couple or a family of 4-5 you need anywhere between 80-120m2.
Considerations for a balanced garden
For the best nutrition and for the garden to be used most effectively and express all elements it si essential that we divide the garden in for parcels and plan our main crop to be in parcel one to be heavy feeders made up of the brassica, cucumber and tomato family.
For parcel two it would be advisable to grow vegetables which are medium heavy feeders of the spinach, onion and lettuce family.
In parcel three we grow all the legumes, green manures and flowers which will give back fertility to the soil fooled by all the root vegetables of the carrot, brassica and bulbous vegetables of onion family. This will created a rounded and full epression in the garden where the vegetbales families are varied and all parts fo the vegetables can express themselves at different time in the different growing years.
Considerations for indoor sowing
- Don’t sow your seeds too late or too early indoors. They might be too cold
- They might not yield as well.
- Sow 20-40% more seeds than you need to be able to select best seedlingif you sow indoors or in seed flats and 4 x as many seeds outdoors .
- Be aware of protecting seed boxes with shading material and glass to prevent
- excessive trans-evaporation.
- Plants raised from indoor sowings are generally more vulnerable,
particularly after transplanting outdoors.
- Prick out seedlings into deeper boxes, if you can.
- Make sure you harden off the seedlings before transplanting.
- Water in transplanted seedlings well after transplanting
Considerations for direct sowing
- Make sure the seed bed is even and level, so all seeds are at the same depth and exposed to the same amount of moisture or drying.
- Be aware that you might have to water your seed beds 3-4 times/day unless you mulch.
- With slow germinating veggies like carrots, parsley, parsnip, scorzonera, salsify and celery, you might have to weed before they germinate (intersow a row-marking crop of fast germinating veggies like radishes).
- Oversow 3-4 times as much as you need eventually to fill the bed with a good cover of growth after thinning out. Consider getting larger seed packages e.g. Carrots 10g=10.000 seeds.
- 800 seeds for 2m2.
- Direct sown plants are more resilient and resistant to extreme weather, pests and diseases.
- With many in a garden situation, you can start harvesting outer leaves
Last but not, make sure you get the best seeds:
Esk Seeds and Plants which are mostly biodynamically grown and certified from: https://eskseeds.co.uk/
Sativa seeds Switzerland: Only organically certified seeds make it into our online shop.
There you’ll find a variety of different seeds – from organic conservation, organic breeding
and old varieties, to organically reproduced sorts.https://www.sativa.bio/en/
Bingenheimer Saatgut AG, trades exclusively in open pollinated varieties of organic seeds and plants. https://www.bingenheimersaatgut.de/
Real Seeds is a one-stop-shop for allotment owners. www.realseeds.co.uk
The Organic Gardening Catalogue, a joint venture between Garden Organic (HDRA) ‘Europe’s leading organic gardening organisation’ and Chase Organics based in Horsham, Surrey, https://www.organiccatalogue.com/
Tamar Organics, a thriving delivery service providing seed to the UK and beyond.
Seed to Plate offers a small range of organic seeds www.seedtoplate.co.uk
Laura’s Organics www.laurasorganics.co.uk
Secret Seeds, featuring bulk deals on wildflower and vegetable packs, their prices for
organic seeds start at as little as £1. They also stock an ever evolving collection of rare and
unusual plants with more than 1,350 different species. www.secretseeds.com
Jekka’s Herb Farm Dubbed the ‘Queen of Herbs’ by Jamie Oliver, Jakka McVicar runs the
only organic nursery to win over 60 RHS gold medals, two consecutive Tudor Rose Awards
from the Hampton Court Flower Show and a RHS Lawrence medal for their 2009 garden at
the Chelsea Flower Showwww.jekkasherbfarm.com
Seeds of Change stocks a wide range of organic seed selected with everyone from occasional
gardeners to full timers in mind. www.seedsofchange.com
Duchy Originals
supplies organic seeds to the eco-conscious gardener. www.duchyoriginals.com
Enjoy this new growing season and make the best of all the abundance that nature will provide with your caring input.
Remember to spread the Three Kings Preparation on Monday the 6. January to protect and bless your land.
Happy gardening
Hans-Günther
Do you want to learn about pruning fruit trees and soft fruit?
Then come to Sussex, Michael Hall School on Saturday the 11. January.
Please contact us at admin@wholisticliving.co.uk or go to www.whlu.org