A New Year Perspective of a vegetable Grower
I have been an organic vegetable grower for 25 years and during that time we have seen our fair share of changes. 2007 was the worst year of my growing life and really did bring home to me the fragility of our existence and as a vegetable grower how dependant we are on the weather and the effect that climate change will bring to my life. This is the first Christmas in 25 years of production that I had no sprouts – they failed on 3 sites across Lancashire and now we are in the New Year, we have no Kales or Purple Broccoli the mainstays of our UK winter greens. All lost due to the fact that we could not get tractors on the ground for 5 weeks during the winter vegetable cultivation and planting window.
Operating a local box scheme in and around the Fylde and Wyre areas of Lancashire this is the hardest point I have found to get over to our customers. “But that was 6 months ago” or “could you not have replanted when it dried up” have been the usual retorts and only the gardeners amongst us understand that every crop has its sowing and planting window and these are very short, a matter of days in some cases. We have even had customers leave us citing the lack of variety in the boxes as their reason. Unfortunately this side of the production circle is out of my hands.
The strangest thing of all is that according to my recollections from a grower’s perspective 2006 was a drought year and 2007 was a flood year and yet the difference in rainfall between the two years was only 1.37 inches. Just 3% more in 2007 than in 2006. The problem was when it fell and the ferocity with which it fell.
The New Year is a time of optimism for all growers, the thrill of the season to come and the challenges it will bring our way.
February is the time of year when we look forward to a fruitful summer. The crop plans for the year are more or less complete, the first sowings of salad rocket, spring greens, salad leaf, salad onions, broad beans and peas are all waking up slowly in our heated propagation cabinet and the polytunnels are being power washed off and the elevated standing out areas constructed to grow the new seasons’ transplants. March will see the first plantings of the year in our tunnels providing us with a wealth of new crops from late April onwards
The outside land I feel will be more difficult this year due to the sheer volumes of rain we have had since last June. I am afraid that most of the nutrition has been washed down through the soil profile and will be difficult for the new plantings to access. We grow a lot of green manures (crops grown specifically to access nutrition deep down the soil profile then incorporated prior to planting to provide nutrition for the new plantings) here at Bradshaw Lane Nursery and these did go into good conditions last August and September and have grown well throughout the winter. I think I will be leaving them to grow on for as long as possible to access as much nutrition as possible for the coming years’ crops.
Let’s hope 2008 brings long hazy summer days to grow and sell our food in plenty.
Watch this space, as they say.
Alan
The Spring must be getting closer as this was the first frost morning that the sun had the power to melt the ice on my car’s windscreen, saving the need to scrape it prior to heading off for the ‘day job’.
Salad leaves are my only sale crop at present, but picking has been a bit sporadic due to the morning frosts. I’m picking rocket, lamb’s lettuce, winter purslane, celery leaf (from an autumn planting, has lasted through), ruby chard, mizuna, namenia, pak choi, green in snow, golden streaks mustard (needs a derogation but recommended) and red mustards. Checking the forecast, it looks like tomorrow morning will be a picking morning, no chance of a lie-in then…
Lunchtimes at work are spent sowing (my own) seeds in the research greenhouse at Ryton. At least alternate lunchtimes when I’m not training for next month’s half marathon (yes I am mad). Seed sowing is therapeutic and fills me with optimism for the coming season, like a drug that, for a while, banishes those low-light winter blues. That is why I couldn’t use a plant-raiser…
Energy levels are low in the winter and motivation to get going on the year’s horticultural journey can sometimes be lacking. I know it’ll tie me here and tire me out, frustrate me to hell and back and more, but once those seedlings are emerging I know it’s a journey I have to take.
Phil
March 2008 - Peter RichardsonHere at Coleshill Organics in the field we have sewn our broad beans and ploughed in our green manure ready for potato planting. In the polytunnels we have sewn spring onions and spinach ready for the hungry gap. Rainbow chard, summer cabbage have been sewn in trays and the tomatoes are just popping up in the propagator. It is our second Spring that we have used our lovely new greenhouse for propating, the light is so much better and the temperature more constant, it is a real joy to work in it. We have also been sorting out our irrigation systems, which is a bit of a joke after last summer and have been thinking about putting up another polytunnel as they are so useful.
Pete
Well here we are, finally a place of my own (almost)…
I can’t quite believe my luck.
Set close to the heart of the stunning Penpont estate the walled gardens have been managed since the 18th century, The days of just providing for the ‘big house’ are passed and selling local has taken over. The walls have seen much in their time and I hope the gardeners of old will not be offended by my efforts. What ever we may think of there use of chemicals and coal, producing Pineapples at 400ft in an area that experiences 80 inches of rainfall in an average year is worthy of due reverence.
The garden with its free draining medium loam is in good heart thanks to the skills of Alice Tite and Mike Westrip who have left to set up there own business. A hard act to follow indeed, but they have made my job infinity easier. Pulling up one sprout stem I counted thirty five worms in the root ball (thanks guys).
We’ve experienced the full range of element this week, gales, hail, snow, hard frost and a drop of rain or three, It felt good to break ground for the spuds last Friday and the seedlings are doing fine, though a bit more light would be nice.
My thanks to Davina and Gavin for the warm welcome and for giving me the opportunity to run their garden.
James
After the wettest of wet Januarys followed -8 degrees celsius nights in February, albeit with glorious sunny, hot days, we are being lashed by gale force winds and driving rain. Ah, the vagaries of the British weather never ceases to amaze me! How long will this torment prevent us getting on with what we should be doing outdoors for the season ahead I wonder?
Here in Matlock, the greenhouses at home are full as is the larger one at the farm and I have certainly been far better organised this year with the propagation efforts than I was last year. The tomatoes, chillies, aubergines and peppers for sale at the Farmers Markets are a lot neater this year having been started late January with growlights extending the day to 12hrs plus the tomatoes have gone straight into the cool house here at home or up to the farm greenhouse. These cooler temperatures have resulted in dark green short jointed plants which are going to be far easier to manage to and from the FM's. Banking on a better summer than last the outdoor tomatoes are now through including 100 'Incas F1' which is a plum tomato to go along side Gardeners Delight, Shirley and Alicante all of which have in the past, have done well outdoors here in Matlock. I am also trying 'Matina' so see how that does at 1000'! In the greenhouse, I am concentrating on just cherry tomatoes ranging from the F1 hybrid, 'Picollo and the new, 'Elettro' to 'red and yellow pear' as these are so popular at the FMs. The F1 hybrid Cucumbers are all looking good and hopefully, will do better than those last year, which one by died off and had to be replaced with plants from Delfland. In saying that, "aviance F1' proved a winner producing cucumbers right through to October in excess of 30cm long! Quite a talking point for customers when they arrived in their bags. This year I have gone for 'Piccolino F1' and 'Melen F1' both short cucumbers along with 'Phoenix F1'and 'Styx. F1'. On to the propagator go the outdoor varieties, 'Markertmore' and 'Crystal Lemon' again with crossed fingers for warmer weather this summer!
The first three sowings of lettuce are coming along nicely and a further 900 went in on the 6th, ranging from Batavia, Cos through to loose leaf oaks to go along side the lollo's. I want to try more leaf types to add to the mixed Salad bags that so very well for me last year, so any suggestions for varieties to try would be very welcome . I am sowing lots of Wild Rocket as this sells well on its own and last far better than the broad leaved salad rocket. I have bought Bulls Blood to do with the other chards and will carry on with the orientals until it is just too warm. Propagation space is always tight, so I am hoping to get permission from both my landlord and the planning department to put up a polytunnel, fingers crossed! I have done over a 1000 mixed brassicas so far but rely on Delfland Nurseries to provide the bulk of transplants due to the lack of space.
After spending a day with Mathew Wilson down in Kent looking at how he manages his orchards, I have started pruning the spindle bushes planted in 2006 to encourage fruit bud formation this summer, tidied in the espaliers and will finish off with pruning the apples planted as dwarf bushes last before long. The plums and damsons will be tackled once they come into leaf to avoid the risk of Silver Leaf.
Both fields were cultivated last Friday and are now ready for the first lot of transplants to go in when they arrive this Friday, a mixture of Brassicas and Lettuce, all of which will be fleeced to help encourage good establishment. I have decided to go over to a fixed, semi raised bed system to help make the management of both fields easier........this was an happy accident following on from the 'beds' being formed with each pass of the rotavator, so here is hoping!
My biggest problem is learning just what to grow and how much of it, given that I have 2 acres at Riber and possibly another two across the road, knowing that interest in the garden is growing therefore more customers to feed. Learning the lesson that I should have heeded from Tolly's report, after last years blighted potatoes, I am doing just a 1/4 acre of earlies with some salads along with just 25kg of each of Pink Fir Apple and Arran Victory and on the plus side, they are going in machine! Yes, last year, well over 1/2 an acre was planted all by hand, only to be decimated by blight. Such lessons are hard especially when they go hand in hand with such a bad season as 2007 but it is all experience and I can honestly say, it just pushes me harder to do better this year, no matter what the weather throws at me! Life outdoors doing what inspires you the most and happy customers, is just too hard to beat!
Scott
Well midsummer at last and it doesn’t seem like yesterday since I was doing the crop plans ……. Doesn’t time fly!
A fairly good year so far despite the cold of the north west. March and April were cold and wet and we got off to a late start with the planting. Potatoes went out in a hail storm and the broad beans just sat there for weeks. Late April brought some warmer weather and it dried up, this allowed us to catch up with planting and weeding tasks and by mid May a sigh of relief and nights in the garden made the world a brighter place. We had along with approaching 7 weeks of little rain an accompanying easterly wind and although we usually get a day or so of strongish easterlies at this time of year this spring saw 4 weeks + of easterly dominance.
On came the irrigation, we were irrigating mainly potatoes and early onion crops and by late May the early potatoes were ready and lifting well. The onset of June brought the rains and a couple of days of 30mm+ and the irrigation was redundant again. Crops went into overdrive for the first 10 days of June and then came the cold and damp. We have now settled down and all is looking well. We are dodging showers to put in the winter leeks and brassicaes but perfect for bare root transplants …… a shower within two days of their move.
So now onto July and the start of a calmer time.
On reflection a reasonable Spring, it could always be better but it has been kind.
Alan
I’ve been growing organic veg for almost fifteen years, but have always been paid to do it.
This is our first season out in the real world of “earning” off the land. No more the blanket of monthly salaries to magically top up the bank balance whatever happens to the crops, whether sold or not sold, destroyed or flourishing. Now it is different. Now it is real.
As land hungry peasants we rent just 4 acres of marginal Welsh…almost English hillside. 5 acres went for £63,000 last month….discuss. Our patch joined over 300 other parcels of land in Wales in the conversion process, and can safely say we will be extremely glad of every penny that we get as our “incentive“… even though we didn’t really need one. Our starting point of overgrazed and under nourished (the land that is, not us) was not ideal, but we could see potential and why make it easy…..?
Our aim/objective/hope is to establish ourselves as the “parish growers” providing some…certainly not all of the produce for a small a radius as possible, perhaps trading at boundaries occasionally. The key for us is to grow what we can manage ourselves, perhaps getting help in return for produce and knowledge, rather than shillings and pence. We can also help the community to grow more of its own food with courses and support. Cutting the hand that feeds?…..I think there’s more to it than that. Idealistic?……well maybe…..maybe its time to find out…..anyway what’s wrong with ideals?
So….our first season. Quite late into the evening at the last Cirencester conference Tolly warned me of “the three w’s”. Weeds, wireworm and wabbits! And, as you would expect, he was right. I would also have to add a fourth though….wooks….going after the wireworm and yanking out our leek plants.
Its been wet here again…perhaps not quite as wet as last year although there’s still time and maybe more regional. The nights have been very cold….we had a night temperature of 1 degree on the 15th June, and day temperatures fluctuating hugely and very high winds too all adding up to challenging….yes, challenging conditions. Easy to convince yourself that you’re having it harder than anyone else!
We have managed to keep our costs to a minimum, growing the vast majority of our own plants. The soil here will come round, part of me can already see how different it will look in a few years. It is certainly more than capable of just growing sheep. We had our first open day which was supported by 100-120 people all from within 5 miles, so, small but cherished beginnings.
Growing exposes you to such a wide range of emotions….from humbling insecurity and self doubt to heart swelling pride and sense of achievement. Ironic that we all get too busy to talk and connect just when we need it the most.
Has it been as hard as expected? Harder, much harder, but you know how hard it is. “Experience”, for what it’s worth, is a fickle friend .
Would we still have done it had we known? Of course we would.
Mick