This month will see the last of a series of “Gardening for Beginners” courses that the Martinborough Community Garden group has held in conjunction with REAP. The courses have been well received by those attending.
It has been a little bit disappointing that the numbers were low, and that although we may have encouraged others to garden, we have failed to attract any more regular gardeners (which was our not-so-hidden agenda).
We are reaping carrots and corn planted during the teaching sessions, and hope to have the same success with leeks and Brussel sprouts that will be the ‘plantings’ at the final session, having prepared the ground appropriately for these long-maturing winter veges.
Despite very late planting we now are harvesting an excellent crop of tomatoes. It does make us wonder, if we get a wee bit too enthusiastic by getting tomatoes in the ground on, or before Labour Weekend (for those truly eager).
Many thanks to Pete Smith for his donation of Peastraw – this does help on these hot days to keep the soil moist, and will provide a good basis for winter protection. What we would love to have is some horse pooh, before we commence our serious winter brassica planting. Is anyone out there wanting to get rid of some?
As we approach the end of summer we will be planting top crops to revitalise our soil and give our high yielding crop areas some chance to recover from this season’s cropping. We will also be taking notes for our crop rotation, making sure that we plant less greedy crops in areas that have had high demand, high yielding crops through the summer.
If you fancy joining us, our regular gardening day is Wednesday 10:00 – 12:00 noon at 51 Oxford Street.
