Green Fingers: Last dance for growing some food crops
Strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants come into fruit in a short time and do not require much space in which to grow.
The growing season is reasonably short in Ireland, therefore, as the period for sowing and planting is limited, it is important to get going when conditions are reasonable.
This year was more in our favour with good conditions from March onwards but we had to spend more time watering and taking care of the plants due to very hot weather.
The choice of what to plant has been reduced to a handful and includes French and broad beans, beetroot, carrots, salads, including lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach and Swedes.
There are still a limited range of young plants available for planting out direct - usually members of the cabbage family, and for inside, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
We harvest the beans and peas regularly, otherwise they stop producing, and that includes sweet pea flowers, which can be admired climbing on their supports, but do cut them for indoor use too, where you can appreciate their beautiful colours and scent.
There are also an increasing number of people who want to grow a few fresh potatoes to eat at Christmas, and for those who wish to have a go, it is just a matter of using some of your own surplus tubers that you might be harvesting now or use some sprouted ones left in a bag from shopping.
Grow in the normal way in drills or in containers, and with containers you can take them under cover when there is frost about later in the season and leave them until ready to harvest.
These are the group, which includes strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants among many others, and they come into fruit in a short time and do not require much space in which to grow.
Traditionally, they are grown in the ground but, increasingly, many are grown in containers of some sort due to a number of reasons, but first of all containers need to be a reasonable size otherwise they dry out too quickly, so I suggest a bucket size as being the minimum dimension to use.
Container grown plants are mobile and can be moved about into an area that suits you, such as the patio or other outdoor seating area, and it’s a good way to grow if a modest amount of fruit is desired and part of the attraction might be in the concept of a pleasing visual appearance.
Blueberries are particularly attractive when grown this way and in their final burst before winter, have colourful autumn leaves.
If you wish to have a larger quantity of fruit, then it is more practical to have them grown directly in the soil. It is sometimes difficult to know how many plants are needed to produce a decent quantity of the required fruit, and as a guideline for four people, I will mention some fruiting plants, together with the number of plants suggested in brackets: strawberries and raspberries (10-15), blueberries (2-4), gooseberries and blackcurrants (1-2).
There are other soft fruits, such as blackberries, but you can pick them in the wild, so why grow them? As for loganberries, grapevines and kiwi fruit, they need some pre-thinking as they need a different set of rules in their care.
Fast growing plants, such as flowers and vegetables, will need regular watering, regardless of whether there are periods of light rain.
We feed plants twice a month, usually on the weekend when there is no rush, and maybe trim or remove faded flowers at the same time.
If you have any comments or queries you are welcome to share them with me on 051-384273 or orchardstowngardencentre@hotmail.com and if of general interest I will include it in a future article.
