Making up for lost time in midsummer

Most gardeners miss deadlines – but there’s time to catch up

AS THE LESS organised urban farmers amongst us have quickly discovered, the true secret of successful vegetable gardening lies not so much in green fingers as in careful timing. Mother Nature, it turns out, works to a surprisingly strict timetable and is sternly unforgiving about missed deadlines. Truth be told, though, most gardeners still miss at least a few deadlines.

As a result, even the best-intentioned are all-too familiar with the feeling of mild regret that comes with the realisation that it’s now too late to plant that mislaid packet of heirloom tomato seeds, or to pot on those leggy, hungry-looking and now pot-bound young plants. Midsummer, however, is a good time to make up for lost opportunities in the vegetable garden or, if you are the organised type, to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by successional sowing and follow-on crops.

Done well, this will help you to avoid the “hungry gap” by ensuring an almost continuous supply of at least some vegetables right through the winter and early spring months while cleverly using up any recently freed space.

In OPW’s organic walled garden in Phoenix Park, gardeners Meeda Downey and Brian Quinn have already begun the process, as some of this year’s spring-sown vegetables (such as lettuce, spring onions, beetroot, spinach, cabbage, early carrots and potatoes) are now maturing nicely. As these are harvested, they’ll gradually be replaced with alternative crops, either from seed sown in-situ outdoors or by young, module-grown plants raised in the nearby glasshouses.

“We’ve already sown fresh seed of two varieties of spring onion (“White Lisbon” and “North Holland Blood Red”) as well as more lettuce and an unusual variety of beetroot called ‘Egyptian Turnip-rooted’. And as different crops begin to be harvested, we’ll be able to plant others,” explains Meeda, as she points to the neat rows of “Hispi” and “Stonehead” cabbages that are almost ready to be eaten.

Like all urban farmers, the OPW gardeners’ aim is to make the walled fruit and vegetable garden as productive as possible, and so, as experienced gardeners, they already know that the trick to successional sowing and follow-on crops lies in good timing and careful planning.

In the weeks and months ahead, Meeda and Brian will be choosing either quick-maturing vegetables that are especially fast to crop (such as beetroot, kohlrabi, red chicory, spring onions, lettuce, oriental greens, rocket and spinach) or else those that are particularly suitable for overwintering, like spring and winter cabbage, Swiss chard, kales, spring cauliflower and broad beans.

Now in midsummer, the opportunity to sow or plant slower-maturing vegetables that also require plenty of heat and light, such as sweet corn, pumpkins and tomatoes, has already passed. Quick-maturing crops, however, can be ready for use in as little as eight weeks (or in the case of radishes, half that) while in contrast, slower-growing vegetables such as the hardy kales can take as long as 18 weeks and will be perfect to eat during the lean months of winter and early spring.

Some vegetables also have a particularly wide range of cultivars that can be carefully chosen to give a succession of crops, such as cabbages, cauliflowers and carrots.

Seed suppliers Thompson Morgan, for example, offer a collection of cabbage seeds that includes summer/autumn, winter and spring varieties, such as the extremely hardy and reliable “Tundra”, which can be picked throughout the winter and into early spring. They also stock the autumn-sowing carrot, “Nantes Frubund”, which can be sown from late winter right through until mid-autumn, and harvested from late spring onwards.

Young plants of both autumn and spring cauliflower, hopefully sown back in late spring, can also now go into their final planting positions as can Brussels sprouts and hybrid or purple-sprouting broccoli, while you can still sow seed of the quick-growing Chinese cabbage to use in salads or stir-fries.

With all vegetables but particularly with quick-maturing crops, it’s important to avoid over-sowing, which will produce a glut of vegetables that you’ll then find difficult to use. The classic example of this is lettuce, which is why so many GYO enthusiasts find themselves, mid-summer, faced with the prospect of salad twice a day for the next fortnight. While Meeda and Brian have a ready market for any garden surplus next door in the award-winning, organically-managed Phoenix Café, other urban farmers have to be more circumspect. Thus the general rule with successional sowing is to sow little amounts regularly in order to guarantee a continuous but not overwhelming supply, particularly when it comes to salad and CCA crops such as mibuna, mizuna, rocket, orache or oriental saladini. Aim to re-sow roughly every two-three weeks, or when the young seedlings of the previous crop have appeared above ground.

And if you left it too late to plant seed potatoes this spring, you’ll be delighted to hear that Mother Nature, as it turns out, does occasionally give us gardeners a second chance. For the next month or so, you’ll have the opportunity to plant “second-croppers”, giving you a tasty harvest of spuds from October through to Christmas. Look out for varieties like “Nicola”, “Maris Peer”, the disease-resistant “Bambino”, or the particularly popular “Carlingford”, which is considered a very reliable cropper. All of these late-planting potatoes are actually early or second-early varieties that have been stored under temperature-controlled conditions to keep them dormant until ready for planting from now until early August. The only problem is in tracking down a stockist. Luckily, Mr Middletons Garden Shop on Dublin’s Mary Street still has some in stock, although the last order date for delivery was technically the end of May. But then the highly organised urban farmers probably knew that long ago. Hmmm. Like I said at the beginning, timing is everything . .

Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer