Big weather change
News and advice from Charles to you
It's been a wonderful summer, but only if you have managed to water enough and have access to water. Sunshine promotes growth, and there’s been a big excess!
Most of this newsletter is about moving to autumn, and being prepared for that with new sowings. Also, how to cope with potential pests, flea beetles in particular which are thankfully now less prevalent
Against caterpillars on brassicas only, I use a soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, which makes leaves and indigestible to caterpillars only. It was discovered by Louis Pasteur in 1877 and is allowed in organic standards. You can buy it in small quantity as box hedge caterpillar killer.
Summer’s bounty, tomatoes ripened in the outbuilding after being picked at breaking stage and the last Ogen melon, photo Betty Bhandari
September sees many tomatoes ripening: Buffalo Pink, Sonnenherz, Orange Wellington in the polytunnel 30th August. Many of these are beyond breaking stage, because I wanted a photo of riper tomatoes.
Preparing for autumn
See below for what you can still sow and plant. The photos give ideas, and how it’s easier with no dig thanks to moisture retention, easy penetration of heavy rain, and weed reduction.
Many seeds can be intersown between plants which will finish soon, see ideas in my Grow Together book.
30th August sees the start of autumn. Leeks sown 27th May planted 9th July as tiny seedlings, spinach sown 19th August by Stephanie Inniger and Mareike Bethke
Endives and collards, ready to transplant, I just need to find space!
Endive transplanted at 13 days and then covered with bird netting, the mulch is homemade compost spread after removing coriander for seeds
Flea beetles
I have never seen such a plague of these insects, which I've been living alongside for more than four decades, and always succeeding eventually in having brassicas growing nicely for autumn and winter. This year, by contrast, was next level!
So many of us have lost summer Brassica,sowings and plantings, such as cabbage, kohlrabi, kale and even Brussels sprouts. Especially if they went in the ground during July and August. My preferred planting date for Brussels sprouts is mid June and they just got away before the flea beetles became truly endemic. Now they are growing strongly.
Looking ahead to next summer, I'm not sure what to say, advise and do. It's a new factor to be prepared for. Or on the other hand, if we had a wet summer in 2027, they may not be a big problem.
Chinese cabbage transplanted at 12 days old, fleece sits directly on top, mainly as protection from flea beetles. This bed was potatoes until recently.
Because of the flea beetles, I sowed turnips, salad rocket, and Chinese cabbage later than usual. The timing was good since they have gone in the ground just before rain, which reduces the number of insects eating them.
On the other hand, it might mean they don't have time to mature to full size, and that depends on autumn weather.
Turnips planted two days earlier, with no major flea beetle damage at this stage thanks to fleece on top, and they are next to a bed of swede whose leaves are full of holes from flea beetles
Broccoli Red Fire for cropping late winter, is now growing new leaves. We transplanted it after beeetroot finished, when the soil was dry and hard. It has escaped the ravages of flea beetle, because I grew it for longer in the greenhouse, in 9 cm pots instead of transplanting as small seedlings, which would quickly have been devoured this summer. Non-brassicas have been fine to transplant small, such as the endives above.
The 25 m² small garden has both summer and autumn harvests, with strawberries and cucumbers on the left, leeks and salads and beetroot on the right. Also between the cucumbers are fennel which will take over once we pull the cucumber plants, and I'm going to sow chervil between the salads, spinach under the tomatoes
Sowing and Planting
If you have transplants ready, they want to go in as soon as possible. Such as turnips, spinach, endive, salad, rocket, pak choi, collards and more.
There is still just time to sow seeds of collards, spinach, salad rocket, mizuna, pak choi, endive, chervil, and coriander. Until the equinox you can sow Claytonia / winter purslane.
For growing in a polytunnel or greenhouse, September is prime month for sowing all kinds of winter salads and greens. See my Growing Undercover course, calendar or sowing timeline.
Using my wooden dibber to make lines for seed sowing, it’s quick and disturbs soil very little
The same dibber making holes for plug transplants, a little deeper than the module rootball. Planting like this is so quick, and these are multisown turnips, which were just 11 days since sown
Watering
This has been the biggest and most vital job of a remarkably dry and warm summer. During the two months from late June to late August, total rainfall was 11.6 mm. or a half inch. The 30 year average here is around 125mm / 5in for those two months.
Average daytime temperature was 26.2°C / 80F (average is 21.5), nighttime temperatures averaged,13.4°C or 56F.
Watering is quick when using two cans. Photo by Mareike Bethke.
My expenditure on water is under £10 a day during this very dry spell. Yesterday I heard of a nearby farmer on a much larger scale, who was spending over £2500 per day on water. They've had to double the price of potatoes.
Most watering is with a hose, from the domestic water supply. My region now has a hosepipe ban, but for commercial production that does not apply. Since the ban came into force on 27th August, it has rained every day! Photo by Roz Pollock
All my watering is by hand, and only where it's absolutely necessary. The sole automatic device I use is two polytunnel spray-lines, which you can see in the next photo.
Watering with a spray line above the tomatoes, polytunnel August 26th before a day of sun and breeze. I would not water like this if there was any risk of late blight, which at that time there absolutely was not!
I've watered celeriac just enough to keep it alive, but not enough to make it grow abundantly, because that happens from now. If it stayed dry in September, I would water it more - you can see how dry and cracked the soil is nearby.
Winter squash
With no dig, these are really easy to grow. Minimal weeding and watering, no pruning necessary except where they encroach on neighbouring beds. I either flick them back or cut off the new stems.
I do water Butternut a little, but not Uchiki Kuri or Crown Prince, which we shall harvest within two weeks.
Butternut squash Chieftain F1 has had a little water, unlike the other squash which finish earlier
Charles with ripening squash, Candy Roaster and Crown Prince, photo by Betty Bhandari
Raspberries have been prolific, as long as we can find time to water them. Like so many fruits, they are early and may not be so prolific in September. The everbearing strawberries Mara des Bois are still cropping and have superb flavour.
Raspberries Joan J in year 11, and watered twice a week
Coming Up
In Jersey. This looks an exciting event, I'm giving a No Dig talk on 12th September at 2 pm
My talk at RHS Rosemoor in N Devon was exceptionally well attended, and we had a good 30 minutes of Q and A
Open day 6th September, just 40 tickets left
I hope that the weather will be fine, but this year it may be raining. We've capped the ticket sales at 500, and all proceeds go to charity.
New Calendar
I've been working hard on this through the spring. It has a cover photo by Nicola and a lot of organising and editing by Anna. The price is the same as last year, on my website. Plus we sell a digital version.
It’s available internationally, through Amazon.
Everything was so green in June!
The spread for each month has a seasonal photo and all my sowing advice, based on season and moon. These are dates for popping in seeds, whether direct, or in seed / module trays, and these are not dates for transplanting, which would make it rather complicated. Usually that is 3 to 4 weeks after sowing, or more for warmth loving plants, such as tomatoes
