trevor’s kitchen garden: a week-by-week guide to growing your own food

7/29/2019 Trevors Kitchen Garden: A Week-by-Week Guide to Growing Your Own Food

1/15

Trevors Kitchen GardenA Week-by-Week Guide toGrowing Your Own Food

Trevor Sargent


2/15

TrevorsKitchen

GardenA Week-by-Week Guide

to Growing Your Own Food

TRE VOR SARGENT


3/15

Preface

IH O P E Y O U E N J O Y using this book as much as I enjoyedwriting and illustrating it. The idea for a weekly guide togrowing food organically in a small garden began as a blogwhich is still going strong: www.trevorskitchengarden.ie.

This website came about as a response to people asking me,

What should I be doing now in the garden, as I want to grow morefood for me and my family? At the time, I was Minister for Foodand Horticulture, so I had little time for gardening, except veryearly in the morning or very late at night. Thankfully, my gardenis small and manageable, and therefore not overly time consuming.With the help of Lorcan OToole and Ciarn Finn, twophotographers, we put up video clips and pictures to illustrate theweekly text on the blog.

After a couple of years of blogging, I was delighted to receive acall from Orpen Press with a request to write this book. I set out towrite a practical weekly handbook for anyone wishing to grow foodorganically on a small scale. Along with weekly tips, there are alsofood-related thoughts and ideas appropriate to each specific week.This book is for kitchen gardeners who want to grow locally, whilebeing mindful of how this earth must feed all humanity. In essence,this is the book I would have wanted by my side when I began

growing food over thirty years ago.Since then, I have been a teacher, a founder of Sonairte, theecology centre near Laytown, Co. Meath, leader of the GreenParty (An Comhaontas Glas), a member of Dil ireann andMinister for Food and Horticulture. This book is, in a way, acontinuation of the work I began in the Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Food. In 2008, the UN InternationalYear of the Potato gave me the idea, in partnership with Agri

Aware (the charitable agricultural awareness trust), to send potato-

v


4/15

growing kits and advice to every primary school in the country.Thanks to the sponsorship of many generous groups, such as BordBia, the Irish Farmers Association, An Post, Safe Food Ireland, and

many fruit and vegetable companies, this mammoth task wassuccessfully undertaken. The following year, we expanded theprogramme countrywide, so schools could grow five crop varietiesin an Agri Aware programme called Incredible Edibles.

School and home kitchen gardens are now commonplace as aresult of the Incredible Edibles programme. The Grow It Yourself(GIY) Ireland movement has also helped many new kitchengardeners to get growing. Thankfully, all of us can now visit

publicly accessible kitchen gardens too, where the novice gardenercan see what grows well in the local climate and soil conditions. Inmany cases, these are organic gardens attached to environmentaleducation centres which run horticulture and related courses forschools and adults alike. SEED (Schools Environ-mental EducationDevelopment) is a network of these organic centres around Ireland.To date, the network includes The Organic Centre, Co. Leitrim,Sonairte at Laytown, Co. Meath, the Irish Seed Savers Association

near Scarriff, Co. Clare, the Kerry Earth Education Project nearTralee, Co. Wexford Organic Centre near New Ross and the NanoNagle Centre near Mallow, Co. Cork. I have attended courses runby these centres and I recommend them. The centres are oftengood places to get gardening experience and advice, so drop in toyour nearest one.

If SEED had more money, these centres could provide morehands-on kitchen gardener training. With this in mind, the royalties

from this book are going to provide more courses in organichorticulture through SEED. So enjoy the book, sow some seed andthen drop in to your nearest organic centre to see how their cropsare doing.

vi


5/15

ContentsIntroduction

Planning a Garden

February The Month of Februa, the Roman Festival of

Purification

FIRST WEEK IN FEBRUARY A New Year in the Kitchen GardenSECOND WEEK IN FEBRUARY Time to Prune, Keep the Bird

Table in Order and Plan RotationTHIRD WEEK IN FEBRUARY The Freshest, Tastiest Leafy

Vegetables Will Be in Your GardenFOURTH WEEK IN FEBRUARY Time to Kick Back and Enjoy

Natures Work on the Ground

March The Month of the Roman God of War

FIRST WEEK IN MARCH How to Grow Strawberries in Any

Space AvailableSECOND WEEK IN MARCH Planting Up Potatoes in Bags or in a

Plot if You Have SpaceTHIRD WEEK IN MARCH Learning to Live with the Hungry

GapFOURTH WEEK IN MARCH The Way to Appreciate Seasonal

Food Is to Grow It

April The Month of Showers

FIRST WEEK IN APRIL Look After Your Soil and Your SoilWill Look After You

SECOND WEEK IN APRIL Tending Plants is as Important asSowing and Harvesting

THIRD WEEK IN APRIL Tidy Up the Garden and Build aCompost Heap

FOURTH WEEK IN APRIL Springtime Sowing

vii

18

15

17

23

27

32

40

42

46

51

56

64

66

72

79

88


6/15

May Bals Fire, the First Month of Summer

FIRST WEEK IN MAY Rotation Once AgainSECOND WEEK IN MAY The Challenges of Slug and

Caterpillar PredationTHIRD WEEK IN MAY Planting Window Boxes and

Containers with RadishesFOURTH WEEK IN MAY Beetroot, the Easiest to Grow and

Tastiest Crop (in My Opinion)

June The Month of the Longest Day

FIRST WEEK IN JUNE Care of Broad Beans, Sunflowersand Tomato Plants

SECOND WEEK IN JUNE Planting Out Young Leeks inModules

THIRD WEEK IN JUNE Harvesting Early Potatoes andRe-using the Soil for Newly PlantedCourgettes

FOURTH WEEK IN JUNE Watering with Minimal use of TapWater and No Hose Pipe

July The Month of the Man Who Gave Us Onions

FIRST WEEK IN JULY Harvesting Blackcurrants, aFavourite Summer Pastime

SECOND WEEK IN JULY Strawberries Can Put a Smile onAny Gardeners Face

THIRD WEEK IN JULY Green Roof on the Garden ShedNeeds a Haircut

FOURTH WEEK IN JULY Gardeners Need Bees and BeesNeed Gardeners

August Month of Lugh, the Celtic God of Harvest

FIRST WEEK IN AUGUST Creating New Herb Plants for Free

is Very Satisfying

viii

97

99

107

114

120

129

131

136

142

149

159

161

167

174

180

187

189


7/15

SECOND WEEK IN AUGUST Using Some Crops to Fertilise theSoil

THIRD WEEK IN AUGUST Time for Light Pruning of Plums

and RaspberriesFOURTH WEEK IN AUGUST Apple Harvesting, Storage and

Juicing

September The Month of Mid-Harvest

FIRST WEEK IN SEPTEMBER Bottling Beetroot and OtherStorage Methods

SECOND WEEK IN SEPTEMBER Selecting Seeds for Autumn SowingTHIRD WEEK IN SEPTEMBER Enjoy Taking Part in a LocalHorticultural Show

FOURTH WEEK IN SEPTEMBER Sorting Out the Garden Shed andthe Bird Table

October The Month of Harvest Thanksgiving

FIRST WEEK IN OCTOBER Coping with Powdery Mildew onMy Apple Tree

SECOND WEEK IN OCTOBER Foraging in the Garden for a LunchNo Money Could Buy

THIRD WEEK IN OCTOBER Sowing Autumn Garlic and OnionSets

FOURTH WEEK IN OCTOBER Sowing Broad Beans a FavouriteAutumn Activity

November The Month of the Celtic New Year

FIRST WEEK IN NOVEMBER Treat Yourself to an OrganicGarden Visit and Learn More

SECOND WEEK IN NOVEMBER Propagating Heritage CabbageCuttings and Saving Seeds

THIRD WEEK IN NOVEMBER Choosing an Apple Tree to Suit

Soil, Climate and Your Own Needs

ix

195

202

208

221

223

229

234

238

245

247

254

260

266

275

277

283

288


8/15

x

FOURTH WEEK IN NOVEMBER Going Forth to Divide and Multiplya Rhubarb Crown

December The Month of the Winter SolsticeFIRST WEEK IN DECEMBER Enjoying Home-Grown Seed

Sprouts a Healthy Winter CropSECOND WEEK IN DECEMBER For Peats Sake, Collect Fallen

Leaves to Make Leaf MouldTHIRD WEEK IN DECEMBER Gardening with Yuletide

Decorations and a Festive Tree in

MindFOURTH WEEK IN DECEMBER Time to Cut and Store Firewoodfor Use Next Year

January The Month of Janus

FIRST WEEK IN JANUARY The Garden Sleeps But Planningand Preparations Go On

SECOND WEEK IN JANUARY Using an Electric Propagator toSow Onions and Other Seeds

THIRD WEEK IN JANUARY Preparing the Ground for a Plum,an Apple and a Fig Tree

FOURTH WEEK IN JANUARY Digging Out Mature Compost andMaking a New Batch

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Useful Books to Read

Fruit, Vegetable and Plant Index

296

304

306

311

316

322

331

333

340

346

351

359

360361362


9/15

Introduction

I

HAVE AL WAYS AS P IRE D to grow as much as possible of myown food, ever since as a teenager I read The Complete Book ofSelf-Sufficiency by John Seymour. Although I was too young to

realise it as a child, the tomatoes, peas, blackcurrants and thefamous everlasting cabbage grown by my father in the backgarden instilled in me an appreciation of kitchen gardening beinga pleasurable part of family life.

My enthusiasm for self-sufficiency lost the run of itself, however,when I went to live in West Cork to take up my first job at TheModel School, Dunmanway, which in the nineteenth centurycultivated enough land to feed the monitors (apprentice teachers)who were living there while they undertook their training. In mysecond year teaching there, I was fortunate to be asked to mind myfriends house on 1 acre, as they were going to England to seekemployment. The acre was a fallow meadow which I imaginedcould be a productive kitchen garden. I tried to turn some of it intoa vegetable patch and soon realised why the gardening bookssuggest that the beginner starts on a small scale. The weeds got the

better of me on that scale. I would have had to give up teaching toget the time to properly maintain an acre of fruit and vegetables.

When I took up the job of Principal of St Georges NationalSchool in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin in 1983, I put my eye on theschool lawn as a prospective vegetable patch. All went well for awhile, but the lack of pathways and the mucky shoes meant I wasvery unpopular with the school cleaner! In due course I had the

garden landscaped with permanent pathways and divided into beds

1


10/15

so the pupils could help tend it without having to stand on the soil.By the time I had saved up enough money to put a deposit on a

house in Balbriggan in 1987, I had learned the hard way that you

do not need a large space in which to grow a wide range of fruitand vegetables. The back garden of the house I bought was 20 ftwide by 40 ft long. More significantly, it was a south-facing garden,which was a decisive factor in my buying the location for what hasbecome known as Trevors Kitchen Garden.

GROWING FOOD IN A SMALL GARDEN HAS ITS

ATTRACTIONSI know that some houses have smaller gardens or no gardens at all.Having worked in larger plots growing fruit and vegetables, it wasa relief to be able to micro-manage this smaller space. The wondersof nature can be appreciated at any scale visiting a rainforest orcontemplating a radish plant.

Take, for example, the tiny woodlice which inhabit the compost

bin. They are detritivores, conveniently feeding on dead plantmatter, and their faeces in turn sustains a myriad of soil microbeswhich are vital if soil is to grow healthy plants. They are also calledarmadillo bugs (from the Spanish meaning little armoured one)as they look like that larger forest animal, the armadillo. Theirrelatives during the Permian and Triassic Ages, around 230 millionyears ago, included the Typothorax, but this creature was the sizeand shape of a Volkswagen Beetle, with a crocodiles tail, andweighed the same as a car. The Typothorax only ate plant material,just as the woodlouse does now. However, today the tiny modernlook-a-like of the Typothorax could be tidying up your window boxand keeping your soil fauna and flora healthy. As the Swedishbotanist Carl Linnaeus (17171778) observed so eloquently inLatin, Natura in minimis maxime miranda or Nature is at itsmost awesome in miniature form.

Even in a small growing area, one is never done with learning

2


11/15

about and experimenting with techniques, planting times andvarieties of seeds to sow. I had a notion when I began my suburbankitchen garden that, some day in the future, I would not have a

20 ft x 40 ft patch but instead a larger 200 ft x 400 ft holding ofgrowing space, perhaps in the form of an allotment. In other words,if I could learn how to grow a wide diversity of food crops in asmall garden, then I would have the knowledge to scale up thisdiversity of produce on a larger holding. Instead of having space forone apple tree and two blackcurrant bushes, I imagined somedayhaving space for ten apple trees and twenty blackcurrant bushes.

However, I am now very happy where I am. Over the years, Ihave developed an appreciation for the particular attraction whichcomes with growing a diverse range of food in a small space justoutside the kitchen door. For a start, it does not take as much timeas would a larger plot. Second, many people who visit are surprisedthat such a variety of food crops can be grown in such a small spacewhile still leaving space for a patio, a pond, roses, paths, a gardenshed, a wood store, various compost containers and a lawn (a verysmall one, mind you).

Having very few specimens of a wide variety of fruit andvegetables, many of which are just not stocked in the supermarkets,is more than interesting. It also points to maintaining a diverse dietand good health.

KITCHEN GARDENING IS A KEY TO MORE DIVERSITY IN

OUR DIET

The human species evolved long before agriculture as we know it.Our digestive systems are the result of thousands of years of eatinga multitude of available berries, nuts, plants and only rarely meator fish, whenever we could catch or trap an animal or a fish. Oncepopulations grew and there were too many of us to roam aroundforaging, agriculture became the next best way of feeding ourselves.

Anthropologists have examined human skeletons of hunter-

3


12/15

gatherers and found they were larger, suggesting they had healthierdiets compared to our more modern agricultural ancestors. Whatthis tells me is that it is not enough to have good fresh unprocessed

organic food, as the first farmers enjoyed; what is also important isthe diversity of food types which would naturally be eaten if youwere foraging rather than cultivating crops and keeping livestock.

Below is a table showing a time line of the human diet:

500,000 BC early man using stone implements50,000 BC first use of fire by man20,000 BC animal skins used for clothing8,000 BC agriculture begins in the Middle East7,000 BC first humans in Ireland foraging, hunting and living

near lakes and rivers4,000 BC first records of agriculture in Ireland when Neolithic

farmers arrive3,000 BC farming communities organised enough to build

Newgrange

I am not suggesting we live like hunter-gatherers. However, kitchengardening can help in extending the diversity of foods in our diet,since supermarkets carry a limited range of fresh produce, as anyseed catalogue will testify.

KITCHEN GARDENING HELPS US TO APPRECIATE

FARMING

Large-scale commercial farming is a very different discipline fromsmall-scale kitchen gardening. The farmer buys seeds and plantplugs (seedlings in modules of compost) in bulk, whilst the kitchengardener sows individual seeds, little and often. For example, justbecause a packet of rocket contains 1,000 seeds does not mean theymust all be planted at once. Over the years I have tried and testedways to grow exactly what I need and I store unused seeds for the

next time or, better still, give them away or swap them with another

4


13/15

kitchen gardener. Our own health and future food security requiresthat everyone should to some extent be familiar and ideally involvedin how food is produced. This book is a handbook to help more of

us enjoy growing some of the food we like to eat.

IF WE HAVE TO GROW FOOD, WE MAY AS WELL ENJOY

OURSELVES

Without sounding too dramatic, we are a people in transition. Howwe keep warm, travel, learn or re-learn life skills, and feed andenjoy ourselves are all parts of that transition. In some respects we

are voyaging into the unknown. In other ways, not too muchimagination is required to picture life in a post-fossil-fuel society.Take an old map of any town or village in the 1700s. Rob

Hopkins, the founder of the Transition Towns movement, recentlytweeted about a 1793 map of Guildford (see below), the countytown of Surrey in England, with the introduction What it lookslike when food grows everywhere (www.transitionculture.org).

5


14/15

After noting the housing and roadways, the map shows the nextgreatest land use was an extensive tapestry of gardens and orchardsattached to schools, hospitals, prisons, monasteries and behind

every domestic dwelling. Placenames often reflected this gardeningland use. My favourite on that map is Walnut Tree Close.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The story behind each month

I was surprised, when I did some research, at how the names we usefor each month often originated from farming activity or a festival

related to food and farming. Each month in the book begins witha look at why the month ahead is so named, in various languages,including Irish.

Work each week in the garden

Each week in the garden has its own chapter, beginning with theFirst Week in February, the start of spring in Ireland (L le Brde).

The first part of each chapter describes a seasonal task which Iundertake at that time in my own garden, either composting, seedsowing, pruning, chopping and storing firewood, etc.

Weekly food-related topics

The second half of each chapter, The Bigger Picture, takes a lookat a topical food-related issue which I am reminded of at thatparticular time of year, for example, the tradition of plantingpotatoes on St Patricks Day in the Second Week in March or, in theThird Week in December, how your kitchen garden can save youmoney around Christmas.

Thoughts from other kitchen gardeners

At intervals throughout the book, at the end of each month, twoother kitchen gardeners answer questions about their own gardens,

the tools they use and the food they like to grow. These growers are

6


15/15

from around the country and are locally renowned and sometimesinternationally known personalities. Their contributions add asense of community to the book, as well as offering different

perspectives on the motivations and pleasures of maintaining akitchen garden.

Call to action

No longer are kitchen gardening and allotmenteering pastimes only.They are fast becoming ways for families to save money, forcommunities to become more resilient and for countries to be more

prepared for threats to food security. Now is the time to take moreaction. We must not be caught unawares, as happened when thefinancial bubble burst. As sure as eggs are eggs, the food bubble willburst too. Growing more of our own food and supporting localfarmers and food producers is the obvious way to make ourcommunities resilient and ensure that Ireland is nutritionally secure.This book sets out to help make that transition to a food secure andhealthier future.

Visiting other kitchen gardens

This book also indicates places to visit around Ireland where youcan see fruit and vegetables growing in the conditions which aretypical in that locality. The best places are often organic centres,where courses are run on topics from designing a kitchen garden topruning fruit trees. Many such gardens and organic centres aremarked on a map printed towards the end of the book in theBigger Picture section of the First Week in November.

7

Click here to order...
http://www.orpenpress.com/trevor-s-kitchen-garden-a-week-by-week-guide-to-growing-your-own-food-updated-edition.htmlhttp://www.orpenpress.com/trevor-s-kitchen-garden-a-week-by-week-guide-to-growing-your-own-food-updated-edition.html

trevor’s kitchen garden: a week-by-week guide to growing your own food

Documents