Surrey Homes | SH58 | August 2019 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Garden
Green manure
‘Nature abhors a vacuum’ so Aristotle is rumoured to
have said, which when translated to the vegetable garden,
means that any bare soil will be filled immediately –
with weeds. If you are not keen on growing lots more
vegetables this year, then beat nature to it and fill your
vacuum with a green manure. This will keep the weeds
down, stop soil erosion and when it’s been dug in, add
nutrients to the soil and improve the soil structure.
It is not compulsory to keep your plot productive all year
round, but it is entirely possible. The plants do grow a little
more slowly from midsummer onwards, but so do the weeds
and pests. At this time of the year there are less pressing tasks
elsewhere in the garden, the soil is warm and receptive and
the weather is often kinder too. Let’s get growing (again).
Top: Jo Arnell’s garden at Hornbrook Manor
Above: Rows of lettuces make for a pretty combination of colours
Vegetables to sow in August
Carrots – try growing short Chantenay,
or Nantes carrots that won’t take as long
to grow as longer roots. These can even
be grown in containers and that way
kept out of reach of pesky carrot flies.
Beetroot – grow some tasty ‘baby’
beets in around 12-14 weeks.
These are best lifted before the
end of the autumn, as they tend to
become woody in cold weather.
Dwarf beans – because these beans
don’t have to spend time climbing up
poles and sticks, they start flowering
and setting pods earlier than climbing
varieties. From an early August
sowing you could be harvesting green
(or purple) dwarf French beans by
the beginning of October. Don’t
leave sowing any later than this
though, as they are a tender crop
and may be hit by an early frost.
Peas – the quickest peas to grow
are the sugar-snaps and mangetout
varieties, as you are harvesting the
whole pod and not waiting for the
peas inside to swell and ripen.
Kale – this is probably one of
my ‘desert island’ vegetables; it
stands tall and impervious to
the winter weather, nutritious to
the end. Protect from pests.
Swiss chard – as beautiful as it is
good for you, chard is available in a
rainbow array of colours, although
a white one ‘Fordhook Giant’ may
be the best culinary variety.
Rocket – Reliable, quick (as its
name suggests) and tasty, rocket
will also self-seed around the
patch, so you may find you don’t
have to make repeat sowings…
Oriental greens – crops like pak choi,
mustard, kai lan (Chinese broccoli)
and napa cabbage are fast growing
and make fantastic additions to stir
fries and soup recipes. They may
need netting to protect from flea
beetle (which makes tiny holes in the
leaves), caterpillars and pigeons.
Salad leaves – loose leaved, ‘cut
and come again’ lettuce, herbs like
chervil, coriander and spicy mesclun
mixes of assorted leaves, all make
quick and tasty fresh salad that will
stay fresh (unlike the plastic bags of
leaves that turn to slime as soon as
you open them) for many weeks.
119 surrey-homes.co.uk