Survival Gardening Diary
June
A Question of Water
As any experienced gardener knows, too much water is often more of a problem in Ireland than too little. Excessively wet ground during the spring will delay planting, while high water tables combined with poor drainage may cause crops to fail. At agricultural level, excessive soil moisture prevents machinery from being deployed in fields, delaying key tillage activities and crop harvests. The heavy machinery used by farms nowadays also contributes to the problem, by compacting soils and interfering with natural drainage. Other agricultural activities, such as the use of pesticides may impact upon worm populations, thus further reducing soil aeration.
Conversely, an adequate supply of water throughout the growing season is essential for good plant growth. This is only a rarely a problem for crops cultivated out of doors in Ireland, except at critical moments such as planting out time. However, any prolonged period of dry weather can cause temporary ground water shortages, stunting growth and in extreme cases leading to crop failure.
There are several schools of thought on irrigation. The conventional school says irrigate continually throughout dry weather. This is fine if it can be achieved easily and there are no environmental downsides such as the excessive lowering of water tables elsewhere. As a survival strategy however, it often leaves much to be desired as the sheer volumes of water involved simply are often not sustainable. Also, excessive irrigation can deplete the soil of essential nutrients, as these wash out and end up in river systems and lakes where they cause many problems.
The survival gardener will try to make do with as little water as possible, and to utilise rainwater where possible. When I first started growing food on a serious scale, I used to irrigate regularly. Now I never irrigate, except for watering freshly transplanted plants and pot grown plants that have a limited supply of soil in which to grow. Even then, I tend to use water judiciously and only when it is needed. My theory about field irrigation is that once you start into this system, you are tied into it. During very dry conditions, plant roots will seek out moisure and if the upper parts of the soil are irrigated they will naturally grow in that direction. This makes the plants vulnerable to subsequent dry periods. Conversely, if no irrigation takes place, plant roots will be forced deeper into the soil, where they will eventually find water.
In practice this no irrigation method almost always works. Once exception might be sowing seeds into dry ground. However, I find that a seed row, if well pressed down, will usually hold enough moisture to germinate seeds, and the young roots will quickly head downwards in search of more water.
It is a bit of a different story with transplants, as the transplanting process disrupts roots and makes them much more vulnerable to water shortage. Pot grown plants with good rootballs usually transplant much better than barerooted plants. But either way, I soak the roots or root ball in water prior to transplanting, and take care to keep as much soil on the roots as possible when planting. After planting, I water again. And that's usually it. Only rarely would I water again.
Soil moisure losses can be reduced very dramatically through mulching, as the mulch layer prevents evaporation. No-dig methods , which reduce the quantity of bare soil exposed to the air, are also beneficial.
When it comes to water things in pots, the most economical method is to dunk the pot into a bucket of water, and gradually lift it out so that surplus water drips back into the bucket. This way, there is little or no wastage. Also, soil that has become excessively dry will not readily take water if applied from above by hose or watering can. Most of the water will simply flow round the edge of the shrunken ball of soil, and be lost.
I also grow a wide range of fruit - and more recently nuts - in pots. I have two strategies. The first is to use pots that are small enough to lift into a bucket of water . This works well for things like strawberries but is of limited value for shrubs and trees. The second strategy is to use very big pots, as these hold enough soil to provide a buffer against a few days of dry weather. In practise, this means using pots of upwards of 45 litres in capacity, and more typically of 70-100 litres. In a typical summmer, watering might be necessary only a dozen times or so times. So far this year, I've watered the big pots twice (11th June). When I do water, I do two or three passes with the hose, rather than one long drenching, as allows the soil to take up the water more easily. I am also gradually moving towards using a system of trays for pots, as this will makes it possible to water from below, and wastes less water.
There will be more on this subject in July...
Fruit Thinning
If good pollination has taken place, many varieties of tree fruit will have set too many fruit. This often results in the fruit being rather small, but in some cases can damage the tree as the fruit becomes too heavy for branches to support.
It is a good idea to go round the fruit trees thinning out fruit clusters. Apples for example often set fruit in clusters of four or five fruit. If there are a lot of clusters, thin down to one or two fruit per cluster. To remove surplus fruit, gently twist the fruit while holding on to the rest of the cluster. Rough handling generally results in the whole cluster breaking off. Aim to keep the biggest fruit, and remove the smaller ones.
Bush Fruit
Bush fruit such as Gooseberries and worcesterberries (a small sweet and very prolific relative of the gooseberry), blueberries, and the various currents are very popular with birds. One school of thought says plant enough fruit bushes to keep the birds happy as well, but this may only result in the the establishment of huge colonies of blackbirds all competing for the first fruit to ripen!
Worcesterberries are a very reliable bush fruit. When fully ripe, they are sweet enough to eat raw with yoghurt or cream. The bushes are both vigourous and thorny. Individual bushes may grow to almost two meters in height and width. Netting can be used to protect the fruit from the blackbirds but its nearly more bother than its worth untangling the netting from the thorns. Sometimes blackbirds get trapped inside the netting, which generally they don't mind as long as there is plenty to eat.
The other school of thought says eat the blackbirds.
The most tasty of the bush fruit is the blueberry. This is a north American relative of the Irish bilberry or blaeberry, only it grows on large bushes (almost as big as the worcesterberry bushes) and the fruit is the size of a large blackcurrent. Blueberries grow very well in the Irish climate. They prefer moist peaty acid ground. In gardens where the soil does not meet these criteria they can be grown in large pots. Unfortunately the blackbirds like blueberries even more than worcesterberries and the only real answer is a fruit cage large enough to walk into.
Glasshouses, Cloches and Polytunnels
The main activity is transplanting plants into larger pots and thinning out the plants which are already planted directly into the ground.
Pumpkins and squashes are an important survival gardening crop as they yield prolifically, taste lovely, and store well into the winter or even the following spring. Pumpkins can grow massive but the tastiest varieties are the small fruiting ones.
Bees and Pollination
It is very worrying to read that bee populations have been decimated throughout Ireland (and Europe) as bees have such an important function in the garden. Quite apart from the possibilities for producing honey, many of our species of fruit and fruiting vegetables (marrow/pumpkin/ squash family for example) rely on bees for pollination. In emergencies, pollination can be carried out by hand. With pumpkins and their relatives, there are male and female plants. All that is required for pollination is the pollen from the male flowers (the centre of which has a very distinctive 'male' shape) is deposited inside the female flowers. The female flowers have a very obvious 'female' shaped recepticle behind which is a baby sized fruit. Pollination is easily accomplished with a very fine artists' paint brush. If pollination is successful, the fruit will begin to grow rapidly in size.
Bees can be encouraged into a garden by planting flowers they like. Flowering shrubs such as escallonia or spanish broom can complement annual flowers very well as the flowers survive wet and windy weather.
Another popular choice is the foxglove because it comes up everywhere and the only work in tending it is to thin out the plants so they don't take over the garden.
The Vegetable Plot
Its almost too late for sowing more seeds but quick maturing salad vegetables and one or two other crops may still be sown. Garden peas sown in early June will yield a crop around mid October. Some of the quicker maturing ( loose head) varieties of cabbages are still worth a try.
Weeds can easily take over a vegetable garden at this time of year, particularly during prolonged wet weather when their growth is often most vigourous and inspections of the garden least frequent. Many weeds can coexist with vegetables and can serve a purpose by protecting what otherwise may have been bare soil from the weather. These 'friendly weeds' can always be removed later if they get too big or start encroaching on the vegetable plants. Some weeds must have war declared on them otherwise they will take over. The unwanted list includes most thistles (because they become spikier and harder to remove the bigger they become), buttercup, bindweed, and couchgrass (a very invasive wild grass). One of the most invasive weeds of all is silverweed, and it is often found in coastal locations. Any bit of root left in the ground will grow again , so vigilance is needed. Ground elder is another extremely troublesome weed to which no mercy can be shown.
Most 'weeds' are of course native wild flowers and sometimes a vegetable garden will provide a niche where they can get established. I was delighted to find coltsfoot growing in the vegetable garden a coulple of years back because the flowers have medicinal properties and can be useful for treating all manner of lung and throat complaints.
During the time I lived on Clare Island, my vegetable garden was inhabited by the delicate plants of the Scarlet Pimpernel, normally only found on the fringes of sand dunes and machair.
Seeds of our native wild flowers can remain viable for decades in favourable circumstances and species thought to have vanished can reappear once soil is disturbed and dug over.
Happy gardening!
Andy
