#20 - Oct 2018 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
LIGHT & SHADE October: Mid-spring. Soil warming up. Time to plant. But what and where?
Shade: Plants are autotrophs - they don’t eat other organisms but make their own food. They make sugars (CH2O) from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) and sunlight energy (E). So, CO2 + H2O + E = CH2O + O2 – yes, they make oxygen (O2). But E is often in short supply. We call it shade…
Many small plants (forest-floor dwellers) are well adapted to low light but with low E they grow slowly and don’t have enough oomph to flower much (few bright colours) or to produce sugar-filled organs you can eat (tubers, fruits). High-producing food plants require full sun (maximum E).
Look at Eastbourne from above (Google satelite image) and it’s mostly roofs and trees - not much sunlight reaches the ground to power the growth of small plants. Few of us have gardens with much sun. As housing density rises, so gardens get smaller and shadier. What to do…? •Go south, •Go up and •Go out…
Go south: Use the sunniest southern part of your garden to grow vegetables and flowers – away from the shade from your northern neighbour’s house, trees and fence.
Go up: Nature invented climbers because there’s more sun higher up. Grow perennial and annual climbers on a structure to gain height and maximise sunlight. My grapevine’s on a pergola and on a shed roof. My runner beans are on tepees. Other useful climbers are kiwifruit, passionfruit, jasmine and sweet-peas. Tomatoes, peas and various cucurbits will also climb with your help.
Go out: There’s usually more sun on the road berm. If it’s grassed, council requires you to mow it. But there’s no rule says you can’t grow flowers and vegetables there. Many Eastbourne gardeners do this. I;ve been doing it for years and have had only friendly cooperation from utilitiy service people (power, phone, water etc).
A few of my favourite things: I like easy-to-grow food plants that produce good crops that are versatile in the kitchen. •There’s rhubarb (plant now). In the garden it’s a vegetable but in the kitchen a fruit. Almost year-round desserts, jam, and even wine. Far more kg per m2 per year than from a fruit tree...•And there’re broad beans (sow now if you didn’t in autumn). Eat the shoot tips as ‘spinach’, the young pods as green beans, the mature beans as (well) beans. Bean hummus is nice. •And then there’re runner beans (sow now). Grow them up a tepee or trellis. Six plants, and a family of two will have beans till late summer. Pick them daily, small, tender, sweet…___________________________________
LIGHT & SHADE October: Mid-spring. Soil warming up. Time to plant. But what and where?
Shade: Plants are autotrophs - they don’t eat other organisms but make their own food. They make sugars (CH2O) from carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) and sunlight energy (E). So, CO2 + H2O + E = CH2O + O2 – yes, they make oxygen (O2). But E is often in short supply. We call it shade…
Many small plants (forest-floor dwellers) are well adapted to low light but with low E they grow slowly and don’t have enough oomph to flower much (few bright colours) or to produce sugar-filled organs you can eat (tubers, fruits). High-producing food plants require full sun (maximum E).
Look at Eastbourne from above (Google satelite image) and it’s mostly roofs and trees - not much sunlight reaches the ground to power the growth of small plants. Few of us have gardens with much sun. As housing density rises, so gardens get smaller and shadier. What to do…? •Go south, •Go up and •Go out…
Go south: Use the sunniest southern part of your garden to grow vegetables and flowers – away from the shade from your northern neighbour’s house, trees and fence.
Go up: Nature invented climbers because there’s more sun higher up. Grow perennial and annual climbers on a structure to gain height and maximise sunlight. My grapevine’s on a pergola and on a shed roof. My runner beans are on tepees. Other useful climbers are kiwifruit, passionfruit, jasmine and sweet-peas. Tomatoes, peas and various cucurbits will also climb with your help.
Go out: There’s usually more sun on the road berm. If it’s grassed, council requires you to mow it. But there’s no rule says you can’t grow flowers and vegetables there. Many Eastbourne gardeners do this. I;ve been doing it for years and have had only friendly cooperation from utilitiy service people (power, phone, water etc).
A few of my favourite things: I like easy-to-grow food plants that produce good crops that are versatile in the kitchen. •There’s rhubarb (plant now). In the garden it’s a vegetable but in the kitchen a fruit. Almost year-round desserts, jam, and even wine. Far more kg per m2 per year than from a fruit tree...•And there’re broad beans (sow now if you didn’t in autumn). Eat the shoot tips as ‘spinach’, the young pods as green beans, the mature beans as (well) beans. Bean hummus is nice. •And then there’re runner beans (sow now). Grow them up a tepee or trellis. Six plants, and a family of two will have beans till late summer. Pick them daily, small, tender, sweet…___________________________________