November feels like a quiet month, growth has slowed right down and there is a stillness in the air. A contrast to Spring when you can feel the growth and the weeds are growing faster than you can keep up with! The sun, when we get to see it! is also low in the sky giving beautiful early sunrises and sunsets. November also gives us a bit of a breather and we can catch up with some much needed plant and general maintenance.
There is still a lot to do and now is a good time to fit it in, like cleaning the polytunnels, a tricky task that prompts much discussion amongst workshares about how best to do it.
With the last Summer crops – chillies and peppers – out of the tunnels, transition to winter is very nearly complete. The tunnels are now becoming a sea of green leaves. We have already enjoyed some of these winter harvests such as spicy winter salads and spinach.. delicious!
Winter crops in the tunnels.
Growers up and down the country are beginning to sound like a true broken record with complaints of the rain… as we all know it has been relentless! and this presents particular problems for growers. For example whilst we’ve been busy in the tunnels, it’s just been too wet for field tasks so there’s lots or work to be completed.
Adaptability is everything though and this was certainly applied in the case of the alliums like our garlic and onion sets. We’ve been planting garlic cloves in cellular trays to prevent them rotting in the wet ground over winter. They’ll be planted out when they have sufficient roots to help them drain the soil around each other. In a bad year and at our scale (just) you can get away with this.
