This week in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden we will be giving our fruit trees their first winter wash of the season. The wash will be applied on a still, calm day. We will be applying another dose later in February. I always apply the wash as my last job of the day as I find the smell a bit unpleasant so like to have a good wash afterwards.
We will also continue to clear away the many leaves and debris being left on the garden by the autumn winds. Due to the problem of box blight in the Kitchen Garden, we are not composting our leaves this year, for fear of spreading the disease via the leaf mould that we use as a mulch all around the garden.
Back at the Harrod Horticultural offices, the staff have also been having an autumn tidy up. The greenhouse windows have been wiped down, and potting bench and tools cleaned up using some black soap.
As well as the greenhouse having its twice yearly spring clean, the raised beds have been tidied up, given a good weeding and the gravel in-between the raised beds tidied with a leaf rake removing all the fallen leaves.
The onions are coming along really well. These are normally started off inside the greenhouse in pots, but as there is limited growing space we thought we would give some ago sown directly outdoors. We have had a great success with onions in the past so are hoping for a bumper crop.
The cabbages are coming along famously they are fattening up a treat! They are being kept well covered to keep the pests at bay.
The drop in temperature certainly has been noted by the office staff, and a cup of tea was well received when they got back into the office!
