Garden News - September 2024

After a quiet August, with a lot of people away, September is looking to be a very productive month. 

We’re really excited about the apple pressing day on the 22nd and hope it’ll be as fabulous as usual. This a big fund-raiser for the garden and a great chance for everyone to get together and enjoy the garden, so come and join in, have a go at pressing and enjoy some gorgeous home-made food and fresh apple juice. (please bring containers for juice and cash, and any un-sprayed surplus apples you may have).

This year, the fruit has been phenomenal - the apples are literally abundant and the autumn raspberries are the best ever!

After a slow start the tomatoes are starting to ripen, with the black variety winning the taste test this year. The raised beds have been great and produced some lovely pink fir potatoes, squash and brassicas and yes…. more black tomatoes!

The Hub is now felted at long last and the poly-carbonate top will go on soon. We’ve been busy networking with local groups to run some cobbing days in the next months, which, hopefully will get the walls done before the winter.

This week we also had a visit from  Gemma and Louise at Fare Share in Guildford. Fare Share is a wonderful charity that distributes waste and surplus food from food outlets to local community groups, to combat food poverty and wastage. We’re very pleased to be involved and they will drop off any spoiled fruit and veg for us to compost.

This time of year is probably the best for gathering produce and a gradual slowing down from the mad growth spurt of Summer.

The plants are setting seed and we have started to collect them to dry and save for the next planting. It’s great to see plants self-seeding around the garden - kales especially have all self-sown in the poly-tunnel and are looking healthy. 

The hops have nearly covered the old compost loo and the flowers smell amazing! They are great for helping sleep in a herb pillow and of course for beer.

The phacelia (a lovely purple flowering annual - beloved by bees) bank has been a great success and hopefully will self-seed the bank for the spring.

Zero are hosting a seed saving day on the 5th October for Guildford Seed Bank which should be very interesting, with top tips on seed saving and a talk by Andre Tranquilini (go to zerocarbonguildford.org for details).

The sedum in the bee flower bed is now coming into flower and is covered with the bumbles and pollinators. These beautiful drought-tolerant plants are a real must in any garden, providing much-needed autumn nectar. 

We’ve also harvested a bumper crop of nettle seeds to try out the medicinal benefits we shared in the last newsletter. To be continued….

Thistles and Teasels by Margaret Hattersley

There is a patch of wild vegetation near the pond which has been left alone, and with minimal interference, nature has provided amply.

At this time of year the thistles, ragwort and teasels that have grown there are now covered in silky furred and prickly seedheads respectively. This is a great feeding opportunity for finches, in particular goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis). 

These handsome birds have beaks which end at a fine point like a pair of tweezers, excellent for extracting the seeds from the plants. Interestingly, I have just found out that the male birds have a slightly longer beak, making them more able to contend with the prickly teasel heads, whilst the females are often seen feeding alongside them on the softer thistles.

The seeds are a concentrated source of many nutrients including essential fatty acids. Flocks of goldfinch arrive to feed on them – a flock of goldfinch is known as a “charm”. The Anglo Saxon word for goldfinch is “Thistel tuige” which means “thistle tweaker”. Teasels are often used in flower arrangements or to craft hedgehogs, but maybe we should wait until after the goldfinches have had their fill.

Goldfinches will hatch chicks as late as September, probably because the seeds they like to feed on are abundant now. Growing a few teasels in the garden is a great way to encourage them. Most overwinter in the UK, although some migrate to Spain. We are looking forward to seeing these beautiful birds at the garden this Autumn.