Patrick's Polytunnel

In five weeks' time we expect the Autumn Equinox, after which light declines in strength and duration. Plants with good-sized healthy leaves carry on growing- slowly!                   Some seeds sown now will grow plants of a useful size ..to keep growing during shorter days.                       Choose dwarf or speedy varieties of carrot, beetroot, lettuce and spinach; also dwarf French beans and mangetout peas. A special word about pak choi! It starts quickly, and can be eaten from small leaves up to large into the winter. Other salad leaves may also reward an August sowing.                     I'm still shortening the new trusses of tomato flowers and removing sideshoots; and it's time for another liquid feed: double strength this week.

An empty tunnel in winter is a waste of a precious resource. B y sowing now, you can produce plenty in autumn and provide variey and vitamins during the shortest days. Dwarf French beans and mange-tout peas can spice up October and November. Spinach and chard can be partially picked and will keep re-growing all winter. Pak choi is reliable and long standing. Beetroot, carrot and kohl-rabi will wait patiently in the ground for months and still taste as fresh as in summer. All these crops germinate quickly now, and grow fast while days are long. The whole process is slower from sowing later in August, and the final yield is much smaller. I'm going to try a sowing of calabrese now and another in September; daring and dangerous? I'll take a chance!