Red alert it’s Beetroot time

The beetroot family includes beetroot, spinach and chard.  All are easy to grow and can be sold as plants at both spring and summer farmers markets.  If the class wants to sell produce be aware that chards and spinach wilt quickly once harvested so can be difficult to keep looking fresh and attractive on a stall.  The class might want to grow the beetroot family, harvest and cook it to sell at the farmers market. This vegetable family may not need to use any of the raised beds in the garden.

Autumn Term

September  If beetroot family has been grown in the raised beds, harvest any beetroot left from the previous summer crops and clear the raised bed with beetroot in ready for another class.  It is VERY important that beetroot are NOT grown in the same place each year.  Ideally they should be grown where brassica grew the previous school year.  Work with the class group that grew these the previous school year to take over the raised beds and mark as growing beetroot.  Note: the class growing Onions will also want to take on brassica beds.  Agree if the class will sell the beetroot family as a crop; many of beetroot family are easier to sell as plants.

Sept/Oct  If planting outside, sow spinach to overwinter.  This will be ready to harvest, or harvest and cook for the spring market.

Spring Term

February Sow Chard, spinach and beetroot in the poly tunnel in trays, modules or small pots.  Label carefully and keep moist.  They should germinate quickly.  Pot on when the seedlings have 2 leaves. Sow more seeds every 2 weeks.

March prepare for the Farmers Market.  If outside spinach has been sown and grown, decide how to use it at the farmers market.

Summer Term

April If planting outside, plant out chard and beetroot.  As these are very colourful plants, if there is no room in the raised beds, consider using them as ornamentals in other parts of the garden.

May Sow more seeds to sell as plants at the summer farmers market.  Keep moist, label clearly and pot on as before.

June  If any chard or spinach starts to bolt – trying to flower and create seed, pull it out and compost the plants.  Keep pots moist.

July  Prepare for farmers market.

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A week is a long time in gardening..

A week ago I was writing about the cold, now the sun has come out and all seems so much better with the world and the garden in particular.  Suddenly Spring is here and it’s a busy time to get all the veg planted to be ready for the next Farmers Market in July.

In the poly tunnel the warmer weather has bought a new challenge, keeping the plants watered.  We have only one water butt in the garden,  fed from a very small piece of guttering, so it takes a long time to fill.  In the run up to the last  farmers market the children enthusiastically watered the salad crops and emptied the butt in the process. We have not had enough rain to refill it so we have a water shortage.  The only outside tap is the other side of the playground, we are waiting for an other tap to be installed closer to the garden so in the meantime it’s lots of trips with watering cans.

However with the warmer weather we can get on with planting more outside, where the veg can fend for itself, taking up moisture from the soil  and not relying on us all the time.

I am hoping that this week we can get salads planted out, and that will reduce the watering needed in the poly tunnel.

The strawberries in pots are coming on, I saw the first flower buds this morning, so maybe we will get a crop in a couple of months.

Last week the children from 4/5 class planted some tomatoes. 7 days on no sign yet, but that really is a bit soon for germination.  They have planted a selection of varieties including cherry tomatoes, a cascading variety suitable for hanging baskets and a striped tomato.  I’m looking forward to seeing that one fruit.

This week 2/3 will be planting.  They will be concentrating on root crops, carrots and beetroot in particular, so it is good that the weather has warmed the soil ready for them to plant.  However, before planting the root crops they are in an experiment with schools in France and Estonia to compare growing sunflowers, and today is planting day.

Happy gardening!