This year’s drought has been tough for all gardeners and farmers. So I thought I would reflect on how my little food forest has fared. I have five rainwater tanks, each one 200l capacity. After living in South Africa, where my tanks were 5000l each, this seemed to me inadequate, but I was reassured that it always rains in the UK, so they would fill up before they were empty. However, they did run dry a good month ago, despite carefully targetted use.
The Turkish rocket and comfrey have sailed through the summer looking as vigorous as ever. They both have tap roots which extend over a meter into the ground, so it is not surprising that they can still find water when other plants can’t. The comfrey is not edible, but its leaves make an excellent mulch and fertiliser for other plants and also make a great healing salve for aches and pains. I have not found turkish rocket to be a particularly pleasant plant to eat. There is a small window in spring when it produces florets which can be eaten like purple spouting broccoli along with the young leaves. The rest of the year it produces prolific large, hairy leaves which Plants For a Future claims make an excellent vegetable – I can’t say that I have taken a liking to it, but I am leaving it in the garden as a) it is difficult to get rid of due to the deep roots b) its something to eat if food really becomes scarce.
I have one sea kale plant in a sunny spot which has done well. Like turkish rocket, it produces good broccoli like heads in the spring. Its leaves are smooth and thick, more like an annual kale and are not bitter, so are good as a cooked green for much of the year. The sea beet has also survived without watering. While it is not producing enough leaves to harvest, I expect it will bounce back and grow well once we have more rain. I think sea beet is a great plant; like spinach only better and just keeps giving even in winter.
My other plants which have continued without any hint of distress include the Jerusalem artichokes, sorrel, rosemary, sage, oregano and thyme, the grape vine, the jostaberry bush, hollyhock and my monster blackberry bush “Triple Crown” which is producing huge amounts of huge blackberries at present.
Plants which have shown signs of distress; either stunting or browning of leaves include the honey berries, miniature kiwis, day lilles, strawberries, raspberries, korean celery, sculpit, chinese artichokes, musk mallow, groundcover sedums and various alliums. It may be that if my soil was better and these plants were more densely packed they would have done better. I started with very poor soil on the site of a previous factory, so it is taking years to build up the organic content. I have watered the above plants just enough to keep them going and I hope that with the addition of compost in the autumn they will recover to face another year.
The oca definitely needed watering and I only have 3 little plants that survived, so my stock of tubers will not be good this year. The mashua also has been struggling despite being planted in a fairly shady area and being watered erratically. The leaves mostly look dead now, so I am hoping that the tubers will be viable next year. Again, I won’t have any for sale this year. The Siberian purslane has disappeared, but I am hoping that it spread enough seeds around that it will come back in the autumn along with the miners lettuce and corn salad. The yacon that I left in the ground, well mulched over winter failed to grow at all.
So what can I do differently next year given that we are likely to have a cold, wet winter/ spring followed by another hot dry summer? I think that working on soil health and mulching will be key. I have miner’s lettuce which provides a green mulch through the winter until about May. It self seeds and covers most of my soil. I hope winter purslane will also spread in the shady area. I need to water certain plants more intentionally e.g. my honeyberries and miniature kiwi. I will also be on the lookout for more drought tolerant perennials.