Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden: November 2019

Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden

Welcome to the Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden website! We are committed to organic gardening. Using the best practices from the Victorian days (i.e. lots of horse manure) and knowledge gleaned from the Ryton Organic Gardens we have set out to tame our Warwickshire clay. It’s all about sustainability, so as well as organic gardening, we’re always looking to better ways to work with our environment.

On this site you can find out about our history and the projects we are working on. You can come visit the garden and learn about organic gardening. Follow our blog to see what’s on our mind in the garden this month.

For the first 8 years all the work was carried out by just the two of us. Now we have help and are passing on our knowledge to students on the WRAGS (Work and Retrain As a Gardener Scheme).

We also find time to be involved with the WOT2Grow Community Orchard in Tysoe and have planted a 3 acre wood close to Tysoe, just over the border in Oxfordshire with a grant from the Woodland Trust.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Garlic and onions

The rain has actually stopped and we have had no rain for 2 days!

However with all the rain we have had over the last month or so, the ground is still too wet to plant anything, we have heavy clay!

Autumn sown onions such as Autumn Champion and Senshyu, shallot Longor , elephant garlic and garlic Endrose have all been waiting in the shed to go in the ground, this should have been done in October. The garlic needs several months of very cold weather to enable them to separate into the individual cloves.

We decided this week that they really do need to start growing so have planted them in modules. They will root there and then can be planted into the soil when it dries a bit having all ready started the growing cycle.

Onions and garlic planted in modules waiting for the ground to dry a bit

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

A month gone by

November already and we have been busy dodging showers and waiting for the ground to dry a bit.

The garlic and onions we usually plant in October for an early crop are still in the shed waiting for the ground to dry a bit, it has been so wet.

Jobs that have been done over the past month are, bubble wrap one of the unheated green houses. This keeps the space a little warmer and protects some of the tender plants in pots over the winter. Aeonium, one of my favourites, fuchsia, chilli peppers, citrus, canna lily, Cautleya spictata and more Aeonium!

The frosts earlier in the month have blackened the dahlias, so they have been cut down. I am leaving them in the ground so following a suggestion from a friend they are now covered with a sheet of cardboard covered with a good 10cm of home made compost, hopefully this will protect the tubers from this winter’s frosts.

The pond has been tidied by cutting down all the plants and swapping the pump and filter for aeration bubbles to stop the pond freezing and keep the fish safe over winter.

Asparagus, now turning yellow has been cut down and again mulched with compost.

The autumn colours are still lovely with lots of coloured leaves and red berries abound.

Looking forward to a drier November!!

Tysoe Walled Kitchen Garden