This year we’ve seen a big increases in yield for many of the vegetables we grow. We’d like to think this is because we’re so much more experienced than when we first started, but in reality it’s probably because we were brave enough to grow vegetables in the front garden (i.e.the one overlooked by the neighbours and the street) in addition to the more private rear and side gardens we were using previously.
It made sense to use the front garden for three reasons. Firstly, it is at least as big as the garden at the rear of our bungalow so it would be a shame to waste the space. Secondly, it is south-facing and has much better light than the other gardens. And, thirdly, growing vegetables at the front of the house is regarded as slighly eccentric in the UK and we like this. In fact we’re actively trying to increase our gardening eccentricity and have been dreaming up bigger and braver plans for the new year. I can’t say too much at this stage, but is might involve a scarecrow…
So the results from the front garden have been impressive, especially for beetroot. In the past our beetroot bed produced an ample supply of golf ball sized roots, but in the front garden the growth was much more rapid and quickly reached tennis ball size and beyond. Many people say that beetroot go woody if they get too large but this doesn’t seem to be the case for the Boltardy cultivar. We’ve been eating tasty roots for months and now that the nights are getting cooler we thought it was time to pull the remaining crop and put it into winter storage.
We’ve never had enough beetroot to store before so this is the first time we’ve used the sandbox technique. This involves placing the beetroot in a crate with damp sand, building up a layer of sand and layer of beetroot consecutively until crate is full. Prior to this we twisted off the beetroot leaves by hand but now wish we’d done this higher up the stem. A number of websites with articles on how to store beetroot say that they store better if a short section of stem is left attached to the root. Apparently it’s the same for pumpkins. We’ll have to see how it goes and may modify the way we store them next year.
Does anyone know how long beetroot stores in sand? We’ll keep the sandbox in the garage, so it will be cool but also protected from frosts over the winter months. It would be nice if we had a supply until spring. This would be another step towards being self-sufficient.
Above is a photo of our “heavy” crop. The ones on top were the smaller roots (we’ll eat these soon). The monster ones lie waiting beneath. (David)
