The dry start to the year is complicating matters for the gardeners in the Phoenix Park’s walled vegetable garden
LAST YEAR, the relentless rain was the problem for most urban farmers, as a neverending (or so it seemed) succession of drenching downpours conspired to make the summer of 2009 one of the wettest on record. Then came one of the iciest winters in almost half a century, followed by a shiveringly cold, late spring.
So the fact that this year has also been an unusually dry one (so far), with monthly rainfall amounts in most parts of the country generally well below the norm, had somehow gone almost unnoticed. Until it started causing problems, that is . . .
Already this month, the latest statistics from the Met Office show rainfall amounts at between a third and a half of what could be expected for this time of year. In the OPW’s walled kitchen garden in the Phoenix Park, the soil is now so starved of water it’s beginning to affect growth and there’s little sign of any real change on the way.
“We badly need some heavy rain,” says OPW gardener Meeda Downey. “At the moment, even when we do get rainfall, it’s not enough, only light showers, and the water is just running off the top layer of soil and evaporating. What the ground needs now is a really good soaking, particularly when the young plants need to make so much new growth.”
The fact the gardeners raised most of their plants indoors – rather than from seed – makes the lack of rainfall even harder to manage.
“We’re rushing to get young plants into the ground, but now we have the extra work of constantly watering them – otherwise we’ll lose them,” says Meeda’s colleague Brian Quinn. “They’re very vulnerable when they’re first planted outdoors in the walled garden, until they’ve had time to establish a root system. We also need rain for any seed we’ve sown outdoors in the last few weeks so that there’s a good rate of germination.”
The extra burden of work that comes with such regular watering couldn’t have come at a worse time for the gardeners, as they hurry to get the garden shipshape for Bloom 2010.
“We still have all the usual jobs to get through – like watering the plants in the glasshouse, weeding and tying-in the soft fruit – but we’ve got most of the leafy vegetables planted out, including young calabrese, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts, and the young spinach and lettuce plants,” says Brian.
“And then there’s all the young pea plants that we raised in the glasshouse, all 150 of them – we’ve just finished planting them in the garden but they’ll need a good soaking also.”
The young Onward pea plants were given a sunny position in the walled garden along the foot of some smart new climbing frames.
“We had to give up on the hazel rods and netting that we’d been using for the last few years,” says Meeda. “They were getting a bit battered and they were never quite strong enough, to be honest, once the plants got big and heavy.”
The new pea supports are now made from painted lengths of two-by-one timber, fashioned into tall A-shapes and then covered with sturdy chicken wire that’s been neatly stapled to the wood.
“The thing to remember with any pea supports is that they have to be strong enough to take the weight of fully grown plants, even in a summer gale,” says Meeda. “You don’t want to lose the whole crop just at the point when it’s ready for harvesting, or for the roots to be rocked and loosened if it starts shifting. So it’s important that the legs of the supports go a good depth into the ground. These supports are 7ft tall, but at least 1ft of that is underground.”
To ensure a succession of peas for harvesting, rather than a sudden glut, Brian and Meeda are only planting one side of the climbing frames with the glasshouse-raised pea plants.
“We’re alternating between plants on one side and seed on the other. That way, the glasshouse-raised plants, which were sown in April, will have finished cropping just as the outdoor-sown peas (sown a month later) are beginning to ripen,” says Brian.
The gardeners are sowing the pea seeds densely, about 2.5cm deep and at 2.5cm intervals, but they plan to subsequently thin any unwanted seedlings back to about 5cm to 7.5cm apart.
“We’ll take out what we don’t want once we see what the germination rate is like,” says Meeda. “Better to have too many to choose from rather than too few.”
But as Brian points out, seeds need moisture to germinate and, along with the young pea plants, the OPW gardeners will also have to water the freshly sown pea seed regularly until the much hoped-for rain materialises.
Those urban farmers who have recently sown seed in similarly dry conditions will need to do the same. And if you’re planning to sow seed outdoors within the next week, it’s also well worth giving the ground a good watering prior to sowing.
But what, you may be wondering, is considered a good watering? Probably more water than you might think, for as garden writer Joy Larkcom comments in her book, Grow Your Own Vegetables, the most common mistake people make when watering is to underwater.
“It is salutary to poke your finger into the soil after what seems like a heavy shower; the soil is often surprisingly dry,” she writes, before suggesting that a “good, heavy watering” requires roughly 22 litres per square metre. But even more important than quantity is technique.
“The golden rule is to water gently and thoroughly,” according to Larkcom. “Large water droplets destroy the soil surface and damage fragile plants and seedlings”.
So how do you water gently?
Well, if you’re using a watering can, fit a “rose” to the spout, which will create a fine spray of droplets, while in larger gardens, a hose fitted with an adjustable nozzle or watering gun is always useful.
And, if after a while you begin to feel a bit bored or fed-up (because there’s no doubt it can be a tedious and repetitious job), quickly remind yourself of the sodden wash-out that was last summer. That’s bound to bring a smile to your face.
- The OPW's Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. Open daily from 10am to 4.30pm
- Next week: sowing swedes, turnips and radishes
- Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer
