Notes from the Greenhouse - July 2024
Written by Beatrice Dandy
Edited and posted by Kyle Baldock
In its first three seasons of existence, the greenhouse at our office-garden in Pimlico has had a huge impact at Energy Garden. We now have full oversight over how our plants are grown. From water use and plastic consumption to transport and energy use, we are in control. We can ensure that pesticides, herbicides and non-organic fertilisers are kept well out of the growing process.
Most importantly, it has allowed us to offer higher quality horticultural support to the volunteer groups looking after Energy Gardens across the city. Volunteers can request special plant varieties and ensure they are grown in a responsible way. We choose the seeds and plant varieties that we want as a community and can fill empty spaces in our gardens without spending money on mature plants.
Finally, it is a great learning opportunity for all involved. We run weekly sessions for local volunteers to manage the process, from seeding to planting out to harvesting, and everything in between. Here’s a report of what we’ve grown and how it’s going.
Winter Veg: October 2023 – March 2024
Using the raised bed in the centre of the greenhouse, the team seeded winter vegetables like carrots, beetroot, rocket, mustard greens, dill, spinach, rainbow chard and fennel seedlings. These were slowly harvested over the winter, with more concentrated harvesting in February and March. The vegetables were tended by the volunteer group in monthly sessions, and monitored at all other times by the Energy Garden team.
Thoughts for this coming winter:
This winter I anticipate having much more growing in the greenhouse, we will have winter veg growing in the raised bed like last winter but additionally there will be plant cuttings that we will propagate for next year.
Seedling nursery: February-June 2024
In February, we began growing seedlings to plant out into the wider network of Energy Gardens. The volunteer group at Ebury Edge spent its weekly volunteer sessions seeding, potting up, and watering the seedlings from mid-February through until May. We seeded 65 different varieties in the greenhouse this year and successfully grew 2150 plants.
Vegetables
Vegetables are bred to grow quickly and easily from seed. A high germination rate is an important factor when deciding which varieties to continue saving seeds from. So, it follows that most of our vegetables had a success rate of around 100%. However, there are a few exceptions to this, the vegetables that fell short of <95% had almost 0% germination, this tells me that the seeds were an issue. In these cases, we had used leftover seeds, and it is now evident that they weren’t kept properly in their previous gardens. The vegetables that we grew were planted at the following gardens: Ebury Edge, Brondesbury Park, Acton Central, Finchley Central, Hampstead Heath and Bush Hill Park
Wildflowers
We grew several different varieties of native wildflowers in the greenhouse which were planted across our gardens. Planting began during biodiversity week with Ellen, our Biodiversity Lead, in May, and spilled over into the following weeks. Wildflowers aren’t commercially bred, so their germination is triggered by factors like location and climate, which create conditions that are enticing enough for the seed to germinate. This means that they can lay dormant in the soil for a long time. We had varied success growing the wildflowers that we chose: some grew easily, whereas others came up slowly, with a low germination rate. Despite this, we were able to grow 950 wildflower plants.
Ornamental flowers
The flowers in this category are non-native flowers such as: cosmos, calendula, nasturtiums, echinacea, and sunflowers. We had a lot of success with these as they are easy growers, happy to germinate in the greenhouse and easy to plant out in the garden.
Summer Veg: June –September 2024
Now that almost all the seedlings have gone out, we are using the greenhouse to grow food through the summer. Veg currently growing includes:
Tomatoes
Hot Peppers
Tomatillos
Basil
Ginger!
Turmeric!
Mustard greens
Rocket
And more
Coming soon: August 2024
This month we will start our winter veg seedlings in the greenhouse, growing plenty for home and to share across the network of Energy Gardens. Working in the greenhouse is a fun and uplifting process with lots of learning involved for everyone. If you live in SW1 and would like to get involved, write to bea@energygarden.org.uk.
