Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 76

life GARDENING them off at the base with a sharp knife. Wear gloves if your hands are particularly sensitive to their prickly leaves and stalks. Many other crops will also have a better flavour if harvested when still quite small. Soft fruit Pick the last raspberries, then prune the stems of summer varieties down to soil level. Tie in new shoots, about 10cm to 15cm (4in to 6in) apart, and remove excess ones. Prune back the main shoots and sideshoots of gooseberries to five leaves to encourage them to produce fruiting shoots for next season. Peg down strawberry runners from new plants into the soil or pots of compost to root. Shear off the foliage just above the crown of each plant and clear away any debris. Transplant crops Transplant young winter vegetable crops from their seed-bed when their stalks are about the thickness of a pencil. Crops to sow The following vegetable crops can be sown now directly outside: lettuce, Chinese cabbage, spring cabbage, endive, kohl rabi, radish, winter spinach and turnips for their green tops. Potatoes Hot and humid conditions can encourage a rapid spread of potato blight, so you could consider spraying the crops with a chemical fungicide to prevent an attack. Extra water given to potatoes can also boost yields. Apples Finish summer pruning the sideshoots on trained apple trees. Find out how to grow espalier apple trees. September Harvesting crops Regularly pick crops so that they are always tender and fresh. Never leave crops for too long before picking them, especially beans and courgettes. Crops to sow From August to early September the following crops can be sown directly outside: o lettuce and salad leaves o Chinese cabbage o endive o winter spinach o turnips for their green tops o final sowing of spring cabbage A cloche cover can help speed up germination in colder areas. Outdoor tomatoes Pinch out the shoot-tips of cordon tomatoes grown outdoors once their third or fourth truss has set fruit. Protect late crops of soft fruit Cover autumn-fruiting raspberries, blackberries and other cane fruits with netting to keep the birds away. Do remember to check the netting daily to ensure that no birds or animals are trapped. Apples Keep an eye on early ripening varieties, such as ‘Discovery’ and pick the fruit as soon as it’s sweet enough to eat. Most early varieties won’t keep, so eat them while they are at their best. Hang wasp traps in the branches of fruit trees to prevent wasps from damaging fruit. These will flower next spring. Blackberries Bury the tips of any shoots that have developed this year into the soil to raise new plants. These tips will quickly form roots and shoots will develop next spring, when the new plants can then b e separated and planted elsewhere. Sweet corn When the golden silks of sweet corn have turned brown they should be ready to harvest. Peel back the husks to check that the cobs inside have swollen to their full size. Cook them within minutes of cutting them if you can, to ensure the sweetest flavour. Herbs Pick herb stems for drying, or chop them up and keep them in ice cube trays in the freezer. Onions Carefully lift ripe onions, breaking the roots and lay them out to dry before taking them into store. Trench celery Wrap several layers of newspaper or cardboard around individual celery plants, then pull up the soil around them. Excluding the light in this way helps produce clean, blanched stems. Peaches Prune away all shoots that have carried fruit and tie in new ones that have formed this year. 76 Island Life - www.islandlife.tv