Godetia shrubs in a raised bed
Our country is in dire need of natural healing, more so in our major cities and other centres of frighteningly dense population. For decades, city/town planners have worked against nature rather than working with it and the horrific consequences of their amassed errors is all too clear. In reality, sensible and sustainable solutions lie in the hands of people and not in the heads and voices of those who ‘pull the strings’.
As gardeners, we get to serious grips with bringing nature back into our urban sprawls in a natural way and without chemical methods. Where better to start than in our own homes, gardens, streets and neighbourhoods.
It may be that your home is in a high-rise apartment block or in a small house with only a cemented courtyard for outdoor space, but that doesn’t exclude you from making your contribution to green-ness: indoor plants, plants in free-standing pots/containers, plants in hanging baskets on balconies, on rooftops and alongside driveways, all contribute to reintroducing nature into the everyday lives of those who, in congested inner-cities, rarely see the incredible glories of the natural world.
Creating a green environment around us is calming and de-stressing
Those of us lucky enough to have a garden space must consider increasingly serious water shortages and fill every single square inch with carefully selected, climatically suitable, preferably indigenous plants — edible or otherwise — as a personal contribution towards combating climate change and towards making the world both breathable and beautiful for all.
With this in mind, here is your October selection of seeds for sowing this month:
Vegetables to sow this month include the following: a good supply of crunchy winter cabbages and some succulent spring varieties too; cauliflowers, fast- growing purple broccoli, calabresse, green onions, beetroot, carrots — try extra sweet purple ones if possible — turnips, rutabaga, mustard, giant red mustard for cooking and salads, mustard mizuna, lots of crunchy and fancy-coloured lettuces, endive, kale, red Russian and Italian black kale, spinach, Swiss chard/leaf beet, peas, broad beans, climbing beans, bush beans, succulent celery, onions, Chinese and Japanese salad greens, winter radish and French breakfast radish by the score. Potatoes can be planted in barrels, buckets and in the garden, too. In plains and coastal regions you may like to sow some tomatoes but don’t forget to give them adequate protection on chilly winter nights.
In the herb garden: regular green mint, apple mint, peppermint and other kinds of mint can all be sown now; as can coriander, chives, garlic chives, Welsh onions, fast-maturing types of lavender, rosemary, thyme in all its versions, lemon balm, Italian parsley, curly leaved parsley, sage, fennel, aniseed, dill, chamomile, oregano, marjoram, watercress, land cress, blue- and white-flowered borage, lovage and cumin (zeera).
Edible flowers to add colour, interest and zip to salads and sweet dishes, plus, to brighten up even the darkest of winter days include: fast-growing bush, trailing and climbing nasturtiums with regular green leaves or variegated and purple leaved ones as well, sweet smelling — and tasting — wallflowers, ‘pelargoniums, carnations, Sweet Williams, dianthus (pinks), bellis, heart-faced pansies and violas and those ever- popular, bright and cheery calendulas in every place possible.