This Month in the garden

OCTOBER IS HERE AND THE DAYS ARE NOW COOLER, THE AIR FRESHER AND HERE’S HOPING WE GET MORE RAIN

Our gardens will respond to a good watering by the autumnal showers and give us the last glorious burst of colour from the remaining flowers and shrubs in the gardens, and the leaves on the trees will give a beautiful medley of rich autumnal colours. What’s not to like? So, enjoy all this magnificence before the inevitable winter arrives!

I feel that I should really be wishing you all a Happy New Year, or at least a Happy New Gardening Year, because for me this is the start of my year in the garden. I look back on my achievements and mishaps of the year and look for ways to add even more to the good things and seek remedies for the things that didn’t work as well, or even, in a few cases, failed completely!

To give our plants all the encouragement they need to put on strong growth, to be able to withstand nature’s onslaughts, the soil needs feeding. Two of the main nutrients needed for good crop growth are carbon and nitrogen, and these elements occur naturally in green manure. Green manures are plants such as ryegrass, clovers, field beans, phacelia, mustards and buckwheat, which produce a dense mat of green growth that is cut down before the plant flowers. This will help to increase the fertility of your soil. These plants bring different qualities ‘to the party’ with varying root depth and height. The one thing they have in common is that they are all annuals. Effectively it is the vegetarian alternative to farmyard manure.

Green manures add organic matter to the soil via their leafy top growth. Organic matter is also essential for growth; once broken down it becomes humus, which provides plant food. The more humus in the soil, the better aerated it is and so water moves through more easily, which in turn improves plant growth. Humus significantly affects the bulk density of soil and contributes to its retention of moisture and nutrients. Humus has many nutrients that improve the health of soil, nitrogen being the most important. In addition, as the roots decompose, they attract worms and good microbes.

Green manures can also be used to cover bare patches of soil in the spaces between crops, or during intervals between one crop and the next. This prevents the soil from drying out and allows it to hold moisture for longer – a factor becoming more and more essential with climate change! They also stop erosion by the sun, wind and rain. Certain green manures break up and aerate the soil, allowing microbes and beneficial insects to flourish. Other benefits of green manures include controlling pests in the soil, controlling

By Ronnie Ogier

Ronnie is a passionate gardener and now loves sharing her years of experience of success and failures in her own garden and sharing it with you. Also a keen runner, having been bitten by the ‘Couch to 5K’ bug!

weeds by occupying spare space and providing shelter for beneficial insects such as ground beetles. During the growing season sowing marigolds (Tagetes erecta or Tagetes patula) in your garden will help control harmful nematodes in the soil, which is why they are so useful as companion planting for tomatoes. These soil borne insects can attack the roots of plants leading to infections which ultimately becomes visible in a plant’s leaves.

Green manures of one type or another can be sown at any time during the growing season, i.e. anytime your grass is growing, no matter how slowly. In my potager there are spaces where summer crops have been removed and that provides an opportunity to sow green manures to cut down before I start planting again in the spring. Once cut down they will provide up to 5cm of surface mulch, for extra benefit this can be covered with wet cardboard topped with semi rotted compost. This will keep the worms active all winter!

And while the green manure and mulch are doing their work you can sit back, in the dry and warmth to reflect on what you have done this year – what has worked and what could be better, and then plan for next year. Don’t forget all the photos you’ve taken, look back at them and enjoy your summer in the garden.

Now is a good time to start looking at seed and summer bulb catalogues to place orders for 2024. Happy Gardening!

Doctors Strike Action

Self-employed GPs in France and Europe are being urged by unions to strike on 13 October and to continue the action for the following days. Over half of the country’s doctors and specialists are selfemployed and this strike action could see many appointments cancelled. At the time of press it is unknown how many doctors will be taking part, but if you do have an appointment on or just after this date, it is worth double-checking it hasn’t been cancelled. The strike action comes after failures in negotiations between doctors’ unions and Assurance Maladie to increase consultation fees.

Avoid Secondhand Car Scams

Approximately 10% of used cars in France come with fake kilometrage, suggesting significantly lower usage than their actual history. This figure notably increases for vehicles exceeding two decades in age. To combat such scams, you can use the HistoVec platform, which offers a complimentary history check for pre-owned vehicles, including past kilometrage records from prior roadworthiness examinations. This service is free, and you have the option to request that the seller updates the site with the car's comprehensive history and particulars prior to purchase, if the information is not already available. While usage of the site is voluntary, a seller's reluctance to do so may give good cause to raise suspicions! https://histovec.interieur.gouv.fr

Cork To Roscoff Ferry

Operating the Cork to Roscoff ferry during the winter season is part of BrittanyFerries'celebration of the service's 50th anniversary. Throughout November and December, theferrynamedArmorique will transport passengers every weekend. Tickets are now on sale, starting at €179 for a one-way trip with a car and two reclining seats, or from €210 for a cabinwithensuitefacilities. In previous years, Brittany Ferries had suspended this service from November to March annually. Looking ahead, Brittany Ferries has plans to introduce another vesseltothisrouteinMarch 2024, which will lead to a doublingofweeklycrossings during the summer and autumn months.

Hidden Treasure

A couple whose dog unburied a box containing 400,000€ (cash) in 2021 while walking in the Valcros hills have been awarded half of the money. French law stipulates if the owner isn’t found and a full three years has passed, the finder gets to keep 50% of it. The remainderofthemoneyhas beengiventothecommune, as it was found on the town’s communal land.