Summer solstice – sow what?

Last week, here in the southern hemisphere, we had the summer solstice. This is the day when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky and we experience the longest day and shortest night of the year. It is a time when our part of the earth is closest to the sun – the giver of life on earth. In contrast, our northern hemisphere counterparts experienced winter solstice.

Summer solstice has cultural and historical significance in many African societies, some of which are linked to abundance and harvest; the climax of fertility! It is for this reason that I like to enjoy a staycation, rather than a holiday, over Christmas. During this time the garden is producing food at an astounding rate, and the colourful flowers are in bloom. Who needs a holiday away from this? My holiday is in fact at home, in the sanctuary of the garden where I enjoy healthy, fresh food in a beautiful, quiet setting aligning with nature’s frequency.

I don’t observe any solstice rituals per se, but I find it becomes important to stay on top of the garden chores. As much as fruiting and flowering plants are nearing their peak, so are the weeds. Pest pressure also increases during this time. Gardening in summer can be incredibly exhausting as you’re constantly battling heat, pests and weeds. It is helpful to have a system or timetable to inform when you do the weeding, harvesting, planting, watering etc.

A summer maintenance plan doesn’t have to be regimented or burdensome. I like to keep gardening fun and light so I avoid strict rules. My plan is simply to spend at least 15 minutes a day in the garden to do whatever chores need to get done, be they watering (if it hasn’t rained), weeding and harvesting. Whenever I harvest a plant, I like to sow another seed or seedling in its place. That way I fill in the gaps and always have something growing. This method of “filling in” enables me to harvest summer crops all the way into mid-autumn, when I finally do a big harvest and refurbish the garden beds before sowing cold-season crops.

If you are in a warm climate like me in South Africa, you can garden all year round. In fact, it is not too late to sow summer crops now. Here are a few I am still sowing.

·       Winter squash: these take approx. 120 - 150 days* to maturity so you can still get away with sowing certain varieties of winter squash now. I just sowed a succession crop of butternut that I hope to harvest at the end of April.

·       Summer squash: baby marrow (zucchini) and patty pans grow very quickly and produce steadily into March.

·       Maize/ corn: Maize is a quick-growing crop and usually takes approx. 80 days to mature, depending on the variety. There is still time to sow a crop for harvest in early autumn.

·       Beans: Beans are rewarding crops that germinate relatively quickly and mature in approx. 60 days*. You can also eat them as young (green beans) if you don’t want to wait for the pods to mature completely. That means you can still get a great yield if you sow some bean seeds now.

·       Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers: These are the quintessential tastes of summer. In my garden this year, eggplants and peppers only really got going in the middle of summer, even though I start them early in spring. Also, my tomato plants have been particularly slow to fruit (perhaps because the rains were late) but I am still sowing varieties of cherry tomatoes (like sun gold and yellow pear) that have short maturity periods as I am able to harvest tomatoes well into late-autumn and early-winter.

After the summer solstice, the days will start getting shorter from now as the southern hemisphere goes towards winter, as earth slowly moves away from the sun. That is no reason to stop sowing summer crops as there is still time to get a good harvest at the end of the season.

Keep sowing, keep growing.

Sincerely,

Makho.

*days to maturity vary depending on the climate and variety/cultivar