October top & flop CROPS

Lynda’s regular round-up of the best & worst seasonal performers in her Hunua country garden

SAGE:

Want to know how good your garden’s drainage is? Plant sage ( Salvia officinalis). If it’s still alive a year later, well done. And if not? Join the club. I can’t seem to keep common sage going for more than a few months. This time last year, we photographed the lush clumps (above) in my herb garden. Twelve months later, I’ve lost the lot.

A drought-hardy Mediterranean perennial, sage can cope with hot, dry summers but it has no stomach for wet, cold winters. When it’s unhappy, it drops its lower leaves, leaving only a scungy tuft of foliage on top of its woody stems, or it shrivels up altogether from root rot.

If your sage is struggling, try growing it in a container instead. Or pot up heaps of cuttings in autumn so you’re well stocked with replacements for winter casualties.

LEEKS:

My leeks, transplanted in January, are still so skinny that they make my spring onions look morbidly obese. A late summer chewing by rabbits didn’t help but, even so, they’ve had nine months to recover. I’m taking it as a sign that the bed in which they are growing could do with a generous dose of NPK fertiliser before I sow sweetcorn later this month. I’m even less a fan of baby corn as I am of baby leeks.

‘SANTA ROSA’ PLUMS:

I only grow this Burbank plum for pollination purposes, as I find its fruit a bit sour. But this year my scraggly trees had only a smattering of blossoms between them, which renders their ongoing existence rather pointless.