Mid NOTE #3 Harvest Moon
The Harvest Moon is nearly upon on and i'm busy teaching a 200-strong cohort of pint-size future gardeners how to increase the fruits of their labour so we can make a truly self-sufficient garden.
Mid note: Middle notes, also known as heart notes, emerge after the top notes of a scented blend fade. Full-bodied and slow to evaporate, they are the lingering soul of a perfume. That which will be remembered.
As shared last week on my post about how to leave a garden, one of the things I did to offset not having my own space in which to nurture and grow was to take over the stewardship of our local school garden. Having gardened the space for over a year now, the annuals have had time to come full circle from seed to leaf to flower, fruit, and back again, the biennials are halfway through their lifecycle rotation, the perennials are an autumnal step nearer to bedding down for the winter.
Observing the seasons, and various cycles of life, is part and parcel of gardening but also something I’ve always been incredibly switched onto having been encouraged to get out in nature as a child; perhaps it’s even in my nature and what led me to plants, gardening and the writing thereof. In the framework of teaching a 200-strong cohort of future gardeners – namely the whole of year 3 and 4 of Godwin Junior School in Newham – about how to grow and cherish their garden, it is invariably the central theme, regardless of whether I introduce it as a topic or not. I truly believe that children are naturally tuned in.
We grew scores of sunflower seeds last summer, we now have thousands of seeds to sow next spring. My new after school gardening club is now in charge of harvesting the seeds from the beautiful honeycomb heads (which we the save for drawing and making decorations) and filling up envelopes of produce with which to help raise more funds for our school garden to buy bulbs and compost.
This week, seasonality has come up in all its splendid glory through the collection of seeds, my previous year 3 group (now year 4) witnessing firsthand how just one sunflower seed not only has the potential to grow into a 2.5-metre high superbloom but also produce literally hundreds of viable seeds of its own. We grew scores of sunflower seeds last summer, we now have thousands of seeds to sow next spring. My new after school gardening club is now in charge of harvesting the seeds from the beautiful honeycomb heads (which we the save for drawing and making decorations) and filling up envelopes of produce with which to help raise more funds for our school garden to buy bulbs and compost.
This last element is crucial as there really are no funds in schools for anything beyond the curriculum, and the curriculum most certainly doesn’t cater for the needs of our future generations or those who have a different way of thinking. In order to raise vital funds for our school garden I’m now filling out back-to-back grant applications to try and improve facilities, and buy tools, growing medium, and that which grows or can be propagated (plants, seeds, corms etc). Which brings me back to the seeds – the harvesting of this years crops really does feel like every little bit counts.
Not only do we want our garden to be sustainable, we need it to be if it is to be a fruitful and longterm growing space. Alongside the sunflowers, we have been harvesting rugged sea-creature like calendula seeds and round black and brown sweet peas. Some of my new Year 3s garden with their parents or carers and so have seen different types of seeds before but some had no idea that there could be seeds of so many different shapes, sizes, and colours.
And so I got a few more seeds out to observe and feel – the delicate wafty lettuce seeds that could blow away on the faintest breeze, the proudly robust smooth-in-the-hand broad bean, black nigella, and ridged and very tasty fennel seed. We talked of sea-sailing, desert island coconuts and enormous coco-de-mer; of which seeds to grow when due to their internal clocks that dictate when they will germinate, and then flower and fruit. We dug up the soil and pondered why worms don’t eat the seeds they happen across – or do they?
And so I got a few more seeds out to observe and feel – the delicate wafty lettuce seeds that could blow away on the faintest breeze, the proudly robust smooth-in-the-hand broad bean, black nigella, and ridged and very tasty fennel seed. We talked of sea-sailing, desert island coconuts and enormous coco-de-mer; of which seeds to grow when due to their internal clocks that dictate when they will germinate, and then flower and fruit. We dug up the soil and pondered why worms don’t eat the seeds they happen across – or do they? And we paid homage to last week’s Autumn Equinox and the Harvest Moon, which reaches its peak tomorrow Friday 29 September at 10.57am but can be seen looming large just after sunset for the next few days, providing that extra bit of light for harvesting or indeed gardening, and a difficult not to imagine vision of smocked farmers of ye olde thymes bent over double in the fields with their scythes.
Luckily collecting seeds from the garden doesn’t require such back-hobbling labour as bringing in the wheat, nor does it really need those additional hours of moonlight although harvesting in tune with the cosmos does add an extra layer of wonder, the collective magic of everyone doing the same thing at the same time. The meant-to-be-ness of it all.
I’ve always collected seeds from my garden but doing so with such enthusiastic companions has reignited my passion for such an important gardening task – to such an extent that I’m loathe to lose even a single sunflower seed and so must now address exactly where and how I’m going to store them.
The general advice is, once dry (lay out on newspaper for a week) to put them somewhere dark, cool and dry, which is absolutely not the school greenhouse at the moment, the sun still shining down on rows of self-started, humidity-enhancing calendula seedlings that we’ve been saving from the raised beds at the same time so we can get on with outing the ‘Godwin Weed’ (be gone chickweed). Nor is it my kitchen (albeit hopefully all the damp is gone), where I inevitably dump bags of school gardening detritus after each Tuesday session before sorting it all out to take back again.
I’ll therefore be asking for a designated indoors cupboard at school where we can place our paper-bagged, labelled and dated seeds until it’s time to sell them on or use them to green up other areas of the school. At home I’m going for the same method that I use to store my herbs, dried seeds funnelled into sterilised airtight glass jars placed in a dark cupboard or drawer. Some say put seeds in the fridge but that’s no go for us as there’s not enough room for the condiments or all the herbal potions and lotions I’ll soon be making as it is!
I’ll therefore be asking for a designated indoors cupboard at school where we can place our paper-bagged, labelled and dated seeds until it’s time to sell them on or use them to green up other areas of the school. At home I’m going for the same method that I use to store my herbs, dried seeds funnelled into sterilised airtight glass jars placed in a dark cupboard or drawer. Some say put seeds in the fridge but that’s no go for us as there’s not enough room for the condiments or all the herbal potions and lotions I’ll soon be making as it is!
Plus of course some seeds are ready for growing very soon, including our garden-harvested sweet peas (we’ve already been saving some sweet pea seedlings that have also taken root in the beds). Next week’s gardening club will be all about washing the root-trainers ready for sowing these beauties up and sorting out our below the ground harvests so we can start our spring bulb lasagnes and garlic crops too. So grateful for the greenhouse that has already given us much needed indoor growing space, a place to learn and shelter from the rain.
In the meantime, go gather and enjoy the autumnal light.
Welcome to a new series of Mid NOTES a place to share nature-inspired happenings from my botanical world, including articles and books I’m writing or editing, my home garden and school garden, upcoming artworks and exhibitions, and things to look forward to over the coming season. Connect with me on Instagram @sonyapatelellis or email hello@abotanicalworld.com. For books, prints or a full author bio visit www.abotanicalworld.com.