‘Tis the season to get your Christmas greens

A flower seller bags up another sale at Colombia Road Market. Photograph: Jerome Yewdall / Creative Commons

Hackney residents have some of the highest-density living arrangements in the whole of London, but are also lucky enough to live in one of the greenest boroughs.

But as the nights draw in and the leaves fall, many of us start to bring the green indoors – most commonly, by putting up a Christmas tree.

Full of parties and fancy dinners, December is also a great month for growing herbs too.

“It’s not really the right season to be growing herbs from seed, but it’s a great time to grow little things as garnishes,” says Natalie Mady, a co-founder of Cordwainers Grow.

Mady runs a not-for-profit organisation that sells herbs and reinvests profits into local health initiatives such as a course about herbs at the Centre for Better Health and workshops with groups such as Jumping Beans at Frampton Park and Stamford Hill Community Garden.

“This time of year for us growers it is more about harvesting the final batches of herbs before they die back over the winter as opposed to sowing new things,’ says Mady.

“But something that is foolproof and great for beginners or children is growing micro-greens, which follow the same concept as growing cress.

“They only take a few weeks to mature and you can get lots of different varieties to give you flavour-rich little leaves. You cut and eat them at their immature stage and can actually use any vegetable seed like using leftover radish, cabbage and sunflower seeds.

“Growing enough herbs for something like pesto is a bit ambitious – indoor herbs at this time of year won’t yield very much,” she adds.

“However, those keen for fresh greens can grow some herbs indoors on sunny balconies. You can use basil, coriander and rocket seeds and harvest the young leaves when the plants are small to use as garnishes on winter salads as opposed to growing the plant to full size.”

Fir real

Meanwhile, down at the Christmas Forest stall at St Paul’s Church on Amhurst Road, stallholder Kelty Caston is focused on greenery of a different nature: Christmas trees.

He’s a real expert in the field, selling from 8am to 10pm every day until Christmas Eve. Like Cordwainers Grow, they give a bit back to the community by running a ‘buy one, plant one’ scheme with the charity Tree Aid. Caston advises that a water holding stand is essential for keeping a tree fresh.

“Just like buying fresh flowers a tree should be given a fresh cut before standing in water,” he says. “The tree’s cut base will seal up within about six hours. If your tree was fresh cut for you stand it up promptly when you get home. Otherwise, saw a bit off the base and stand the tree outside in water.

“When you’re ready to decorate the tree, lay it on its side and adjust the screws on the base so you haven’t got too much to do up, and offer the stand up to the tree. Now, if you give the base a few bangs with a hammer or heavy object, you’ll fix the bud at the spike at the centre of the stand. Then turn the tree over and tighten up the screws.

“Position the tree away from sources of heat, preferably on a dust sheet or similar. Stand back and check it’s straight. Adjust the tree using the screws at the bottom. Cut off the netting with a break knife and peel like a banana.”

But he also has some more experimental techniques for preserving pines this season.

“Talking to your tree and including it in general conversation is a tried and tested method of helping a tree settle into the new home, although as yet there’s no scientific data to support this.

“After all what pleasure can you get from talking to a plastic tree?”