Grow Your Own Veg

Bank holidays - I love 'em

2008-08-26T08:43:00Z

You can't beat a good bank holiday to get loads done in the garden. Having spent so much time away recently, we spent all three days getting the garden back into shape and finishing off a few projects that we'd got part way through. One of my main objectives was to give the veg area a good seeing to.

The beefsteak tomatoes obviously were never going to do anything, so they got cleared out of the greenhouse, which made lots of room to space out the remaining tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers. One of the aubergines has actually set a fruit, although I don’t hold out much hope of it getting to edible size this late in the season. The peppers are doing really well and we’ll have lots of chillies to keep us going through the autumn. Photographer Tim Sandall is having his own Chilli Festival in a few weeks’ time, so it looks like we'll be able to add to his endeavours.

In order to get all the grubbed up tomato plants onto the compost heaps meant that the finished heap had to be emptied and this was used to top up the beds and as a mulch around the rest of the garden.

Next job was to have a good tidy up of all the other crops – removing dead, damaged or dying foliage, remove spent plants, weed and generally make everything ship shape.

By the end of Saturday I stood back, lent on my hoe and thought ‘phew’ things are back to normal.

There was plenty to harvest and deal with. Although the tomatoes at home have generally been disappointing we’ve had a few fruit here and there and this weekend everything that was ready was harvested to make a rich tomato sauce, which along with some runner beans made a fantastic sauce for salmon steaks. The ‘Hundred & Thousands’ tomato plants have been cropping well and consistently and the tiny cherry tomatoes are great to eat raw and add a hint of sweetness to sauces. Sunday’s gourmet meal was pork with roast beetroot (red & orange) and carrots.

On Saturday we had a real ‘rock and roll lifestyle’ evening and spent hours cleaning, topping and tailing and peeling shallots and by the end of the weekend had six jars of them pickled and ready to store. Similarly the onions were cleaned up and put into store. Clare was a bit miffed as she was hoping to get three that were good enough to enter into one of our local shows next week but we just couldn’t find three that were the same size and shape. The potatoes that we harvested last weekend were similarly cleaned, sorted and put into boxes for storage in the garage.

As always, there were plenty of courgettes to harvest, so many so that Clare decided to bake a courgette cake. I realised she was baking, but hadn’t realised that it was courgette on the menu until I had my first slice to eat and noticed the green flecks. How was it? Well, it wasn’t long before I was tucking into my second slice; I think that answers the question! Moist & yummy is another answer; as you'll see I'm a real connoisseur when it comes to food.

By the end of yesterday the whole of the garden was looking much better, I’d moved a tonne of gravel, I ached all over, I’d eaten well from produce we’d grown ourselves, and was wondering why I’d been moaning about what a waste of time, money and effort gardening was a couple of weeks before! A happy ending to a happy bank holiday.

Good week for biodiversity.

2008-08-25T14:35:00Z

It has been a good week for biodiversity. While cleaning and sorting onions into those for late winter storage, ones to use before December and the rest to use as soon as possible, I saw, through the corner of my eye, a rather dirty onion get up and walk off. On inspection this unusual onion was a toad which had made a home in the cold frame where the onions are ripening. It crawled off into the herbaceous borders.

Then when lifting the mulching sheet as the last of the broad beans were cleared a slow worm slipped quietly from beneath the sheet into the adjacent strawberry bed. In fact there now appear to be slow worms under all my many mulching sheets - I have seen more slow worms this week than ever before.

Harvesting; where to begin?

2008-08-20T09:33:00Z

At last allotment work is easing off and the plot is mostly up to date. I have to say I am relieved – it has been a bit hectic harvesting and replanting at the same time.

With only six weeks or so of growing weather left, plants must not run short of nutrients. However everything looks mighty lush and only some weak, newly planted or pigeon damaged plants need feeding. Brassicas checked by pigeons, have had a second dose of calcium nitrate to boost growth and keep the soil alkaline. Where grow is not quite as it should be sulphate of ammonia has been applied, dissolved in water and placed at the base of affected plants with a watering can, to crops destined for autumn harvest; beans, beetroot, celery, courgettes and various salads and also in moderation to celeriac and leeks for winter harvest. Ground cleared of summer crops and due to be resown or replanted has received a boost of dried poultry manure pellets.

Mixed fortunes

2008-08-19T08:28:00Z

Right! This is getting silly! I know each year in the garden is different – but I just wish they were different in a good way. Two years ago we were over-run with tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and aubergines and the freezer was swollen with ratatouille. Last year was the ‘blight year’ and tomatoes and potatoes took a bit of a hammering. This year – it has been beans all the way – in all their forms. But the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines…!

We’ve just come back from a holiday in the south of France – every day hot, sunny and glorious. And while I’m lying next to the pool trying not to become a British lobster I’m thinking it MUST be sunny back home and all the fruiting crops must be bursting with fruit. Luckily, the mother-in-law was house sitting so everything would be fed and watered as and when needed.

Pungent wheels

2008-08-08T21:11:00Z

People are even more reluctant than usual to ride in my car now carting home the alliums is in full swing. Last year my garlic, onions and shallots were so disappointing that an emergency leek planting session had to be undertaken to have enough alliums for the winter. Not so this year, although I have still planted an improbable number of leeks.

The spring planted onion sets and shallots have fallen over and dried off – they have come home now, to ripen in the coldframe, to make room for the last of the leeks. They were grown through white faced black polythene salvaged from the ‘Taste of Autumn’ Wisley event. This kept down the weeds and reflected light back up into the foliage. I have been a bit sceptical about this white polythene but I really think it has benefitted this sun-loving crop. With no need to weed and hoe there is no need to space plants widely or in rows. Therefore the onion crop was set out at a high density with about 10cm between plants. The onions are on the small side of course but there are a very great many of them, all about 6 - 8cm in diameter which is fine for home use. On the other hand the white kept the soil cooler delaying maturity by two weeks compared to black polythene, but I think the yield is better under white.

There was virtually no bolting suggesting I could have planted a fortnight earlier for a bigger crop.

In the coldframe they join the over-wintered crop, which being planted much more widely are very much bigger, although the crop per square metre is smaller than for the closely planted spring onions. ‘Setton’ and ‘Sturon’ were the main spring planted onions and cropped very well as usual and were joined by newcomer ‘Stur BC20’ which seems just as good although it is hard to say if it is better. A new red onion ‘Red Supreme’ seemed to have the edge on good old ‘Red Baron’. A white onion ‘Snowball’ also did well, but is so pungent as to be almost unusable. Perhaps it will come at you less fiercely after storage.

Official onion trials suggest some good newcomers for 2009: ‘Reddawn’ and ‘Red Emperor’ are reported to be very promising and two sets with good disease resistance may be available to gardeners soon. By some fluke of dry weather in June onion downy mildew was less damaging this year but is a scourge against which the gardener has no defence.

As ever ‘Senshyu Semi-Globe Yellow’ and ‘Radar’ were reliable over-winter and the red ‘Electric’ is completely reliable unlike older over-wintered reds.

A wide range of shallot cultivars were grown from onion-sized ‘Red Sun’ and ‘Hative de Niort’ to funny little ones whose label I have yet to uncover from beneath the black landscape fabric mulch through which all the over-wintered onions, shallots and garlic were grown. Some of these shallots were set out in spring to replace onions that failed over winter and have filled in the gaps productively.

To harvest the onions and shallots the sheet is lifted and those bulbs that don’t come way with the sheet are gathered up. I was pleased with myself for planting beans, courgettes and pumpkins into the maturing onion crop to get an early start but of course I cannot now lift the sheet and each onion has to be laboriously inched out without disturbing the following crop.

Garlic has all been gathered with ‘Early Wight’ and ‘Solent Wight’ making a heavy crop despite the severe rust disease and ‘Moldavian Wight’ being very much smaller, but supposedly tastier. I am not sure about that.

Bean (and pea) feast

2008-08-08T20:34:00Z

Peas and beans are the mainstay of my midsummer allotment crops; Pea ‘Ambassador’ grown for shelling produces two pods per node on tall leafy plants that put up a good fight against weeds. The pods this year area little short – it is always much better to have 10 peas in a pod than 6, as shelling is so much easier. ‘Balmoral’ has longer pods and lots of them but on shorter plants that compete less well with weeds. However, the edible podded snap pea ‘Cascadia’ is the most productive pea, which again grows tall and leafy, is delicious and I could grow only one pea this would be it.

Peas are not very high yielding. Official yield figures for peas are about 400g every square metre and broad beans are much the same, while dwarf French beans yield nearly double at about 750g and I would guess that edible-podded peas approach dwarf French beans (no official figures are available). Climbing French beans probably crop a little more heavily but nowhere near as much as the 2000g produced by a good crop of runner beans.

Like the pea season, the broad bean season is on its last legs. The main crop of ‘Witkiem Manita’ sown in March is nearly finished, the follow on crop of small seeded ‘Scorpio’ has been gathered and the final sowing of ‘Witkiem Manita’ has set a good crop and is just going over mature. Scorpio has very tasty small beans, but I still think the bigger, more vigorous, ‘Witkiem Manita’ gives the best results overall. If my eyes don’t deceive me this is the bean used for the August supermarket crops of broad beans and I hope to get similarly good results at this difficult season. Old books recommend ‘The Sutton’ for this period but I was deeply unimpressed by its late performance last year, although it gave fair results from an over-wintered crop.

The French beans raised indoors in April have been gathered. The direct sown beans from early May are almost over and the May sown is in flower now, while the June sown crop are 20cm tall but have yet to flower. As dwarf French beans are much the same in my view I just bought one big bag of 'Scuba' with some purple 'Royalty' for pretty.

To follow them July-sown yellow and purple climbing French beans are climbing their wigwams and to follow these late sown runner beans have reached the top of their canes

Both peas and broad beans are being cleared away now with time for a second crop before winter. It is well to have plenty of plants on hand to follow on, and my stock of cell trays has been re-sown with courgettes, cucumbers, beetroot, calabrese, cauliflowers, herbs, kohl rabi, oriental greens, and salads ready to go out into the newly cleared ground.

In the meantime courgette, French bean and runner bean seeds have been dibbled with a length of 25mm dowel through the holes in the landscape fabric through which broad beans have been grown. It is amazing how well seeds germinate under this treatment as long as they have some slug control applied at the same time. Without cultivation the soil has lost no moisture and the soil compacted by the dibber and the subsequent consolidation of the soil over the seeds by a clenched, gloved fist leads to rapid germination and growth, while the landscape fabric keeps the ground weedfree. If all goes well, and remains deer-free, these will be cropped in October. A covering of fleece boosts temperatures by a couple of degrees and excludes deer, which happily appear insufficiently enterprising to push aside the fleece.

Summer came and went

2008-08-08T20:31:00Z

The fleeting spell of hot weather after Tatton Park Flower Show made all the difference to my allotment..

For weeks careful watering and feeding to ‘push’ tender crops has been needed to make sure they develop enough roots and leaves to take advantage of summer when it arrives

Sweet potatoes under their low polythene tunnel have gone from weedy plants covering a tea tray’s worth of ground to cover over a square metre. In fact they are in danger of over-heating so the tunnel was pulled back and water applied to the landscape fabric mulch through which they are being grown. They got a really good soak and this might do them for the year; until mid August anyway. Abundant water can lead to lots of leaf and rather watery tubers, so they are being grown hard for smaller, but tastier tubers.

Tomatoes have gone from thin and willowy to thick, dark green plants with large trusses of fruit. Sweet corn from pallid and wispy to dark green and luxuriant. Climbing french beans have arrived at the top of their canes putting on a spurt of growth. Dwarf French beans are in full crop. Cucumbers have burst out of their fleece tunnel. Peppers have formed a heavy burden of fruit in their fleece tunnel. Unfortunately courgettes the size of my little finger when I left were only fit for the compost pit.

My numerous pumpkins and squashes have grown from plants you could almost fit under a bucket to sprawling monsters making their move on the nearby soft fruit

As usual in high summer one other, much less welcome plant has shown its appreciation of the hot weather; Galinsoga AKA gallant soldier or kew weed. This extremely virulent South American weed loves heat, is not at all put off by dry soils and whole regiments of it have sprung up, especially in the root and brassica crops. It had to go, but at least the weather was fine for a crawling though dusty crops pulling this stubborn weed out one by one.

Where's the summer gone?

2008-07-21T08:33:00Z

I haven't blogged for a few weeks - simply because I haven't been around much the last few weekends to get any actual gardening done. After spending the weekend at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show we've spent the following weekends visiting family, goings to christenings and having a weekend away in Pembrokeshire - revisiting old haunts that I used to go to as a child.

This weekend has been the first one spent at home for ages - and yes there has been some inevitable catching up to do in the garden. Naturally, I've been doing things in the evening after getting back from the office, but it has only been 'maintenance work'. And to be fair, that's what tends to happen at this time of year: watering plants in containers, feeding plants in containers, tying in plants to supports (we've had some really windy days, which have caused even the runner beans to comeaway from their supports), sideshooting tomatoes - and, the one thing that makes all the hard work worthwhile - harvesting.

It won’t last.

2008-07-12T06:55:00Z

It won’t last. The wet weather last year and this is a temporary aberration I learned when visiting the Changing Climate Dome at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

The scientists from the Met Office, who are available for questions and give talks in this dome, tell me that the lovely wet weather that is essential for good crops on my dry sandy soil is due to La Niña. This is the opposite of El Niño which was apparently responsible for the hot, dry weather in 2006.

They are climatic features in the equatorial regions of the Pacific Ocean off south America that involve oscillations for water temperature with La Niña being associated with colder water and El Niño with warmer. The effects of these are, astonishingly, felt throughout the world.

Worryingly, the Met Office scientists say that although this year will be cooler than 2006 because of La Niña, it will still be one of the warmest years on record. When El Niño comes around again, as it surely will, we can expect heatwaves and excellent tomato and melon crops, but the peas, brassicas and salads will need heavy watering to do well.

I am going back to the flower show today and I will have a lot more questions on climate change for the Met Office people.

Plant Care

2008-07-04T06:51:00Z

Now that all but a few of the allotment crops are established, it is time to think of plant care. It is very important that the leaf area expands quickly as July is a make or break month with long days and the sun high in the sky so that plants can do an enormous amount of growing this month. August is not quite as good and by September things slow down markedly.

Weeds in rows have been kept down by the Dutch hoe up and down the rows, followed by the onion hoe between the plants. Uncropped areas such as paths have been treated with the new weedkiller called ‘Resolva’ – it contains glyphosate that will kill all weeds and diquat. Diquat will only kill annual weeds but within 24 hours you can see where you have been and don’t have to wait 10 days to see any missed plants as you do with ordinary glyphosate.

For widely spaced plants such as tomatoes and Brussels sprouts each plant is surrounded by a low, 5cm high earth bank and water poured into the ‘pond’. The water is fortified with a couple of teaspoons equivalent of nitrogen fertiliser in every watering can. Sulphate of ammonia is used for most crops, but for brassicas this acidifying fertiliser is unsuitable as it may promote clubroot. Calcium nitrate is used for brassicas as it will help to reduce clubroot disease due to its basic or alkaline character.

More closely spaced crops are grown in shallow 7cm deep trenches and during weeding these get filled in. With the onion hoe their banks are restored and again water and fertiliser added.

Although the soil is fundamentally fertile my judgement is that generous watering and feeding at this stage is very worthwhile.

Flaming June

2008-06-27T15:18:00Z

Spent the early part of the week repairing damage from Sunday's gales and heavy rain - propping up the broad beans, tying escaping peas back in, staking battered cut flowers. Last week's blog about plant supports turned out to be uncannily appropriate...

Double cropping

2008-06-25T21:46:00Z

The very best land, much in demand by commercial growers of vegetables, fruit and salads, is sometimes called ‘double cropping’ land because it is supposed to grow two crops a year. Allotments are very seldom to be found on double-cropping land; they are almost always on land no one else wants.

However, by spending money on manure, fertiliser and lime, allotment holders transform their plots into double-cropping land.

Over-wintered broad beans are an essential part of my double-cropping. These are now over and have been pulled up through the holes in the black plastic mulch that has kept them weed-free since the autumn and consigned to the compost pit. A tottering 2m pile of rotting vegetation stands over the 1m deep pit – all will rot down to fill the pit with rich compost by September.

Through the black plastic, plants of winter squash are set out using a bulb-planter to plant each transplant raised in a 5cm degradable pots. The soil is firmed round the pot and it is puddled in with several soaking of liquid fertiliser solution. It is a little on the late side to be setting out squash plants but the plants are strong, there is little damage to the roots by this method of transplanting and liquid fertiliser will get them off to a good start. Some nitrogen will remain from the beans and some of the preceding potatoes’ heavy manuring and feeding will also remain. I have high hopes.

The over-wintered ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ peas are long-gone now and their place taken by a row of ‘Crown Prince’ squashes, and the subsequent March-sown ‘Misty’ has given three pickings and is now consigned to the compost. ‘Misty’ might not be the heaviest cropping pea but by sowing two packets I have had a good crop of very tasty peas and it has proved impressively tolerant of wet soil and rain. In its place has been sown a row of runner beans ‘Polestar’ for the simple reason that deer ate the first sowing of ‘Enorma’ and ‘Polestar’ was one of the few packets left in Wisley plant centre.

More opportunities for double-cropping are imminent; garlic and shallots are drying off and will soon be ready to lift, a succession of broad beans and peas are scheduled to be harvested before August and the early potatoes will all be gone by mid July.

Waiting in the standing area are celltrays of leeks, basil, coriander, parsley and other herbs. More biodegradable pots have been sown with courgettes and cucumbers, while celltrays have been sown with Florence fennel, calabrese, cauliflowers, Chinese cabbage, kohl rabi and lettuces. Packets of beetroot, French beans, dwarf runner beans, radish, rocket, turnips and finger carrots have been held back for the double cropping areas. All these should go in before mid-July to get a double crop for the autumn.

Up to date & happy

2008-06-24T11:05:00Z

Despite some other commitments this weekend, I've managed to catch up with my backlog of veg jobs.

I picked the last crop from the broad beans that had been inhabiting the growing frame at home (that's where they were overwintered) and then cut down and pulled up the plants - stripping off all the nitrogen-rich root nodules and digging them back into the soil. This left space for the melons. I planted out three of these and then had a blinding flash of inspiration; they grow as ground cover so there's plenty of vertical room for more peppers. Eight plants have gone in and the warmth and light should ensure a good crop.

Visible Means of Support ...

2008-06-20T15:33:00Z

Planting out French beans on the 3x3 plot today in a fairly strong wind on our open site brought home forcibly the need for good, strong supporting frames for climbing veg to grow over. The beans - a type of borlotti bean to supply beautiful red-splashed pods for eating as well as beans for drying - will grow up hazel poles with brash (branchy material from birch and beech mostly) from the woodland here at Harlow Carr. Hazel pole bean tunnels have peas and runner beans rambling over them.

Last plantings

2008-06-17T17:24:00Z

Planting-out is nearly done with celery, celeriac and tomatoes going out last night. This followed planting of summer and early autumn cabbages, cauliflowers and calabrese as an intercrop in between where the winter cabbages, sprouting broccoli and kales will be planted at the end of the month. The cool, moist weather is helping plants get going.

True, leeks and some cabbages, cauliflowers and broccoli remain, but these are easy to plant in comparison.