Kitchen Garden Magazine

Tuesday 13th May 2008

There has been a slight hiccup as the ‘Hispi’ cabbages Sue (my missus) sowed 10 days or so ago in cell trays in the greenhouse ‘cooked’ in the hot sun at the weekend. I had taken my eye off the ball and went out walking with the family at Dovedale, near Derbyshire on Sunday – a glorious day that we and the two dogs really enjoyed.

Back on the plot and the gooseberries and blackcurrants seemed to have become infested with greenfly overnight. Nothing for it I’m afraid but to blitz them with bifenthrin! Sorry, but when the chips are down I can’t stand by and watch as my crops are decimated. It did the trick, too. Next day the plants were clean of live bugs.
The little apple trees ‘Herefordshire Russet’ and  ‘Scrumptious’ planted last winter are full of blossom and although I shouldn’t really let them set fruit this year I know I won’t be able to resist it. The ‘Conference’ pear  fan, which has been in for a good three or four years now seems to have set lots of fruit, although there is still lots of time for many of the little fruitlets to drop.

Spent ages getting ground elder out of the flower borders at the weekend, having neglected them last year as there were so many other things to do. There is something really therapeutic about weeding – although my back didn’t enjoy the experience much.
Took some time to top up the mulch of well-rotted compost around the fruit and a lovely Rheum ‘Atrosanguineum’ that we have in the garden to conserve the moisture. OK it’s not veg, but it is related to the rhubarb!

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Friday 9th May 2008

Went to dig up the asparagus and lo and behold it is shooting! Despite the lack of space for other things I don’t have the heart to dig it up. Wonder if you can grow sweetcorn and cabbages on a windowsill?

Planted cell-raised rainbow chard and flat-leaf parsley in odd gaps – some of the chard was requisitioned by my better half for the ornamental borders.
Sowed sweetcorn ‘Northern Extra Sweet’, two lots of dwarf French beans ‘Purple Teepee’ (purple podded) and ‘Opera’ and ‘White Lady’ Runner beans – all in Rootrainers to give them a good start. I’m also trying some yellow-podded climbing French beans – ‘Cocornetti Meraviglia Di Venezia’ from Seeds Of Italy, but need some longer labels in order to fit the name on!

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Monday 5th May 2008

Oops! I left the peas I planted this week overnight without protecting them from the pigeons that roost all around my plot in some big ash trees. Needless to say by the time I got to look at them again the following evening they have been pecked to bits; only the ones buried deep inside the forest of peas sticks survived unscathed. Some low-tech, but very effective white carrier bags on canes, tied so that the wind blows them out like balloons did the trick.

This weekend I’ll be planting the last of my maincrop spuds ‘Sarpo Mira’ and digging up my asparagus bed – planted last year and completely decimated by slugs and the very wet weather. This will make room for some more brassicas as the cauliflowers sown at the beginning of April are overdue for planting and I want to sow another batch of ‘Hispi’ cabbage, but am starting to run out of space already!

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Thursday 1st May 2008

The KG plot is filling fast and this week has been a race to clear beds of the remnants of winter veg and to get them ready to take the young plants from sowings made in March, currently outgrowing their welcome in the greenhouse.

We've also been busy sowing tender crops such as courgettes, squashes and sweetcorn for planting out once the frosts are over, which here in the East Midlands is at the end of May/beginning of June.

The first of the early peas ('Twinkle') have been planted among a forest of pea sticks. These have been recycled from a young birch tree that blew over in a storm during the winter in my garden and although I was very disappointed at the time, they were a blessing when it came to planting the peas out this week. After only a few days, the tendrils had already started get a grip on their new supports.
Despite saying that we wouldn't sow more peppers and aubergines than we need to grow on the plot and in the greenhouse, there were dozens in cell trays that needed potting up this week. However, space and the price of compost dictates that we had to be hard-hearted and I've only potted on as many as I can use although the rest should be easy enough to give away to gardening friends.

Something has been eating my seedlings. I'm not sure what it is – slug pellets have kept those particular culprits at bay so far, but despite netting and keeping a careful watch, half a row of beetroot 'Boltardy' seedlings have disappeared. Since the 'Burpee's Golden' never even put in an appearance (there were only a few in the packet anyway) its left to the 'Chioggia' to keep the early sowing alive.
We've been making great use of old seeds such as beetroot, chard and radicchio left over from a few seasons ago to fill trays in the new PatioGro for use as salad leaves and radishes sown in a container back in March and grown on in the polytunnel are really delicious now. Better get some more in the ground. No peace for the wicked!

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Monday, 7th April 2008

What a changeable few weeks it has been. The trick over the past month or so has been to get as much done as possible during the short, sunny interludes between the showers of rain, hail, snow – or all three!

Seeds sown direct into the plot on a lovely warm day a fortnight ago are still nowhere to be seen – except for my parsnips, pre-chitted in Tupperware tubs on damp kitchen towel. These brave little seedlings are the only thing to have dared to push their heads above the soil so far – except that is the shallots and garlic. They have managed to survive the attentions of the squirrels to shoot away quite well. Squirrels, I have decided, must have the memory and attention span of a goldfish, since they repeatedly pull out the bulbs only to discover that they don't like the taste and to leave them on the soil, little white roots helplessly blowing in the icy blast. I put them back in and low a and behold the next day they are out again. Perhaps they just enjoy the game. The plastic netting I put over the bed to keep off the birds, just serves to sharpen their teeth.
Yesterday I planted my early spuds enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on my back. By the evening the same bed was covered with a peppering of snow and an icy blast cut through me as I put my tools away for the night.
Things are different in the greenhouse, however. Seeds have come through quickly and some, such as the peppers, aubergines and tomatoes are ready for potting on from their cell trays into small pots.

I prefer to do my sowing in cell trays where possible and a, s soon as the tide turns and the spring finally arrives in earnest there will be cabbages, cauliflowers, kale and young leeks to plant out, making space for sowings of the really tender stuff such as courgettes, cucumbers and squashes

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Monday, 3rd March 2008

I have finally planted my fruit and not a day too soon as the buds were swelling on the heeled in trees and bushes. A few have actually burst on the old gooseberry that I have moved from another part of the garden to my new fruit patch.

Having cut down three old fruit trees, a pear, apple and damson to make room for the KG plot a few years back – real commitment as the apple was a little ‘Egremont Russet’ one of my favourite apples - I scoured the catalogues in the autumn with the intention of replacing them. After much deliberating, I opted for a collection of three apples – one a ‘Herefordshire Russet’ which I had tasted at an apple day held by Ken Muir at Honeypot Farm a few years ago and which has come out top of the taste trials there on several occasions, dwarf cherry ‘Celeste’ and a peach called ‘Avalon Pride’ from Suttons which is said to have great resistance to peach leaf curl.

Up the newly installed post and wire supports, which I can only hope I’ve cemented in well enough to take the weight of the promised fruit, I have two spine-free blackberries, ‘Chester’ and ‘Lock Tay’ (why grow fruit that bites back when there is an alternative) and in another bed two blackcurrants and two very thorny gooseberries (no alternative there), the relocated ‘Invicta’ and ‘Rokula’.

The beds, plus each plant as it went in was treated to a generous helping of homemade compost, a blow to the rat that had set up home in the compost bin, but at least it gave our new puppy – a border terrier/Jack Russell cross some hunting practice, although since the rat was nearly as big as him, I noticed he didn’t try too hard to catch up with it. Mind you I couldn’t move fast enough to catch a cold…half way through all that planting I put my back out – some gardener!
Having got the fruit bug I’m now saving up for some more for the autumn – a plum and a fan or espalier pear and perhaps a few more apples to grow as cordons in front of the greenhouse to cast a bit of shade, should we happen to get any sun this year. Well, we deserve it.

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Friday, 1st February 2008

The onion and shallot sets have arrived and the first of the potatoes are chitting in the greenhouse, but it’s far too cold to be doing very much on the plot at the moment.

As I write the wind is blowing in straight from the Arctic (not as my good friend Geoff Amos used to say, directly from the Urinals), so instead of contemplating work on the open plot, I'm keeping warm by putting a new path in the lawn and finishing off a small patio in front of my greenhouse. Mind you, at every opportunity I do pop into the greenhouse to see if early sowings of onions and peppers have grown since I last looked at them….a whole 10 minutes beforehand!

The new fruit patch is ready for planting and the various bushes and trees ordered in the autumn are heeled in and ready to plant into their permanent positions. Must get them in soon, but the soil is still a little too wet to work, so I'll give it another week I think and then get busy. On the fruit front, some new strawberry runners have arrived from Suttons and potting them into my strawberry pot is at least is one job I can do in the relative warmth of the polytunnel – which surprisingly after all the winds we have had in The Midlands over the past week, is still standing. I'm hoping that the cover will hold out for just one more year before it needs to be replaced, having already given sterling service for the past six years.

Taking of the polytunnel, the rocket I sowed direct into the border soil in the autumn once the tomatoes had been pulled out is growing amazingly well and I have been able to cut several lots to take to the kitchen. In fact the recent cold seems to have persuaded the whitefly that have been plaguing the plants all winter to give up as there seems to be far fewer of them around at the moment and those that are still in evidence are so sluggish with cold that it is an easy job to rub the from the leaves.

Although it is cold as I write this, it has been surprisingly mild for much of the winter and the soil hasn’t actually frozen – not for more than a day or so in any case. That means that for the first time in ages I’ve actually got most of the digging done AND haven't had any worries about lifting the parsnips whenever needed. Should be even better next year – in preparation for laying the path and patio I did my usual trick of ordering enough sand to cover the entire street in paving – most of it ended up on the plot, so the drainage should be near perfect this year. Waste not, want not!

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Wednesday 19th December 2007

The plot looks a bit sad at the moment as another night of frost makes the winter veg shiver, but the weather is nothing as far as my winter cabbages are concerned to the damage the hungry woodpigeons have done in the past few days. I made the mistake of uncovering them to weed and thinking that the plants were large enough to fend for themselves, didn’t worry about putting the netting back. But I’d underestimated just how hungry the birds had become; they have even taken to sitting on top of the sprouts and developing broccoli and nibbling the leaves. All the berries on my large holly tree disappeared much more quickly this year, too. Does all this mean we are in for a hard winter?

With the start of a new season just around the corner, the excitement is building and between the inevitable preparations for the Christmas break, it’s been good to have some simple jobs like tidying the potting shed and cleaning trays to help calm the nerves after yet another hectic shopping trip. Thumbing through seed packets, newly arrived from the seed companies, ads to the excitement. I’ll enjoyed Christmas so much more knowing that rather than fighting my way through the January sales I’d be sowing my onions instead – no contest!

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Tuesday, 6th November 2007

The recent cold snap reminds us all that autumn is well and truly here. I have though, been cheered up by the arrival of the first of my new fruit trees and bushes to be planted in a section of the garden previously used to grow mixed veg.

The arrival of the fruit – a blackcurrant and two blackberries – was heralded by a card that our postman had pushed through the letterbox while I was out a few days ago. It said simply, and with complete honesty, ‘plants dropped over back gate’. The thought of my two small, but expensive blackberries plummeting over our 2m gates conjured up a horrible picture, but thankfully they seem no worse for the experience.

Although autumn is said to be the best time to plant onion sets, shallots and garlic, I always wonder if I should wait until spring. I know the reasons why it should be better to do it now – that the roots establish during the cold months allowing the shoots to get off to an earlier start etc, etc, but I’m not so sure, especially on my less than perfect soil which sits very cold and wet all winter. What do you think? Do your spring planted crops catch up with those planted in the autumn – or is autumn planting essential?

On a recent visit to Garden Organic’s Ryton garden I was taken by head of horticulture and KG contributor, Bob Sherman to see the new biodynamic garden – and very beautiful and impressive it is. I’m still on the fence however about all that stirring of manure, sowing in the morning – or is it the evening and burying of cow’s horns under the compost heap……still I’d like to think I have an open mind about these things – I’ll let the results achieved by Bob and his team persuade me whether it’s the next big thing, or just a bit of muck and magic! Bob will be giving us an update later in the year in KG that should help any sceptics out there, including me, make up their minds.

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Monday, 22 October 2007

Mid October and the first frosts have hit the KG plot. Mad panic as usual to clear out the greenhouse to make room for tender plants and also those sowings of peas and late salads to eat as microgreens (don't do as I do........). Using up lots of spare seeds such as beetroot, lettuce, mixed salad leaves and rocket I've sown them in the polytunnel border having got rid of the aubergine plants and dug in some used potting compost. The seeds came up quickly and there is only a little damping off so far to worry about. Talking of aubergines, these were poor this year; apart from very sparse pollination which led to few fruit, the whitefly have been horrific. Next year I have vowed to get in a supply of predators (encarsia) before things get out of hand both here and among the peppers and toms.

As well as continuing to pick the toms in the polytunnel (the plants have survived the light ground frosts so far) the last of the last of the peppers have been picked in the greenhouse and the plants added to the compost bin. The chili and sweet peppers have done quite well although they are very late to ripen and the plants are smaller than usual.

Outside digging and clearing continues and we've been harvesting cabbages ('Kilaxy'), leeks and a few early heads of broccoli which have popped up. A few weeks ago we sowed a few of the raised beds with winter tares (green manure) to protect the soil from the winter rain and add some nutrients and also humus next spring. These are well through now. Must remember to dig them in before they seed!

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