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Undercover

This season expert gardener and protected growing enthusiast, Sue Stickland will be taking you through the top tasks for the month in the polytunnel and greenhouse. But in this four page special, she begins by explaining why she loves growing her crops under cover so much

If you don’t already possess a greenhouse or polytunnel, I’d like to try and persuade you to get one – I promise it will revolutionise your kitchen gardening.

I was thrown in at the large-scale end of under-cover growing when I was a trainee gardener. One of my jobs was to look after a commercial-sized greenhouse full of tomatoes and chrysanthemums. The agricultural college where I worked had several such glasshouses for different crops, and I very quickly learnt their advantages – not least how blissful they are to work in when it is cold, wet and windy outside!

I saw how the plants thrived too and – as I’m sure that my stern college supervisor won’t be reading this – I can admit that tomatoes and chrysanthemums were not the only crops I grew. I smuggled in all the straggly anaemic vegetable seedlings from my windowsill at home, hid them behind the gaudy blooms in the far corner of the glasshouse, and watched as they became transformed into sturdy green plants.

Large and small

However, you don’t have to go large scale to reap benefits from under-cover growing. Even a small greenhouse or mini-polytunnel can help you grow a much wider range of crops over a longer period. I now have my own small greenhouse at home, and use it mainly for propagating transplants to go outside on the veg plot, but it can accommodate some tender summer crops and winter salads too. This means a lot of juggling with pots and seed trays, but the rewards more than compensate. I’ll be including tips for small greenhouses in the ‘Undercover’ section of KG this year.

A larger polytunnel will allow you to concentrate on cropping many more vegetables inside – not just tender ones that you couldn’t grow otherwise, but early and late sowings of ordinary veg plot crops. Only just over a third of my 4 x12.5m (14 x 42ft) tunnel is used for tender summer vegetables – the rest always contains, or is being prepared for, early spring/late autumn or winter crops. This makes being self-sufficient in a wide choice of vegetables a reality.

Is it more work?

Don’t be put off getting a greenhouse or tunnel because you think it might be ‘too much work’. Plants inside do often need daily attention at certain times of year, and extra watering is inevitable. However, you save time in other ways – by getting better germination (so less repeat sowings), fewer lost plants, and bigger, quicker and more reliable harvests, for example.

Similarly, while it is true that some pest and diseases thrive under cover, others – most notably slugs and tomato blight – are less of a problem. Above all, a greenhouse or tunnel can make veg growing more interesting and fun, and spreads out the so-called ‘work’ throughout the year.

Choosing crops

What you choose to grow will depend on where you live. If a crop struggles on your veg plot in poor summers, then it will almost certainly thrive if transferred to a polytunnel or greenhouse. On my cold north Shropshire hillside, this means growing outdoor varieties of tomatoes and cucumbers, and early varieties of pepper and aubergine inside to get reliable crops. Further south, where some of these don’t need cover, you might give more polytunnel space to exotics such as tomatillos and sweet potatoes, which I only dabble with. In places further north or higher up, a polytunnel might make the difference between getting a good crop of sweetcorn or pumpkins, and not bothering to grow them at all.

To extend the season of other crops, judge sowing and planting times by your outdoor calendar. I reckon these can be roughly a month earlier in spring, and a month later in autumn under cover. For example, I plant early French beans in my tunnel in late April (whereas I have to wait until late May outside), and I plant another inside crop at the end of July. Hence I add to the veg plot harvest at both ends of the summer.

As well as my normal crops for ensuring plentiful supplies to the kitchen, I can never resist trying something new – last year it was yard long beans, this year some enormous mild chillies – and I’ll be tempting you with a few new ideas over the following months.

What about fruit?

More crops need more space, but sometimes just having a larger tunnel doesn’t solve the problem. This is because different plants have different needs: some like it humid, while others like it dry; some need cosseting in winter, while others benefit from being exposed to the cold.

This is particularly true of fruit – and the reason why the Victorians had dedicated houses for vines, peaches, figs and citrus. Accommodating any of these crops in a greenhouse or tunnel where you are also trying to grow vegetables is not easy, but it can be done – and gives delicious rewards.

Luckily for me, our house has an old wooden conservatory on the side – not one of those carpeted and sofa-strewn affairs, but nevertheless a bolt-hole for rained-off picnics. Fruit fits in well with this use and I’m experimenting, and always looking for ideas elsewhere – so watch this under cover space…
 

For much more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

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