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www.kelsey.co.uk Published by: Kelsey Publishing Group, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG Telephone: 01959 541444 Editorial team Gi.ed@kelsey.co.uk www.growitmag.com Editor Benedict Vanheems Sub editor Martin Oldaker Designer Kate Holt www.atgraphicsuk.com Publisher Stephen Curtis Friends and contributors Rebecca Wells, Ann-Marie Powell, Anne Swithinbank, Martyn Cox, Paul Wagland, Steve Bradley, Lucy Halliday, Charles Dowding, Wade Muggleton, Anne McIntyre, Dawn Francis Pester, Dave Hamilton, Terry Beebe, Ann Somerset Miles, Andy Cawthray, Mike Woolnough, Victoria Poolman, Andrew Haynes Advertising Advertisement Manager Simone Daws Telephone 01733 353386 Email gi.adsales@kelsey.co.uk Advertisement Director David Lerpiniere Telephone 01959 543507 Email gi.adsales@kelsey.co.uk Production Manager Natasha Austin Telephone 01733 353386 Email natasha.austin@kelseypb.co.uk Subscriptions Save money by taking out a subscription to Grow it! See offer on page 13. Distribution Problems getting your magazine in the shops? Please contact our distributors, Marketforce, on 0203 1483333, or better still, SUBSCRIBE, you know it makes sense! If you would like to sell Grow it! magazine, or help distribute it in your local area, please call Jerry on 01869 325845 Printing William Gibbons & Sons Limited Willenhall, West Midlands. Kelsey Publishing Group

t this time of year the kitchen garden can seem like it’s in something of a limbo. Springtime’s sowings have come to fruition and many crops will soon begin their inevitable decline. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying armfuls of courgettes, beans, spuds and more. I have managed to keep on top of my courgettes this summer by diligently cutting them while they are still very young, often with their ﬂowers still attached. In this way I’ve been enjoying plenty of good, ﬁrm specimens while avoiding that all-too-familiar sense of being overwhelmed. You know the sort of thing – you turn your back for a few days and a fruit that was lurking under the lush foliage has grown to the size of a rolling pin! Of course, we’ve still got a good few weeks of regular cropping to go. But no matter how regularly we pick, summertime

If you think it’s time to put away the stringline and rake – think again! stalwarts must come to an end, and with the final throes of summer now well underway our thoughts will begin to turn to autumn. With so much coming off the productive plot it is hard to imagine anything but plenty. Sure you may have got your leeks in, and perhaps those parsnips are beginning to fatten up nicely for the first frosts to sweeten their flavour, but what else is happening? The end of summer may not seem like an obvious time to open the seed box, yet this is, in fact, the perfect time to sow many quick growers that will offer a harvest

In this issue...

well before the worst of autumn arrives. And the list of what you can sow now isn’t limited to one or two eccentrics: radishes, spring onions, Chinese cabbage (and lots of other oriental leaves), pea shoots, kohlrabi, turnips... these are just some of the last-minute veg that will thrive as the temperature cools off. Skip to page 74 to ﬁnd out what varieties to pick for a rapid-ﬁre result. This is also the time to sow many over-wintering salads. You’d be surprised how hardy some of these are and, again, there’s plenty to choose from. If you have a polytunnel or greenhouse then all the better, though this is by no means essential. Most of these tough characters will push through the depths of winter with little more than a cloche for protection. Salad expert Charles Dowding demonstrates this perfectly from page 38 with his pictures of salads sitting out last winter’s cold, when temperatures plunged to -10°C and below. Expecting a cut of leaves when it’s snowing may be wishful thinking, but you can certainly expect a good take through autumn and again from February. So if you think it’s time to put away the stringline and rake – think again! Make provision for some of the many vegetables and salads that can be sown today and start looking forward to further pickings when everything else is quietening down.

Benedict Vanheems, Editor

Gold Winner, Printing and Publishing, National Green Apple Awards 2006 for Environmental Best Practice by Commerce and Industry.

Grow it! magazine is printed on environmentally accredited paper which is sourced from forests managed in keeping with environmental, economic and social sustainability standards. The paper is bleached without the use of any chlorine chemicals.

Anne Swithinbank Problems sorted, p18

Dave Hamilton Boosting yields, p58

Mike Woolnough Storage solutions, p67

Ann Somerset Miles Potager ideas, p70

Grow it! September 2011

Contents September 2011 REGULARS

READER OFFER !

6 WHAT’S NEW

All the latest from the world of kitchen gardening, including news of a campaign to get amateur gardeners to ditch the peat, a grow-it-yourself app for mobile phones and an RHS warning of a new-to-Britain caterpillar

Enjoy tasty savings on soft fruit, p42

8 YOUR SAY

What have you been up to over the past month? Some readers share their growing tips, successes and conundrums

10 GROWER’S DIARY

Steady rains interspersed with ﬁne, warm weather make for rapid growth down on Rebecca Wells’ allotments. But were there any tomatoes for Midsummer’s Day?

70 54

13 SUBSCRIBE!

Subscribe to Grow it! and never miss an issue of your favourite magazine

18 ASK ANNE

Put your horticultural quandaries to Gardeners’ Question Time’s Anne Swithinbank. This month Anne’s dealing with blackﬂy-infested broad beans, fruitless pears and bolting coriander, and offering tips on allotment willow, storing shallots and stylish insect houses

26 COMPETITION

On the

COVER

Transform your garden with the WoodBlocX landscaping system. We have a £600 voucher to give away – perfect for putting together a sturdy and durable raised bed

42 READER OFFER

Autumn is the traditional season for planting new fruit introductions. Stock up the garden now with up to 45% off popular currant and berry varieties

78 YOUNG GROWER

Help the little ones save their pocket money. Victoria Poolman shows budding green ﬁngers how to go about collecting, drying and storing their own seeds from this year’s crops

82 NOTES FROM THE POTTING SHED

Diversity is the key to resilience in the face of ever-increasing threats to established growing patterns. Head gardener Andrew Haynes makes the case for the bold and beautiful Japanese burdock and other unusual cropping choices

FEATURES

14 DATE AT THE PALACE

Of all the summer’s gardening shows, it is the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show that offers the richest pickings for kitchen

September 2011 Grow it!

62 gardeners and allotmenteers. Ann-Marie Powell reviews the best gardens and most inspiring ideas from this July’s show

38 HARDY HEROES

On the Salad leaves aren’t just for summer, COVER they make surprisingly hardy and longcropping winter stalwarts too. Salad guru uru Charles Dowding explains what to grow and how to get the very best results

43 HEALING HERBS

Don’t fork out on expensive remedies – just grow your own instead! Anne McIntyre outlines some simple recipes, including an obesity-ﬁghting salad, cholesterol-quashing oil and an invigorating footbath

46 SPRING AHEAD

Sow spring onions today for a reliable overwintering crop. With a little protection and weeding you

On the

COVER

could be enjoying stems as soon as March, as Wade Muggleton explains

50 TARMAC TO TATERS

He’s won numerous Gold Medals at Chelsea and other ﬂower shows for his pristine vegetables displayed with astonishing attention to detail. Dawn Francis Pester meets king of exhibitors Medwyn Williams

54 FABULOUS FIGS

The iconic ﬁg is the last word in luxury. Lucy Halliday reviews its cultivation requirements and how you too can enjoy a bumper crop of these soft, ﬂavoursome fruits

The Practical team September

14 PAGES

OF SEASONAL ADVICE, TOP TIPS AND EXPERT KNOW-HOW

Every issue our team of regular experts reveals the main jobs for the month along with bags of ideas

On the

COVER

On the

The frui Th fruit grower p23

The city grower p27

Discover the superiority of home-grown gooseberries. Benedict Vanheems looks at the best varieties and how to grow them

The wind-down of the growing season can herald something new. Martyn Cox starts a compost heap and sows some rocket

The organic allotmenteer p31

It’s time to whip your allotment shed into shape. Paul Wagland offers tips on getting organised and keeping tools in top nick

The under cover grower p34 Looking to grow something in the greenhouse once the tomatoes are done? Steve Bradley shares some ideas to keep you busy

The BEST VALUE kitchen garden

58 SECOND HELPINGS

Get the most from existing crops by making them work harder for their keep. Dave Hamilton reveals how some common staples will give two crops for the effort of one!

62 PRACTICAL PROJECT

the Green roofs have really started to COVER gain in popularity over recent years: they look great and make a signiﬁcant nt contribution to local wildlife. In this month’s practical project Andy Cawthray shows us how to make one from scratch

64 MITEY EFFECTIVE?

Red mites can ravage the domestic hen house, so it’s important to know what to do about them. Pre-arm yourself with Bob Cross’ guide to identiﬁcation, prevention and cure

67 LARDER OF LIFE

On the

Being able to safely store your harvests COVER or transform them into something that will last is key to maximising productivity. y. Mike Woolnough reviews storage and preservation equipment

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SOWING quick-growing veg 7toquic start s off TODAY

Spring onions

70 GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT T

How to grow them and what to sow now

On the If you’re kitchen gardening in a restricted plot you want a space that’s COVER both productive and beautiful. Potagerss combining veg, herbs, fruits and ﬂowers are the answer, as Ann Somerset Miles explains

74 LAST ORDERS

The garden doesn’t have to wind down to winter. September’s the perfect month for sowing many quick-growers, including turnips, pea shoots, kohlrabi and Chinese cabbage

BE INSPIRED!

On the

COVER

Weekend projects

Winter wonders

✦ Make a fruit store s ✦ Set up a green roof ✦ Plant a peach tree ✦ Easy bug homes

Salad expert Charles Dowding on how to raise winter salads

! Harvest storage ! Design a potager

SEPTEMBER 2011 £3.60

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! Gooseberries

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Don't miss an issue of your favourite magazine! Turn to page 13 now Grow it! September 2011

What's new Send your news stories to gi.ed@kelsey.co.uk

Peat bogs are invaluable habitats

Fruitful trip

A Somerset garden centre is holding a special fruit lovers’ weekend to celebrate the diversity of fruits available to British gardeners. Sanders Garden World’s ‘Juicy Fruits Weekend’ will be held on 17-18 September with free advice dispensed on choosing the right variety, pruning and how to avoid pests and diseases. Samples of local jam, fruit wines and cider will be on offer. For more details visit www.sandersgarden world.co.uk or call 01278 761111.

Edible Garden Show

Are you living the good lie? Every year the equivalent of more than 24 million wheelbarrows of endangered peat is used unnecessarily by UK gardeners. This is just one of the shocking ﬁndings from new research carried out by gardening charity Garden Organic. The research reveals how, in their quest to live the good life, many gardeners are actually living what the charity has coined the ‘good lie’. In other words, in striving to be self-sufﬁcient, they’re inadvertently doing more harm than good. Of the peat used, amateur gardeners are responsible for using two-thirds of it, largely in the form of multipurpose compost. However, in extracting peat from its natural home its ability to store four times as much carbon as forests is lost, while the habitat of rare wildlife is destroyed. As a result, all but a tiny proportion of the country’s natural peatlands have been wiped out. To highlight the problem Garden Organic surveyed garden owners about their gardening habits and motivations. A surprising 68% 6

September 2011 Grow it!

grow vegetables, while a third of respondents are motivated to attract wildlife and be more environmentally friendly. However, when it comes to buying products it seems that low prices win over ‘eco’ concerns, with around three times as many choosing multipurpose peat-based composts over peat-free alternatives. The release of the research coincides with the launch of Garden Organic’s ‘I Don’t Dig Peat’ campaign, which calls on gardeners to make the ‘Peat-Free Promise’ and stop using peat products. Gardeners can make the promise via a dedicated website, where information on how to garden without peat can be accessed. Charity spokesman Bob Sherman adds: “It’s fantastic that more people feel inspired to garden, but people need to give more thought to the wider impact of their buying decisions. The sheer amount of peat being used is unsustainable and unnecessary.” More information on the I Don’t Dig Peat campaign may be found at www.idontdigpeat.org.uk

After its debut in March, The Edible Garden Show promises to be bigger and better for its return next spring. The show is expanding to include an additional exhibition hall, larger animal marquee and food areas. Returning to Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire on March 16-18, the event brings together key experts and a wide range of exhibitors to create a one-stop shop for kitchen gardeners. Along with daily talks from the likes of TV gardener James Wong, the 2012 show will include its usual mix of bees, chickens, goats and pigs to seeds, sheds, Wellies and wormeries. There will be advice on digging for the dinner plate and inspirational ways to recycle household items, such as transforming old newspapers into biodegradable pots for seedlings and turning waste into compost. Demonstrations in the cookery theatre will offer up ideas on how to make the most of your harvest. For further full details visit www.theediblegardenshow.co.uk or call the ticket hotline on 0844 3388001.

Celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin and Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Jim Paice open this year’s Edible Garden Show

Out of the box The Royal Horticultural Society is calling on gardeners to help it map the whereabouts of box tree caterpillar (Cydalima perspectalis, pictured). The native of East Asia eats the leaves of box plants (Buxus species) and has been reported for the ﬁrst time in British private gardens. “Box plants can be totally defoliated by this moth’s caterpillars. This is yet another problem for box, which is already suffering from diseases such as box blight,” says Dr Andrew Salisbury, RHS senior entomologist. “It is important for us to monitor this caterpillar’s movement. Knowing how

quickly it is spreading and what plants it has been found on could help us develop ways of managing it.” The RHS is asking gardeners who ﬁnd this pest to let it know by sending samples or photographs to Entomology, RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB or sending images to advisory_entomology@rhs. org.uk. Box is not usually damaged by other caterpillars, so extensive defoliation and webbing on this plant is likely to be due to the caterpillar.

Appy days Environmental charity BTCV has launched a free mobile app dedicated to the grow-it-yourself movement. The ‘Get Growing’ app features a one-touch calculator that allows users to enter their garden, balcony or plot size to ﬁnd out exactly how much food they could grow. It also tells potential growers how much money they could save on supermarket purchases and how many food miles they could avoid. The app is available free through App Store.

VOLUNTEERS MAP LAUNCHED The RHS has launched the ﬁrst-ever webpage for those looking to get involved in community gardening activities. The site, at www.rhs.org.uk/ getinvolved features a map showing volunteering opportunities around the country. Nearly 15,000 groups

Cool customers

involved in RHS Britain in Bloom, RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood and the RHS Campaign for School Gardening are included. The site enables individuals to directly email whichever group they would like more information from and with which they may wish to volunteer.

Kitchen garden supplier DT Brown has launched two new collections of wintercropping vegetable plants. The ﬁrst is a polytunnel brassica collection that’s been trialled to survive harsh winters. The Tunnel and Greenhouse Winter Collection comprises calabrese ‘Aquiles F1’, cabbage ‘Spring Hero F1’, cauliﬂower ‘Mystique F1’ and cabbage ‘Excel F1’ (pictured). Plants should start cropping from March. A pack of 15 plants of any of the four varieties costs £5.95, while a pack of 10 of each is being offered for £10.90.

Glass act

A school in Windsor, Berkshire, has won a state-of-the-art patio glasshouse as part of a prize draw. St Edward’s Royal Free Ecumenical Middle School, along with thousands of others, took part in the Royal Horticultural Society’s annual ‘Get your Grown-ups Growing’ event. All participants were entered into the prize draw to win a £900 Hartley Botanic glasshouse. The Get Your Grown-ups Growing event forms part of the charity’s wider Campaign for School Gardening, which encourages schools to create gardens, teach the skills of growing and in turn enable their pupils to learn outside the classroom. Amanda Bird, assistant head teacher, explains: “Our school is fanatical about gardening and by joining the RHS campaign it has helped us to harness our love of growing. This new glasshouse will mean that even more of our pupils will be able to get growing.” The RHS Campaign for School Gardening was launched in 2007 and now has more than 13,500 schools signed up, with more than three million children beneﬁting. For more information on the campaign visit www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening

The company is also offer a Lettuce Collection, which includes ‘Winter Gem’, ‘Valdor’, ‘Winter Density’ and ‘Navara’, a dark red oak-leaf variety. All four varieties can be grown in a polytunnel or greenhouse or outdoors in the open, where ‘Valdor’ will benefit from some fleece protection. Twenty plants of any lettuce or five plants of each variety costs £5.95, while 10 plants of each cost £9.90, saving £2. Plants are despatched from mid September onwards. For more details or to request a free catalogue visit www. dtbrownseeds.co.uk or call 0845 3710532. Grow it! September 2011

Your say Write to us, with a picture if possible, at Grow it!, Kelsey Publishing, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG. Alternatively email: gi.ed@kelsey.co.uk

✪

STAR LETTER

Bee inspired It was ‘plot day’ but due to thunder, lightening, rain and hail of biblical proportions I was imprisoned! Then I heard the welcome sound of the latest issue of Grow it! dropping through my letterbox. I settled down for a good read and my eyes alighted on the Organic Allotmenteer’s ‘a home for bees’ (see August issue, page 33). What a simple idea – only minutes to take but, looking at the sky, I had hours to spare. So I braved the rain and grabbed two terracotta pots from my garden shed. I pulled out a cupboard and found my acrylic paints and, after a couple of hours, I had a pair of cheerful bumblebee homes. These were given a couple of coats of waterproof varnish and the drainage holes plugged with netting pegs. I positioned them along the edge of my compost bins where I have had bumblebee nests in the past. All I have to do now is wait patiently for my ﬁrst tenants. Thank you Grow it! for inspiring me. V Brown, Liverpool

✪

This month’s star letter wins a strawberry tub from Two Wests and Elliott.

Drop us a line and share your growing stories, advice, questions and opinions

Get a grip

We have been using orchid clips for the past few years to train climbing beans and peas. They are easy to use, as the clips can be attached or removed with one hand leaving the other free to support the plant material (unlike plant rings that can be a little bit ﬁddly). The clips do not damage the foliage and can be removed very quickly as they are sprung loaded. They can be used time and again. Orchid clips are available from some orchid suppliers on the web. They may be a little more expensive than other plant rings or ties but they have now become our much preferred method, gripping both cane and plant material with ease. We hope other vegetable growers may also ﬁnd these wonderful clips as useful and time saving as we do. M and B Le Masurier, Jersey

Editor replies:

I love this idea – kitchen gardeners really are the most creative bunch! Please keep your tips coming.

Editor replies: What a stunning result! I’m sure it will be no

time at all before your colourful bee houses are a buzz of activity!

Liquid asset I’ve been an allotment gardener for many years and have used comfrey all this time. I have a big patch of it in a corner of one of my three plots, so I was interested to see your method for making comfrey feed (see ‘Home feed’, August issue, page 62). I have a number of containers (baths and barrels) which all have weighted down string bags full of comfrey leaves so that when the plants get watered they get fed too. Another method I use in my greenhouse involves a 23cm (9in), comfrey-ﬁlled 8

September 2011 Grow it!

drainpipe hung from the side of the greenhouse. The pipe has a grill at its base to stop leaves falling through. Under the pipe sits a bucket, while the leaves are pushed down from the top by a weighted bottle. At intervals I add water to the pipe so that as the leaves rot the bottle sinks down. I can then reﬁll the pipe with fresh leaves from the top. I’ve also got a kitchen garden where I use the same method. This year my early ‘Rocket’ potatoes have been the best ever. M Tillery, Shefﬁeld

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Grow it! September 2011

P08-09.indd 15

27/07/2011 12:39

Grower's diary

Growthspurt With long, warm days and steady showers, it’s been the perfect weather for allotment holders. Rebecca Wells tells us what she’s been up to over the past month

hat fantastic growing weather there’s been! Although we have had consistently good weather (indeed the barbeque summer we are so often promised) there has been some heavy and penetrating rain too. The combination of wet and very warm has meant that everything has grown at a terriﬁc pace. In the very dry weather that preceded many plants seemed to have been in a state of suspended animation, as seedlings germinated but then wisely stopped. With the onset of some good rain, however, they took off like rockets. A week later and the allotment was unrecognisable!

a merry hour on my knees working my way down each row to reveal the tomato plants. These too had put on a spurt of growth and needed tying in to their canes. It was altogether a satisfying job because the difference was dramatic. The hens were interested in what I was doing, especially when they realised it meant treats for them. Having grazed down

A word on weeds

Have you noticed that weeds seem to grow faster than anything else? The outdoor tomatoes were almost lost in a sea of fast-growing, lush growth, mainly of members of the thistle family. I spent 10 September 2011 Grow it!

Could these stunning nasturtiums ever be classed as weeds?

Work weeding the tomatoes quickly brings results

much of their run they were grateful for some different greens to pick over. As I worked, I mused about the growth rate of weeds and on what constitutes a weed. It is often said that a weed is simply a ‘plant in the wrong place’ and, in some circumstances, that’s true. We’ve all chuckled when we have been at a garden centre and seen a plant for sale which freely self-seeds all over our particular plot. In my case, feverfew, mole spurge and purple toadﬂax pop up all over the place but it’s easy to pull them up where I don’t want them. Likewise, having sown the darkleaved nasturtium ‘Empress of India’ one year and allowed them to go to seed, they pop up where they like. I’d class none as weeds though. It struck me that there is another factor which characterises a weed and that is vigour. They compete with the plants we have sown or planted for water, nutrients

and light and will, if we allow them to remain, overwhelm them. It is their efﬁciency which makes them a danger. Was that the answer, I wondered as I straightened up. The old adage about garden creepy crawlies of ‘fast friend and slow foe’ is exactly the opposite with plants; here we could say: ‘if it grows with speed, it’s probably a weed’.

First tomatoes

In the last issue I wondered whether we would be eating our own tomatoes on Midsummer’s Day. I can announce (cue the fanfare) that we were. Hurrah! Once again, it was the variety ‘Stupice’ that came up trumps. This tomato hails from the Czech Republic and, like many from places where the summers are short, is early to ripen. It’s always our ﬁrst and produces a ﬂavoursome and juicy fruit. I grow it outside as a cordon and, despite the fact that it went in later than the greenhouse varieties and has had no watering, it has produced ripe fruit before all the others (including the pampered greenhouse plants). ‘Stupice’ was closely followed by ‘Orange Pixie’, ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and ‘Tigerella’. All are delicious. Other harvests are well under way. We have been picking raspberries since the end of May. Instead of cutting my autumn fruiting raspberries to the ground in March, I leave last year’s canes which then bear fruit at least two weeks before the summer-fruiting varieties begin. They are still fruiting but just going over as I write (in early July), but soon I shall cut out the tired old growth. The new canes, which will bear fruit this autumn, are already strong and green. Meanwhile my summer raspberries (‘Glen Ample’ and ‘Leo’) are producing a good harvest with picking becoming a daily task. What isn’t eaten fresh is packed into containers and frozen, ready to be converted into delicious puddings to cheer us in winter. The loganberry, too, is heavy with fruit and we have been picking that for over three weeks, with most of the berries frozen. It is as well that, despite the challenge of the dry weather, the plot gives us some abundance. The hens are particularly partial to loganberries so I save the poorer ones which I throw, three at a time to be fair, into the run where they are gobbled up with much clucking. Normally I have enough redcurrants

Above: Old and new canes on the autumn raspberries Left: The ﬁrst tomato – hurrah!

to freeze, too, but this year I regret to say that I’ve had very few. I grow my plants as cordons in a row along one of the paths and as usual the plants were tantalisingly full of berries. They disappeared, however, just as they were ripening. If the startled blackbird which ﬂew away as I approached is a clue, I know who to blame for my poor harvest. I have never had to net any of my berries and this is the ﬁrst year I have had any trouble. So how do I protect them? I actively encourage birds onto the plot with nuts in winter. I hope that, while queuing up for the feeder, they will also eat any overwintering aphids. I love blackbirds and, in fact, the song of a blackbird would be one of my Desert Island Discs. (By the way, if you have a last-minute

Once again, it was the variety ‘Stupice’ that came up trumps... It's always our ﬁrst and produces a ﬂavoursome and juicy fruit

cancellation, Kirsty, I have my discs, book and my luxury sorted out. Just give me a call!). There’s not enough room for a fruit cage because they are so close to the path and I’m loath to use a net because, in the past a bird got caught in it and died. I had a light-bulb moment and visited a car boot sale where I hit lucky with a bin bag full of net curtains. I can sew them together and throw them over the row in good time next year. Luckily for me, the blackbird left all the white currants, which are delicious.

Problem pigeons

Pigeons have already been a nuisance on the field. I sowed a couple of rows of brassicas early in June and chose a ‘leaf’ day in the moon gardening calendar to do so. Germination was excellent and I had visions of being able to provide both us and the hens with regular meals of healthy greens. Alas, one morning I saw that the luscious first seed leaves had been neatly eaten. Not slugs, I think, but pigeons. They have been nibbling at other people’s brassicas where they can. My larger plants are under fine netting which protects them from cabbage white butterflies. I have used a chest-high framework so the plants are protected no matter how tall they grow. Other people Grow it! September 2011 11

Grower's diary

Rebecca's tips ✓ There may still

Sunﬂower ‘Moulin Rouge’ is a handsome beast

have, alas, used much lower netting so that those plants growing through are shredded by pigeons. Luckily for me Mr and Mrs Tucker sell their young plants at £1 a bundle down at the cattle market and I was able to make up for my loss. Mrs Tucker apologised for the small range of varieties explaining that the dry weather had killed the first two sowings they’d made. On the scale they are working on, it was impossible to irrigate and they had lost several thousand pounds’ worth of young plants. That put my troubles into perspective! I was astonished at the audacity of another bird this month. I collected the eggs from the hen house and put the container on top of the run while I went to replenish the feed container. I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see a huge herring gull on top of the run with a whole egg in its mouth. It fixed me with its yellow eye and stared boldly as if to say ‘Oh yeah? Going to try to stop me, eh?’ before calmly flying off, still with the egg in its mouth. I’m a paid-up member of the RSPB but, if this sort of behaviour carries on, I shall think about resigning! My field neighbour, John, has various bird-scarers around his plot. Several CDs hang, flashing, from an old bicycle wheel and dented aluminium camping plates clank against metal poles. This year he has added a network of fine fishing line over his brassicas which, he says, spook the pigeons as they try to land. He’s pleased 12 September 2011 Grow it!

with the way it’s worked but says there’s no substitute for netting.

be time to sow a row of French beans and perhaps some mangetout peas to extend the season, so get them in quickly. ✓ Keep picking beans, courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes in order to keep up production. If you are going on holiday, make sure that you ask the kind friends watering your plants to pick for you as their reward. ✓ Keep on top of the weeding and general tidying. ✓ Support plants which are heavy with fruit, especially pumpkins. ✓ Sow winter lettuce to go into spaces as they are created in the greenhouse.

over their supports. Pumpkins are greedy for space and I have trained a couple over Our orchard plot is yet again going to our metal pergola and another so that it give us a good harvest. This year looks rambles over the top of the hen run. The set to produce many more pears than white snapdragons and Chelsea-featured previous. The saying is you ‘plant pears Orlaya grandiflora are ready for cutting, for your heirs’, which is an indication of as are the moodily-coloured, multithe time it takes for the young trees to headed ‘Moulin Rouge’ sunflowers along come into fruit. We have a ‘Conference’ the track. The sweet peas are so prolific and a ‘Comice’ pear and the orchard is that it is difficult to keep up with the now about ten years old. Whereas the picking but a huge joy to be able to give apples started to give us fruit in their bunches away regularly. third year, we have had only one or two With all this plenty, however, it’s easy pears each year so to lose momentum and far. Both trees are forget to keep up with the full of fruit this year, sowing. The raised salad which is exciting. beds at the bottom of the Also exciting is garden continue to provide that the two young tasty leaves for the table ‘Spartan’ trees, and, as fast as space is planted in autumn cleared when one crop goes 2009 and with all over, I sow another. Rows of the fruit picked off young leeks, Swiss chard, as soon as it formed beetroot and spring onions last year, have a are shoehorned in so that we good crop for us keep the production steady. this year. ‘Spartan’ is The leeks and white and pink husband Andrew’s chard are destined to go to favourite apple, so the allotment where I can he’s looking forward give them the room they will to tasting our own. eventually need. With a week Our pumpkin of showers and sunny spells plants are forming forecast, it won’t be long tiny fruits and before I am again on my beginning to knees down at the allotment, Tiny fruits on the ‘Potimarron’ pumpkin will rapidly swell scramble up and pricking them out.

On the orchard plot

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28/07/2011 09:35

SHOW REVIEW Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011

Now in its 22nd summer, the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show covers 34 acres with ideas and inspiration around every corner. Ann-Marie Powell went along to take a look

Date at the palace T

he Hampton Court Palace Flower Show continues to offer plenty of ideas for enthusiastic gardeners, with more than enough to interest those looking to grow their own or seeking new ways of doing so. This year’s show featured more edibles than ever. Heartening for kitchen gardeners, the largest exhibit at the show was the extraordinary Royal Horticultural Society’s Edible Garden, which covered a spacious half acre. Designed by John Wheatley and Anita Foy it comprised a series of sections including an orchard, a vineyard and lavender grove, a natural pond and foraging area, bee hives, plus a more formal space packed full of fruit, veg and edible ﬂowers – truly a celebration of plot to plate!

Big ambitions

Traditional allotment growers were treated to pristine ranks of towering kale, luscious lettuce, leeks and other staples in the Edible Garden. But any display demonstrating growing food on such a scale wouldn’t be complete without a few giant vegetables, including some truly supersized specimens of cabbage ‘Robinsons Giant’. Each head of this whopper would be enough to feed several small armies! 14 September 2011 Grow it!

Food for free

Safely foraged hedgerow treats can help your home-grown food go further. Alive with wildlife, the ‘Food for Free’ area of the RHS Edible Garden was a naturally inspired larder where the adventurous could learn more about the host of wild plants, including hawthorn, hazel, elderﬂower, brambles and even nettles that can be foraged.

×Pungent display

A visit to the Grow Your Own Marquee is the highlight of any visit to the ﬂower show, playing host to some of the best nurseries in the country. The Gold Medal-winning ‘Garlic Plaiters’ Cottage Garden’ by the Garlic Farm (01983 865378, www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk) paid homage to all things garlic. It included a decorative roof of the pungent bulbs and a surrounding garden to suit those who love all things garlic – elephant garlic, Babbington’s leek and new varieties of Sicilian and Romanian garlic were all on show here. It’s no surprise they won the prize for Best Grown Your Own exhibit.

Love those leaves! Peter and Yvonne Holden’s exhibit for Rebekah’s Vegetable

Seed ((01282 690518, www.rebekahsveg.talktalk.net) formed a sea of green in the Grow Your Own Marquee with vegetables, salads and mints grown in pots. The in-the-round display was helpfully split into sections of pak choi, lettuce, Asian and Western salad mixes, mustards and salad enhancers such as Chinese celery. In this way varieties could be compared side by side. All the pots were sown just three weeks before the show, illustrating how some veg can be grown with minimal effort, in minimal space – and in double-quick time! Exciting new bean ‘Starbright’ was the centerpiece of the exhibit; an attractive gold-leaved runner that can be sown late into the season and cropped well into October.

On the grapevine

With its linear rows of semi-mature vines, the vineyard in the Edible Garden (along with the adjacent olive and lavender grove) was a nod towards the increasing spread of vineyards in the UK due to climate change. The vines were interspersed with wildﬂowers and planted with roses, demonstrating the traditional pairing of vines with roses to provide an early warning system for disease.

Seed spectacular

Established in 1806, Suttons Seeds’ (0844 9220606, www.suttons.co.uk) vegetable garden was crammed full, demonstrating perfectly how vegetables can be grown in the smallest of spaces. Chillies and tomatoes romped up arch supports, erupting from a bountiful display of artichokes, cabbages, beetroot and beans, lifted here and there with Suttons’ new dwarf sunﬂower ‘Waooh’.

We loved... It’s a bug’s life: Insect houses can be as striking as you like. This one in the ‘Wild in the City’ garden even featured a green roof!

îVeggie heirlooms

Pennard Plants’ (01749 860039, www.pennardplants.com) stand always hosts a fine display of vegetables and this year their exhibit, called ‘Dig for Victory’, was no different. A solidly built greenhouse at the heart of their exhibit was surrounded by their ‘Growing Old’ range of heritage and heirloom vegetables and old-fashioned flowers. Eye-catching extras included Mexican tree spinach and a handsome red-leaved amaranth, both of which would look as at home in the decorative border as the vegetable garden. One great tip to take from the stand was the technique of growing hyssop with cabbages; hyssop helps to repel cabbage white butterflies from brassicas. Grow it! September 2011 15

SHOW REVIEW Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011 îMake do and mend

Laid bare

Cyberspace ﬂoating, containerised plants in ‘The Naked Garden’ included tomatoes, aubergines and lettuce – as you’ve never seen them before! The laid bare plants were grown by scientists directly in water, allowing the full structure of the plants and their roots to be appreciated. This soilless technique, known as hydroponics, replaces the nutrients normally found in soil by carefully adding a measured dose to the water. In this case the water was kept at a temperature below 30°C and enriched with oxygen.

‘The Home Front’ garden took visitors back to wartime Britain. All the hard landscaping materials used in this vintage-inspired space were recycled; fences were made from palettes and ﬂoors were built in recycled brick and gravel. The Southend Youth Offending Service recreated a pretty, suburban space where, typical of gardens during this time, the lawn had been removed to make way for food; even the roof of the Anderson Shelter had wild food growing on top of it.

×Urban ideal

Full of ideas on how and what to grow in an urban environment, the Deptford Project’s ‘An Urban Harvest’ garden aimed to raise the proﬁle of community-based food projects in London boroughs. It also hoped to encourage more Londoners to take the plunge and grow their own, thereby reducing food transport into the Capital. Apples, elder and a hedge of gooseberries and strawberries screened a private seating area accessed by way of a scented, herb-lined path. It was certainly an inspiring, colourful and productive space.

Winning potential

A modern twist on the cottage garden, small show garden ‘The Potential Feast’was an edible garden designed for a young couple to grow, harvest and crop their own delicious produce. Crimson broad beans with an intense perfume, combined with ‘Bull’s Blood’ beetroot, cabbage and lettuce effortlessly mixed with ornamental sage and lavender. Salads and herbs grew in wall-mounted planters as pictures – an ingenious idea that looked superb. I also loved the quirky chives planted in bamboo poles leaping out of the borders, though I’m not sure how long they’d last! 16 September 2011 Grow it!

Pressing for apples

We loved...

Since 1972 the area devoted to apple orchards in Britain has shrunk from 55,000 to just 4,886 acres. The ‘Copella Plant and Protect Garden’ highlighted the urgent need for more orchards to be planted by representing the cycle of life and regeneration of an apple orchard. It was a calm space, with apples ‘James Grieve’ and ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ enclosed by a native hedge and a soothing froth of ﬂowers to give a quintessentially British feel, buzzing with wildlife and insects.

In the gutter: Old lengths of guttering make fantastic pea plant nurseries. Simply slide the young plants into prepared trenches.

×Secret underworld

Cropping courtyard

Packed full of clever food-growing ideas for a tiny space, every single plant in Burgon & Ball’s 10 square metre-garden was edible. Designers Heather Culpan and Nicola Reed made use of the roof, stairs, walls and table in the garden to maximise the total growing area. Incredibly, more than 50 different plant varieties were squeezed in, including a ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ apple, herbs, potatoes, ‘Peregrine’ peach and pepper ‘California Wonder’. Crops were grown using the ‘deep bed’ method, which promises four times the yield by weight of conventional beds. For more information on techniques and plants grown visit www.5adaygarden.co.uk

Dan Lobb’s Best in Category Conceptual Garden was a ﬁrst for Hampton Court. Called ‘Landscape Obscured’, it took the form of an underground landscape of shiitake, oyster, pom pom, shimeji, nameko and eryngii mushrooms. This subterranean otherworld, invisible from above ground, could only be viewed though steel periscopes set around the garden’s perimeter, offering a snatched glimpse of the surreal world below.

Four seasons

Key to Marshalls’ (01480 443390, www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk) Gold Medal-winning stand was their new Gro-Beds. These are suited to both indoor and outdoor use, enabling kitchen gardeners to grow everything from salad leaves to root vegetables year round. The large, collapsible Four Season Gro-Bed is set up by slipping four canes into the sleeves at the top to give the bed rigidity. Once filled with compost you’re ready to grow. The bag includes strong carry handles, so it can be moved in and out of a greenhouse. Measuring 85x54cm (34x22in), six beds will fit neatly into a traditional 8x6ft greenhouse. Start autumn crops outdoors and when your summer grow bag crops are finished, move your Gro-Beds in. Grow it! September 2011 17

Ask Anne

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED Anne Swithinbank, one of Britain’s favourite gardeners and a member of Radio Four’s Gardeners’ Question Time panel, answers your growing questions.

Family affair Last year we planted two ‘family’ fruit trees on our allotment – one apple and a pear. They blossomed well and set fruit. This summer, however, there are no pears. There were no fruits on the ground, so I presume it can’t have been the June drop. Could it have been a deer or some other problem? P Churchill, Oxfordshire The idea of family trees is to enjoy two, three or even more varieties of one kind of fruit, all on one tree. This is achieved by the careful grafting of the varieties onto one root stock in the nursery. The varieties are chosen to be compatible with each other both in terms of pollination (the flowers need to be open at the same time) and in rate of growth, so that one variety doesn’t triumph over the others and swamp them. You say they flowered and fruited well the first year but did not mention anything about this year’s blossom. Get into the habit of inspecting the trees during

That’s shallot

I have grown quite a sizeable crop of shallots. They are looking healthy but have slowed right down, presumably as they are nearing readiness. How should I harvest and keep them to ensure the longest possible storage life? E Hardy, Lancashire

I imagine you wrote this back in July, as this is more often when shallots slow down and their foliage begins to turn yellow, the sign that they have stopped growing and are ready to harvest. Timing is important here as, ideally, you want to lever their roots from the ground with a fork just before a period of dry, sunny weather so they can dry off quickly ready for lifting. This is especially important if, like me, you have white rot in your soil. The longer they sit about in damp soil, the more likely bulbs will be lost to spreading rot. After a few days on the soil surface, gather the clusters of bulbs and place them on a slatted tray propped up in the sun. If the weather changes, whisk them into an airy shed or greenhouse. Eventually, when completely dry, you can separate the bulbs and store them somewhere cool, dry and frost free. I usually hang mine up in nets. Here, they should remain sound right through until next spring, often outlasting onions. 18 September 2011 Grow it!

flowering, then you’ll notice if the flowers opened but were affected by frost or even drought. Pears bloom early in the year and are susceptible to bad weather. Lack of pollinating insects or cold withering flower parts could all conspire against successful pollination and set of fruit. Or perhaps these young plants, having thrown themselves straight into productivity last summer, might simply have taken a year off. The only other explanation is that the young fruitlets were badly infested with the maggots of pear midge, causing them to fall early on.

Wind in the willow I’d like to grow willow on my allotment, which is rather exposed. I want it to create a windbreak and yield material for me to try making willow hurdles. I understand some species can be invasive. Is there a species that will suit my purposes yet won’t become a nuisance? P McFarlane, Essex This is a lovely idea and one I thought I might use in my own garden. I was intending to use the willow wands for basket weaving and even took a couple of classes to learn how to weave. Although the bottom of our garden has moist soil and plenty of space, we are also regularly visited by deer, which adore willow and dogwoods. So until I can fence off a good area the idea is on hold. The idea here is to plant types of willow which lend themselves especially well to being ‘stooled’ back or ‘pollarded’. During the growing season, they produce long wands which, during winter, are cut almost to the base, leaving behind just a tiny spur perhaps holding one or two buds. They sprout again from these in the spring. On stooled plants, stems are produced close to the ground, whereas when pollarded, the willow makes a straight trunk ﬁrst and is then cut back to a point on the trunk from where it sprouts. This is useful where extra height is needed, it creates space for plants to grow underneath and keeps the new shoots above the reach of foraging rabbits.

As for variety, you need fairly vigorous plants in order to harvest usefully long wands. I’d go for a variety of colours. Green Salix viminalis is a classic, then there’s S. tortuosa with twisted, wayward stems. S. alba ‘Vitellina’ is the gold willow and S. a. ‘Chermesiana’, which is a fabulous, glowing orange, as is ‘Rouge Ardennais’. Add in S. triandra, known as Black Maul and S. purpurea for darker shades.

It a bug’s life

I want to encourage more wildlife into my garden, particularly beneﬁcial insects to help keep fruit and vegetables pests in check. Are there any easy-to-make insect house ideas you can share that will also look attractive? W Thompson, Staffordshire I have to confess I’ve never made an insect house in my life, though to be at the forefront of edible gardening fashion I really ought to start. They were everywhere at Chelsea Flower Show this year, with whole walls being constructed out of them and even old books being used, packed in tightly with bunches of hollow stems, bamboo canes, twigs and porous bricks. You can use anything which has hiding places for overwintering insects and as I write I can see a stack of slightly old rush mat place settings which would

do a brilliant job stacked one on top of another and squeezed into a cavity left in a wall. Increasing the insect population raises the bird population at the same time. At its simplest, a bundle of hollow stems bound together and thrust into the base of a hedge is as good as anything. My own take on this is simply to carry on being a somewhat untidy gardener. I like to think I have a ﬂamboyant style, no fear of self seeders and a bit of wilderness here and there. Wildlife of all kinds (insects, birds and

mammals) ﬂourishes in untidiness. Uncut hedges, piles of slightly rotting pea sticks, long grass, fallen apples, stumps, uncollected and slightly rotting bunches of leaves and stacks of logs are their natural homes. Grow it! September 2011 19

Ask Anne

Write in with your questions for Anne to:

Ask Anne, Grow it!, Kelsey Publishing Group, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG. Alternatively email: gi.ed@kelsey.co.uk

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Coriander query My wife and I love Asian cuisine so I decided to grow some coriander this spring. The seedlings grew quite quickly but annoyingly I only managed to cut a few leaves before the plants ran to seed. Can I prevent them doing this in future? M Bachelor, Monmouthshire Coriander is pretty easy to grow but you are right, they do run to seed quickly. This happens fastest when the plants are near the longest day and when they are under stress by being grown in close competition with each other, forcing them to struggle for water and nutrients. I’ve taken to raising mine in a 30cm (12in) pot because I can start them off early under glass and avoid the temptation to sow too much in one go. The ﬁrst sowing takes place towards the end of February and will last a fair length of time, but you could sow again in April and then in July, then perhaps again in early

September. The summer sowings could be made direct to the soil but the later sowing can be brought indoors to ﬁnish harvesting. Also, I wouldn’t harvest by the leaf, but snip whole plants down to within a couple of centimetres of the base, which will encourage them to sprout again, thus delaying their tendency to run up to seed. To sow, I space the large seeds a good 2.5cm (1in) apart over the surface of good compost and scatter more compost over the top to cover them by their own size. If they do seed, don’t forget these can be harvested and added to your pepper grinder.

Beans all gone

My broad beans were a complete failure due to a particularly heavy blackﬂy infestation. You can’t cover them in ﬂeece or the pollinators can’t get it; you can’t spray them because that might also kill the bees; and pinching out the tips doesn’t stop them, nor does spraying with washing up liquid. Help! K Farnley, London

I think everyone’s broad beans are affected by blackfly to some degree, but if you failed to harvest any at all, you are entitled to cry for help. First, try to get them going as early as possible because then growth is well ahead when the fly does appear. Sow direct into the soil in November, as well as starting beans under glass (no heat required) in late January/ early February. Next, you need to have as many natural predators as possible in the garden, so grow flowers there too and attract plenty of birds. Water the beans during dry spells (and as you are in London, you had a very dry spring which would not have helped). Ideally, you want your beans to have flowered and set before the fly arrives on them. Then it is effective to remove 20 September 2011 Grow it!

the tips above the developing pods, where the flies start feeding and breeding before travelling down the plant. Early inspection to find the first few blackfly is essential. tial If they he do colonise ol is and spread before the beans are forming, it is possible to spray successfully. I use a solution of horticultural soft soap (you can get this from The Organic Gardening Catalogue: 01932 253666, www.organiccatalogue.com), but spray in the evening after the bees have gone to bed.

The Practical team September

Benedict Vanheems

Martyn Cox

Paul Wagland

Steve Bradley

With evenings cooling down and the productive plot progressing rapidly, it’s not long until autumn comes knocking at the door. Get yourself ready for the season of change with this month’s checklist of jobs from the Practical Team. There are gooseberry cuttings to be taken, peaches to be planted and tips on setting up a compost bin. 14 PAGES Plus there’s advice on getting your tool shed in order, ripening squashes and OF SEASONAL growing over-wintering greenhouse crops. It’s another busy month! ADVICE, TOP TIPS AND EXPERT KNOW-HOW

Shortening days call for quick-growing salads that will reach maturity in double-quick time. Martyn Cox sows some rocket, page 27

Get your fruit storage areas ready for autumn windfalls. Benedict Vanheems puts together a simple apple store

Paul Wagland’s down on the allotment starting off chard for winter pickings and making a handsome bug house

Steve Bradley gives tired greenhouse soil a new lease of life with a green manure, plus how to ‘cure’ winter squashes Grow it! January 2011

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22 September 2011 Grow it!

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This month Benedict Vanheems is editor of Grow it! and is a passionate home-grower.

 Storing apples  Planting gooseberries  Protecting fruit

All the delicious fruit ripening this month will tempt you into the garden every day, so take your secateurs with you and keep up with autumn pruning, says Benedict Vanheems

Apple stores are easy to make and look fab!

or many fruit gardeners, this month is the ultimate reward for all the hard work they've put in through the year. Fruit trees, bushes and plants will be offering abundant treats, and most jobs around the garden or allotment can be enhanced with regular breaks to enjoy a few mouth-watering fruits. Try to get out into the plot little and often, as there are plenty of small but important jobs to do. If your plums and greengages have ﬁnished fruiting, then now is a good time to prune out any damaged or crossing branches. While your secateurs are handy, you might also want to trim your trained fruit trees such as apples, pears, nectarines and peaches. Walnut trees should also be pruned before leaf fall, or they will leak excess sap.

STEP-BY-STEP

Canny gardeners will be making the most of this opportunity to put some fruit by for the months ahead. Apples in particular will store well if properly cared for after picking. In fact there are many varieties that actually taste better a long time after picking. If you have a tree that seems to offer mediocre fruit, it may be that it has been bred for keeping and the ﬂavour improves dramatically with age. Put some in store and try them again in a few weeks and you may well be pleasantly surprised! It’s a good idea to reserve a space in the shed or garage for storing apples and pears; then you can enjoy fresh fruit all through the winter. Some varieties store better than others, but all will appreciate cool, dry conditions. Letting the air move around the stored fruit is the key to it lasting well and this is why fruits are usually stored in trays with a gap between each layer. Some people use newspaper to keep the apples and pears apart (stopping the spread of rot) but you can place them carefully so they don't touch one another. Ready-made apple stores can cost a small fortune, but if you make your own you can tailor the size to your crop and save cash into the bargain.

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the fruit grower

THE FRUIT GROWER

Make an apple store

Cut four pieces of 25x100mm (1x4in) timber: two of them 60cm (24in) and two 55cm (22in) long. Glue two 45.5cm (18in) lengths of batten along one edge of each shorter side, leaving an even gap at each end.

Cut four 12cm (5in) legs from 50x50mm (2x2in) timber. Use these to join the sides together in a square, screwing through the outer sides into the legs. Each leg should protrude 4cm (1.5in) below the sides.

Use 55cm (22in) lengths of batten to make the slatted base of the tray. Fill the base, leaving 3cm (1.25in) gaps in between. Space these along the side rails and glue them into place.

Grow it! September 2011 23

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the fruit grower

Golden gooseberries I f you’ve never grown your own gooseberries before, the sweet intensity of the flavour can be a revelation. On the rare occasions you find the berries for sale in the greengrocers they’re usually hard, under ripe and chosen more for the fact they store well than because of their taste. But a mature gooseberry, straight from the bush, is one of the most delicious treats that any garden can offer. The other advantage of this particular fruit is that you can get a good yield from a relatively small space – even a spot in semi shade or on heavy soil can be put to good use. There are drawbacks, however. Gooseberry sawfly larvae can appear overnight and start stripping leaves at a rate of knots, so you do need to keep a weekly eye on your bushes from May onwards. It’s not hard to pick all the tiny grubs off by hand once you get your eye in and learn to spot them clinging to the side of the leaf they are eating. Although sawflies are the same colour as the leaves, they have tiny brown heads that give them away. You can either give them to your chickens or pop them onto the bird table where they will soon be snapped up. The other potential problem is mildew. If you live in a dry area this may never affect you, but it can be a pain if you live in a rainy part of the country. It’s exacerbated by using plant food that’s high in nitrogen, and this includes chicken manure, so avoid that at all costs. Cut off any affected branches as soon as you see them. Keeping plants well pruned to an open bowl shape and ensuring you space them at least 1.2m (4ft) apart also helps. The easiest solution is to grow mildew-resistant varieties such as ‘Invicta’ or ‘Greenfinch’. Look out for the new ‘Hinnomaki’ bushes which are disease resistant and fantastic all-rounders (see the reader offer on page 42). Gooseberries will grow quite happily in a pot and they are easy to train, so you could have two

STEP-BY-STEP

Gooseberries can be trained to form handsome standards

Take gooseberry cuttings

You can increase your fruit stocks for free by taking hardwood cuttings. Choose a strongly-growing bush with no sign of disease and select a long shoot from this year's growth.

24 September 2011 Grow it!

standard bushes on either side of a doorway. They can also be trained as cordons against a fence, where their thorns might help to deter intruders. When the berries start to ripen (usually in June and July) it’s worth covering the bushes with securelypegged netting to deter hungry birds.

Using sharp secateurs, cut each cutting at an angle. Then carefully trim off the lower leaves, leaving a good length that the plant can root from. Dip in hormone rooting powder.

Put it into a clean pot ﬁlled with freely-draining compost. Firm it in well and water. Cuttings take up to 12 weeks to root, and can be planted out next autumn.

1 INVICTA: This vigorous bush is mildew resistant and gives very plentiful crops that are tasty but not outstanding. 2 CARELESS: This delicious culinary gooseberry can give generous yields but is prone to mildew in many areas. 3 WHINHAM’S INDUSTRY: This tasty berry is a good choice if your site is partially shady, but mildew can be a problem. 4 HINNOMAKI RED: The new ‘Hinnomaki’ gooseberries have been bred to have good mildew resistance and a delicious ﬂavour. 5 HINNOMAKI YELLOW: If you only grow one bush, this is the gooseberry to choose for its bumper crops of scrumptious fruits.

We are now entering the best time of year for planting fruit trees

In the net

You need to have a little foresight when it comes to protecting any soft fruit on your plot. Birds seem to have a knack of knowing exactly when those prize berries are ripe enough to eat – after all they probably spend much more time watching your garden than you do! A simple technique is to buy a few old net curtains from a charity shop sh and drape these over cane and bush fruits at the critical time. While this might look a little scruffy, the curtains only need to stay in place for a couple of weeks to let the fruit ripen in safety. If you want to be a bit more professional, perhaps if you grow fruit in your own back garden rather than on an

allotment, you could invest in a decent fruit cage. Buy the biggest you can afford – you will always need more space – but if space is tight then have a look at some of the smaller cages, just large enough to cover one row of fruit. These are available from Harrod Horticultural (0845 4025300, www.harrodhorticultural.com).

Know your roots We are now entering the best time of year for planting fruit trees, so have a think about where you might have room in your garden. ‘Top fruit’, as trees are sometimes known, represents quite an investment of precious space so it’s important to get the location and variety spot-on. The size of the mature plant, its rate of growth and how well it will fruit are all controlled by the root stock onto which the fruiting tree has been grafted. The M26 root stock is popular for garden apple trees as it will reach less than four metres in height and will crop after three years. For plums and peaches you might prefer to choose the moderately vigorous ‘St Julian A’ (4.5m, or 15ft) and the dwarf 'Pixy' (2.5m, or 8ft). A good nurseryman will be able to help with your choice.

Keep your cool

DON'T MISS next month’s FRUIT

GROWING SPECIAL for more advice on getting started with fruit!

There's nothing like the taste of a raspberry straight from the bush, and there will be quite a few that don't make it to the kitchen. That said, at this time of year it is easy to ﬁnd yourself with a glut and it wouldn't do to let such bounty go to waste. Most will keep for a couple of days if picked fully ripe and placed in the refrigerator, or you could follow the traditional path and turn excess stock into delicious jam. Another option is to freeze the fruit – the high water content of most berries means you can keep them whole. The trick is to pick the berries while they are still slightly under-ripe, so they remain ﬁrm when defrosted. Alternatively the riper berries can be pressed for their delicious juice, which will be full of vitamin C. Grow it! September 2011 25

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the fruit grower

FIVE OF THE HEAVIEST CROPPERS

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e love anything that makes garden landscaping easier and WoodBlocX certainly fits the bill. WoodBlocX is a wooden, modular, easy-to-use system for putting together raised beds, terracing, retaining walls, kerbing, decking supports and just about any other hard landscaping need in the garden. WoodBlocX can be integrated into any garden setting, from a small city space upwards. The BlocX can sit directly on ground, grass or hard surfaces such as paving and are linked together using dowels and wedges made from recycled plastic. Leave out the wedges and you can disassemble your project for reconfiguration at a later date. The BlocX themselves are made from accredited timber sourced from sustainable forests. WoodBlocX is manufactured to last for 20 years without any fault or flaws, making it the perfect solution for building your own wooden raised bed or planter. The result is a quality, natural finish that’s guaranteed to stand the test of time, while the flexibility and strength of

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Grow it! WoodBlocX Competition Kelsey Publishing Group, Cudham Tithe Barn, Berry’s Hill, Cudham, Kent TN16 3AG

Q. How long are WoodBlocX manufactured to last for?................................................... Name ................................................................................................................................................................ Address............................................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................Post code ........................................ Telephone ........................................................................................................................................................ If you would like to receive emails from Grow it! and the Kelsey Digital team containing news and special offers, please include your email address here. ................................................................................................. Kelsey Publishing, publisher of Grow it! would like to contact you from time to time by post and phone with special offers and information that we think will interest you. Tick here if you prefer not to receive these offers Occasionally we may pass your details to carefully selected third parties whose products we think will be of interest to you. Tick here if you would prefer not to receive these offers

WHY WOODBLOCX? OO OC ? ✦ Durability: Lasts longer than other wooden structures, offering at least 20 years’ service. ✦ Strength: Can withstand tension forces and compression. It will not crack or distort. ✦ Easy to use: No elaborate foundations needed and very easy to assemble. ✦ Appearance: It looks attractive and can be painted or left with its natural colour. ✦ Cost: Good value for the length of service and durability it brings.

HOW TO ENTER

To enter the competition simply ﬁll in the coupon, left, answering the question, and post back to us at the address shown. The ﬁrst entry pulled from the Grow it! hat after the closing date will win a £600 WoodBlocX voucher! The closing date for entries is September 15th 2011.

This month  Growing rocket  Compost bins  Peach success

Martyn Cox writes a gardening column for the Mail on Sunday and is the author of RHS How to Grow Plants in Pots. He has a small, plant-packed garden in East London.

Sow rocket 1cm (0.5in) deep in rows at least 15cm (6in) apart

Don’t down tools just yet as there’s still plenty to be planting. Martyn Cox sows a late-summer cutting of rocket leaves and starts off a succulent peach tree

ocket has become a staple ingredient of salads in many households, yet it still bewilders me when I visit a supermarket and see folk snapping up bags of the peppery leaves when it’s so quick and easy to grow from seed. Although you might think that it’s only possible to raise a decent crop in spring or summer, the good news is that seeds will still germinate well into September. So what are you waiting for? Grab a few packets and you’ll soon have several weeks’ worth of tasty pickings. So what should you grow? Cultivated rocket (Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa) has oval leaves with a strong flavour. Wild rocket has frilly leaves and a more pungent taste. ‘Skyrocket’ combines the taste and looks of wild rocket with the growing speed of rocket. Although a large container will provide you with armfuls of leaves, this is a great crop for sowing into the smallest containers, such as windowboxes or even into the vacant spaces left over when you remove tomatoes or other plants from grow bags. Alternatively, make the most of any gaps left between plants in a sunny bed or border; although the crop will generally do well in partial shade, it’s best to avoid these spots when sowing now as you want the plant to grow as quickly and strongly as possible at this time of year. To grow in the ground, start by preparing the soil by fluffing it up with a fork, removing weeds and large stones as you go. Rake to leave a fine finish. To sow, make a shallow trench, 1cm (0.5in) deep, with the corner of a cane then sow seeds thinly into the bottom before covering over and watering. After they’ve germinated, thin out seedlings so they are about 15cm (6in) apart. Growing in pots is simple. Choose a large container, fill with multipurpose compost, gently firm then level. Either scatter the seeds thinly across the surface of your chosen container and cover with 1cm (0.5in) of compost, or sow in rows 1cm (0.5in) deep and cover. Water well and place in a sunny position. You can extend the growing season outdoors by covering plants with a low polythene tunnel or a cloche, while pots can be moved

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the city gower

THE CITY GROWER

Rocket’s the perfect latesummer salad leaf

into a greenhouse or coldframe when the danger of frosts starts to loom. Pick leaves as often as you can from the outside of plants to ensure they produce fresh growth from the centre. Water plants regularly to prevent the compost from drying out (which can lead to bolting, or running to seed prematurely).

Grab a few packets and you'll soon have several weeks' worth of tasty pickings

Grow it! September 2011 27

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the city grower

Get composting! Y

ou can start a compost bin at any time of the year, but it always seems more pertinent to do so in the autumn. All of the spent summer crops, falling leaves from deciduous iduous trees and other debris gathered d when you tidy up the garden during this season means ✓ Kitchen scraps there’s no shortage of material ✓ Annual weeds to start the recycling process. ✓ Animal manure There are many bins available ✓ Grass clippings to suit every pocket, along with th ✓ Fresh leaves every style and size of garden,, so just because you’re strapped ped d for space doesn’t mean that you can’t turn waste into compost. t. Before composting for the first time it’s worth knowing a few dos and nd don’ts. Generally waste is split into two o groups: greens and browns. Lawn clippings, pings, annuals weeds, plant trimmings gs and other soft, sappy material that rots en camp. down quickly fall into the green oisture These provide nitrogen and moisture to the mix. hat are Browns are drier materials that richer in carbon, provide fibre and give shredded cardboard, newspapers and clude the compost structure. They include dried leaves. On their own, greens produce a smelly sludge, so add a greater percentage of brown material to your mix. While dead heads, coffee grounds, tea bags, vegetable peelings and fruit skin are perfect for the compost heap, there are some items that should be left out. Don’t add animal waste, meat, fish, bread, cooked food, diseased plant material or fresh perennial weeds. When buying a bin, think about how it will look in your garden. Black plastic domes are cheap and cheerful and may even be offered at a reduced price by Simple but effective: your council, but they are pretty ugly and The compost bin in the are likely to stick out like a sore thumb. ‘Dig For Victory’ garden Less roomy, but more attractive, are the

GREENS

BROWNS

✓ Woody stalks ✓ Paper/cardboard ✓ Straw and twigs ✓ Wood ash ✓ Dried leaves

bins disguised to look like a beehive. These even look good when worked into a bed or border. If you prefer the utilitarian look, why not copy an idea I saw at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show – a DIY bin on the ‘Dig For Victory’ display put together by Pennard Plants? It was put together quite simply by nailing pieces of corrugated metal to four tree stakes. Simple but very effective and beautiful in its own way.

Browns are drier materials that are richer in carbon, provide ﬁbre and give structure

WHAT BIN’S BEST? 1. Standard bin: The black plastic compost bin is the most readily available. Check your council’s website for offers on these bins. 2. Beehive beauties: For a more decorative bin look out for the beehive-style design. This one is a wormery composter, complete with tap for draining off nutrient-rich liquids. 3. Multiple bay bins: Compost setups with two or more bays will allow you to gradually use the compost from one bay while another’s being ﬁlled. This solution needs more space.

28 September 2011 Grow it!

LIVING IN MONROVIA

hen I was young the thought of growing a peach tree in a UK garden would have been beyond the bounds of possibility. For most of my generation peaches were an exotic fruit generally offered up as a pudding on a Sunday after being rescued from a tin can swimming with thick, sugary syrup. Of course, what I didn’t know then was that peaches had long been grown by the aristocracy in heated onto the ‘Saint Julien A’ dwarfing rootstock. This greenhouses – but there was little chance of will result in a compact plant 1.2-1.5m (4-5ft) tall me ever seeing these juicy fruit on the estate with a minimum amount of pruning needed. I grew up on in the East Midlands! Plant trees in large pots – 45cm (18in) How times have changed. If I toured the back gardens of the town in Northamptonshire where diameter is perfect – filled with soil-based compost, such as John Innes Number 3. Add I spent some of my most formative years, I’d a layer of pea gravel to the base to assist imagine that I’d lay eyes on several peach trees. drainage. If you intend growing in the ground Over the past few years this delicious fruit has then improve the soil before planting by become really trendy with a host of stunning working in plenty of garden compost or varieties that will crop well in cooler climates. well-rotted manure. Make sure you’ve Although these are hardy in the UK, it’s best prepared a framework of to grow them in a sunny, training wires before planting sheltered spot as flowers the tree, 20cm (8in) away from appear early and are the wall or fence. vulnerable to frost. Either Looking after trees is plant partially-trained easy. Start by watering plants fans against a warm wall regular. Those in pots should or fence, or grow as a have the top layer of compost free standing tree in a removed in spring, replacing container. Bare-root trees it with fresh material. When can be planted anytime blossom appears early in from now until late the year, help to improve autumn, while container pollination by pressing grown trees can be the bristles of a small soft planted anytime. paintbrush into the flowers. Choose plants Be prepared to protect plants carefully. Some peaches with a sheet of horticultural are extremely vigorous, fleece if frost is forecast. so if you’re looking for a Feed weekly with a liquid plant that will do well in tomato fertiliser when the containers, check that the Dwarf peaches make unusual – tiny fruits first appear. and delicious – container trees variety has been grafted

Quick jobs for September

✦ Cut back the ferny fronds of asparagus to

within 5cm (2in) of the ground as soon as the stems start to yellow.

✦ Pull up spent cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines – chop up

stems and add to the compost heap.

✦ Tackle gooseberries and blackberries. Cut off shoot

tips infected with mildew and cut canes that fruited this year to the ground. Tie in the strongest new shoots to canes or supporting wires. ✦ Wash shade paint off greenhouses or remove

sheets of netting to allow as much light as possible to reach the plants inside.

✦ Drench containers with Nemasys Vine Weevil Killer to prevent the

soil-dwelling grubs from eating the roots of plants. This biological control contains nematodes – microscopic worms that attack the maggots. Buy from Harrod Horticultural (0845 4025300, www. harrodhorticultural.com).

FIVE OF THE BEST PEACHES...

BONANZA: This heavy cropper is well-suited to growing in a container. Despite its compact size, the juicy fruits are a good, full size.

3 DUKE OF YORK: Delicious, pale juicy ﬂesh is the reward for growing this tasty cropper. It will crop from early on in the summer.

BLACKMOOR NURSERY

1 AVALON PRIDE: The large fruits are very juicy. Best of all this variety shows exceptional resistance to peach leaf curl.

GARDEN LADY: A dwarf variety good for containers. Sweet, juicy, yellow-ﬂeshed fruits follow the stunning pink springtime blossom.

PEREGRINE: Considered one of the ﬁnest varieties, ‘Peregrine’ has a red skin and smooth, white ﬂesh. A mouth-watering choice!

Grow it! September 2011 29

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the city grower

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28/07/2011 23/06/2011 11:02 12:34

This month  Bug habitats  Growing chard  Shed storage

Paul Wagland is an RHS-qualiﬁed gardener and keen allotmenteer, with three thriving plots in deepest Essex.

My completed bug habitat

It’s time to start winter preparations, says Paul Wagland, both for your crops and your wildlife allies

re you planning an end-of-season allotment tidy-up, or are you rather more laissez-faire? While it is a good idea to cut down the weeds on and around your plot (indeed you must do so for the benefit of your plot neighbours), you run the risk of depriving beneficial insects such as ladybirds and hoverflies of their winter abodes. Make up for this by putting up a selection of habitat boxes now, while there is still time for bugs to get used to the idea of moving into them. It’ll soon be hibernating season for many of our native insects and it’s only right we reward them for all their hard work pollinating our crops and eating pests. I’m a great fan of ready-made bug boxes and have them all over my garden at home, but on my allotment appearances are less important. I made the model described below from a length of bamboo lawn edging (available in pound shops or Wilkinsons etc) and a bundle of dry twigs and stems. I think it adds a certain rustic charm to my wildlife area and I’ll be watching it closely to see if I can spot anyone moving in. Lacewings, ladybirds, hoverflies and solitary bees – many of which are becoming rarer – all appreciate this kind of habitat and I’d be happy to have more of them around. Boxes can be located in a range of positions, high and low, to allow for the varied requirements of all kinds of insects. As a general rule they will

STEP-BY-STEP

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the organic allotmenteer

THE ORGANIC ALLOTMENTEER

be most effective out of the wind and with some shelter from the rain. You can also create habitats for larger wildlife, simply by adding a stack of logs or large stones to one corner of your plot. I have a wildlife area on each of my allotments; I believe setting aside a couple of square metres is well worthwhile for the pest control and simple observational interest I get in return.

Making a bug habitat

Roll the bamboo as tightly as you Collect a good bundle of coarse stems, can around the bundle of stems so twigs and dry grass from your compost you have a mixed core of dry vegetation heap and place these on one end of the bamboo roll. Anything with a hollow core surrounded by several insulating layers of bamboo. is ideal.

Using strong twine or garden wire, tie the roll closed in two or three different places. Tie (rather than hang) the completed hotel in a place where it will be sheltered from wind and rain. Grow it! September 2011 31

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the organic allotmenteer

Growing chard

s well as providing delicious greens for the table, Swiss chard is also extremely attractive, making it an excellent choice for more ornamental veg gardens. Fairly frost hardy, your crop can be sown in late summer to autumn for a spring harvest. It is, however, advisable to cover the plants until they are established. This versatile crop comes in a range of striking colours, as demonstrated by varieties such as ‘Bright Lights’. The edible stems are red, white, yellow, green, gold, orange or pink. You can sow in the middle of the border for a rainbow-like display, or try the predominately red or white-stemmed

are approximately 15cm (6in) apart; this will leave them plenty of room to grow. Although fertile, rich soil is preferred, chard is an easy customer to please. Leaves can be gathered as soon as varieties for a more subtle scheme. they are of usable size. Chard is a cutChard is an excellent choice for and-come-again crop, so each plant will the novice gardener, as it is extremely allow you to make a number of small, easy to grow and requires a minimum regular harvests. Remove leaves by of maintenance. It can, of course, be snapping or snipping the stem close to sown in spring and makes an excellent the base of the plant. As long as enough summer crop. Indeed, spinach has a foliage is left for the plant to meet its tendency to bolt (or go to seed) in hot, own needs you should be able to revisit dry conditions, so if you live in a warmer it many times over the growing season. part of the country, consider growing Chard is not unlike spinach in taste chard as an easy alternative. and can be used as a substitute in Sow the seed thinly in drills at a recipes which require either asparagus depth of 2cm (1in), ensuring that rows or spinach. The young, immature leaves are at least 30cm (12in) apart. When the are full of goodness and delicious seedlings begin to emerge, thin in salad or in sandwiches. As out the weakest specimens the plant gets older the until the young plants leaves become tougher and may develop a slightly bitter taste. At this point One serving (as little as a cup of leaves) can contain it’s best to cook them your entire recommended before eating. Try lightly daily amount of vitamins steaming or sautéing, as A and K, and up to half these methods are the of your vitamin least likely to lead to overC quota cooking, which will cause the leaves to become soggy. As it contains so many essential vitamins, chard is a highly nutritious addition to your dishes. To retain essential minerals and nutrients, cook the chard as lightly as possible.

Highly nutritious

Versatile chard is an excellent choice for the novice gardener

Chard is an easy-to-grow vegetable

A YEARROUND SUPPLY

It is possible to have chard on your plate every month of the year if you make two main sowings. The ﬁrst should be in late spring (any earlier and it may bolt) and will crop through summer and autumn, into the winter and even to early spring. Pick leaves individually to allow the plants to recover from each harvest. The second sowing is in late summer (right now) and will crop from autumn until the following mid-summer. Only a very cold winter will interrupt your supply. 32 September 2011 Grow it!

FIVE CHARDS TO TRY

1 BRIGHT LIGHTS: Vibrant colours from pale yellow, through orange to strong pink. Pretty enough to grow at home in your ﬂower border. 2 RHUBARB CHARD: Rich, ruby-red leaf stalks and dark greeny-purple

foliage. Combine with ‘Lucullus’ for a very decorative effect. 3 FIVE COLOUR SILVERBEET: A rainbow mix of stem and leaf colours maintained as an Australian heirloom variety. 4 LUCULLUS: A very proliﬁc form, giving an abundance of large, tasty leaves and wide white midribs. 5 BRIGHT YELLOW: Beautiful, broad, golden stalks are a striking and colourful addition to the vegetable garden or allotment.

Get you shed ship shape A simple shed is a big priority for any allotmenteer but the basic structure can be greatly improved by kitting out the inside with shelves, hooks and storage. A worktop is a very useful feature (look for offcuts in DIY stores or even skips) and old kitchen units are a great way to keep things like plant labels, twisty ties

Look sharp

and bottles of fertiliser out of the way. Your larger tools such as forks, spades and rakes should be hung up together within easy reach of the door as you will be using these very often. You can buy packs of screw-in hooks for just this purpose, or make your own using pairs of nails hammered in at just the right height.

Keeping spades, hoes and (more obviously) cutting tools clean and sharp is a quick and easy job – well worth the time you save when using them. A sharp spade will cut through thick roots and heavy soil with near surgical precision, while a blunt one will force you to stamp and hack until you’re tired and sore. The easiest way of sharpening tools is to use a bench grinder, and these are available relatively cheaply. Always wear eye protection and strong gloves while using the grinder and don’t put too much pressure on the wheel (it should run at close to full speed even when in contact with a tool). Apart from those precautions, there’s not much to it – just hold the tool lightly against the rotating wheel until the desired edge is created.

Tidiness is important, but don’t go overboard

Don’t obstruct the route from the door to the back of the shed, even if this means cutting down on your storage. Another important tip is to ﬁx shelf brackets, screw hooks and worktop supports to the structure of the shed (ie the upright posts), not just the cladding which will be much weaker.

Anti-social Ants can cause real problems on

allotments, where they are often seen ‘farming’ aphids, moving them onto your tender plants and harvesting the sugary waste they produce. They can also bite; I have one plot where it used to be hazardous to stand still for longer than a few seconds. This is the time to act – break up every nest you can ﬁnd with a hoe and they should move to a quieter spot, ready to sleep through the winter. If this doesn’t succeed it is possible to destroy a nest without using insecticides. If you spread semolina nearby, the worker ants will carry some back for the queen to eat. It will swell in her stomach and kill her. As she is the only fertile female the colony will soon die.

Grow it! September 2011 33

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the organic allotmenteer

Sheds can be greatly improved by kitting them out with shelves, hooks and storage

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the under cover grower

THE UNDER COVER GROWER

This month Steve Bradley has an RHS Master of Horticulture diploma and lectures widely on gardening. He has written over 30 books on the subject and is gardening editor of The Sun.

CROPS TO DRY & CURE

Garlic • Onions Marrow • Pumpkin • Squash

 Cleaning  Growing autumn crops  Green manures

It might well be warm during the day, but night-time temperatures are beginning to drop. It’s time to get set for the coming of autumn, says greenhouse guru Steve Bradley

n September, plant growth is usually still very good, even though the warm sunny days are actually masking the fact that the days are becoming noticeably shorter and night temperatures are dropping quite low (especially in more northerly areas). Towards the end of the month shading can be washed or wiped off the outside cladding of greenhouses and polythene tunnels to improve light transmission through to the plants. This is an ideal time, while the washing equipment is out anyway to clean the cladding to remove any dirt, mould and grime that’s accumulated over the summer. Thin the leaves of plants such as aubergines, peppers and tomatoes to allow more light to get to the fruits and help speed up the ripening process, which is always slower at this time of year. In addition, try keeping the plants slightly drier, as this also helps speed up ripening and slow down leafy growth. Only water before lunch, whenever possible, as cooler nights after warm days lead to higher levels of condensation, and grey mould can spread very quickly in these conditions. Keep the structure well ventilated, especially where plastic or polythene claddings are used, to avoid this. As well as looking towards this season’s end it is never too early to start planning ahead for next year, especially if crops are being grown in the borders of the greenhouse or polytunnel. It

The hardest decision to take is when to discard the previous crop to make room for the newcomers. Sometimes you have to be ruthless!

is worth considering planting a green manure in the border on a three to four-year cycle. This will cleanse the soil of harmful pests and diseases, while helping to improve the soil’s structure.

Prepare for storage

The greenhouse and polythene tunnel (and even the cold frame) start to change their role at this time of year. There tends to be much less emphasis on growing and more on storage of outdoor crops that need to be ﬁnished off or ‘cured’ under protection. Obviously, this will vary from season to season and the wetter the weather in late-summer and early-autumn, the greater the need for certain crops to be harvested and placed somewhere dry in order to prepare them for storage. With most it is a case of allowing the outer skin to dry and toughen to reduce the amount of deterioration they suffer suff su ffer ff er suffer during storage or surface-dry them quickly after harvesting to to prevent fungal rots penetrating the outer layers.

Greenhouses and polytunnels are ideal for ﬁnishing off squashes and onions 34 September 2011 Grow it! it!

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the under cover grower

Under cover transplants

here plants are being grown directly in the border soil, a number of crops can be transplanted under protection to offer produce throughout the late-autumn and winter months. The same plants can be grown in containers, but the management is usually much easier in border soil. In most years, only minimal protection is required, so a cold greenhouse or unheated polythene tunnel is ideal. You can start these plants by sowing directly into modules or small pots so they do not suffer a check in growth while the existing crops are coming to an end. In fact, the main advantage of growing these plants in modules is the amount of ﬂexibility it provides in a cropping program, so that if one crop is doing well for longer than expected while occupying space under protection, it can be allowed to carry on for a little longer, rather than have to be thrown out prematurely to make room for the next crop. It is important to get the structure as clean as possible before transplanting the newcomers, as slugs can soon devastate a batch of newly-transplanted, leafy vegetables. As a last resort, batches of radish can be sown into any bare areas, or try rocket as a cut-and-come-again crop (the rocket will soon become tall and leggy if light levels are poor).

Suitable late-season -season crops ✦ Calabrese ✦ Chicory age ✦ Chinese cabbage ✦ Endive ✦ Lettuce (right) ✦ Oriental greenss ✦ Swiss chard

Above: Plant suitable autumn veg to follow on from exhausted summer fruiters such as tomatoes Calabrese Chinese cabbage

STEP-BY-STEP

Late-season starters

You may have to raise your own plants for this time of year as garden centres don’t seem to have much on offer, although this seems to be getting better.

Shorter days and higher humidity can Growing plants in pots gives a fair degree soon lead to fungal rots spreading of ﬂexibility, so that existing crops can be allowed to carry on a little longer without the through batches of plants, so good ventilation is critical to avoid this. incoming crop suffering too badly. Grow it! September 2011 35

THE PRACTICAL TEAM – the under cover grower

Restore soil structure

order soils take a lot of punishment over the years: regular cultivation can damage the structure and disrupt natural soil drainage, high levels of chemical fertilisers can cause an imbalance of the soil fertility, while frequent watering over the summer can cause the soil to cap and form a crust along the surface. So it’s time to take a tip from the farmers. A sowing of green manure is an excellent way to improve the soil without any back-breaking work. It will provide some ﬁbre in the soil and help to improve the structure, drainage and fertility. There are quite a few green manures available, some of which have been in use for a long time to suppress weeds and recycle nutrients that may otherwise have been lost from the soil. One concern with growing plants in the border soil is always the fear of soil-borne pests and diseases establishing themselves. Yes, some of these can be overcome by growing plants grafted onto resistant rootstocks,

STEP-BY-STEP

Some types of rocket make very good bio-fumigants. The cultivar ‘Nemat’ produces bushy plants with dense foliage

but others can devastate crops for years to come unless the border soil is constantly changed – and that is backbreaking. Using certain types of Tagetes,

Growinga green manure

Prepare the soil for a green manure by pulling up any weeds and roughly digging it over. Broadcast the seed over the soil surface then rake it in before watering well.

TOP TIP

Any bio-fungicidal effect will be limited to the depth to which the green manure is incorporated into the soil. For larger areas, consider using a rotary tiller to incorporate the manure.

Tagetes can be slow to germinate, but the plants will grow up to 60cm (2ft) high and become quite bushy, so there is plenty of green material to dig into the border soil.

mustards or rocket can bring an added advantages to soil management where this is a problem. Growing a green manure of certain Tagetes species can help to reduce the damage done by root knot eelworm, while some mustards and rockets will help to suppress both fusarium and verticillium (soil-borne fungi that can damage a number of staple protected crops grown in border soil, particularly cucumbers and tomatoes). These plants are used as biofumigants and, to be fully effective, they need to be chopped and dug into the soil while they are still green and lush, releasing natural chemicals that act as natural pesticides. Other green manures, such as alfalfa and buckwheat, develop deep root systems and are ideal for improving soil structure.

Suitable green manures ✦ Alfalfa (below) ✦ Buckwheat ✦ Mustard

Mustard is a fast-growing green manure, which should be dug in just as it starts to ﬂower in order to get the most beneﬁt if it is to be used for its soilcleansing properties.

36 September 2011 Grow it!

After the green manure has been incorporated into the soil, the border can be left until needed. Make sure all of the plants are thoroughly buried or some shoots may start to grow again.

✦ Phacelia ✦ Rocket ‘Nemat’ ✦ Tagetes minima

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22/07/2011 11:29 10:07 21/07/2011

Veg grow guide Endives ‘Bubikopf’ and ‘Frenzy’ and lettuce ‘Grenoble Red’ thrive in a December cold snap

HARDY HEROES

Winter salads can provide weeks of harvests in the cold months but success hinges on knowing what to grow, when to sow and how to pick. Charles Dowding offers some guidance

here is a great range of winter salad leaves you can grow under a cloche with a surprising number of harvests. The only quiet period is between Christmas and early February, when even if it is mild, there is too little light for much new growth to happen. Last winter I set out plants in September then covered them in early November after a ﬁrst pick of leaves. All the plants survived through the bitterly cold weather of December. They then grew steadily from February to April to give many varied harvests of leaves from a small area – at a time of year when they are most appreciated. Three keys to success with winter salads are: 38 September 2011 Grow it!

✓ Well-composted soil so that enough moisture is retained for steady growth, at the same time as worms in the soil create channels for any excess moisture to drain away. Valuable soil life is encouraged by the compost when it is simply spread on top about an inch deep before planting. ✓ Good timing of sowings as in the table opposite, to have plants that are large enough to withstand frost and slugs. They must not be too large because then they can be more susceptible to damage by cold and damp. ✓ Sowing suitable types and varieties of salad which are able both to survive and to grow in cool, damp conditions.

Plants to use

You can choose from many different tastes, shapes and colours of leaves. I suggest that plants are all picked carefully of outer leaves rather than being allowed to heart up or grow too large. This will ensure regular harvests and more hardy plants. BEET LEAVES such as chard of all colours give a sparkle to winter salads but have a longer dormant period than many other plants listed here. Leaf beet is more productive but less attractive. Both can be cooked if leaves grow large in the spring.

WHAT TO SOW AND WHEN TO PICK Sow

Quantity

First pick

Last pick

Comments

Beets

late Aug-early Sep

medium

Chicories

late Aug-early Sep

high

Nov

May

slow growth in midwinter

Nov

late Apr

bitter but hardy

Endives

late Aug-early Sep

high

Herbs

late Jul- Aug

medium

Nov

late Apr

Scaroles are abundant

Oct

May

excellent ﬂavours

Lamb’s lettuce

late Aug-early Sep

Lettuce

early Sep

low-medium

Jan-Feb

mid Apr

needs good ventilation

medium-high

Nov

May

needs good ventilation

Mizuna Mustards

mid Sep

high

late Oct-Nov

mid Apr

fastest grower

early-mid Sep

high

late Oct-Nov

mid Apr

pungent and productive

Pak choi

early Sep

medium

Nov

mid Apr

vulnerable to slugs

Sorrel

Aug

medium-high

Oct

May

abundant in March, April

MARK DIACONO

Salad

Spinach

early Sep

high

late Oct-Nov

May

most abundant leaf

Winter purslane

early-mid Sep

medium-high

Nov

late Apr

mild taste, many leaves

CHICORY includes ‘Castelfranco’, with large speckled leaves, and ‘Palla Rossa’ types with dark red leaves. They are bitter to eat (a sweet dressing helps) and extremely hardy, resisting both frost and damp, surviving where lettuce sometimes does not.

TOP TIP

As well as picking leaves to eat, remove yellowing and holed leaves to keep plants tidy and easier to pick next time.

Hardy leaf beet ‘Erbette’ in late January, growing well despite low light levels

ENDIVE comes in two kinds – large leaves of Scarole varieties such as ‘Bubikopf’, my second favourite salad for a winter cloche, and smaller, serrated leaves of frizzy varieties such as ‘Frenzy’ and ‘Fine de Maraichere’. All are hardy and productive, especially ‘Bubikopf’. HERBS offer many possibilities for healthy harvests, with chervil and coriander living much longer through winter than from sowings made in the spring. Seed packets are misleading to suggest sowing chervil in April and May, when it ﬂowers, instead of in late July and August when, like coriander, it enters a leafy time of growing a large plant through autumn and winter. Both herbs lose some leaf quality in midwinter but rebound healthily in February and March. LAMB’S LETTUCE can be grown without protection but covering with a cloche (or ﬂeece) will considerably enhance leaf quality and size. Do not sow before the last few

Chicories ‘Palla Rossa’ and ‘Castelfranco’ are exceptionally hardy choices

days of August to avoid having large plants and problems of mildew in November. I aim to have small or medium-sized plants by December, which then offer abundant growth from February until ﬂowering in the middle of April. LETTUCE can be left unpicked through winter for a heart in April and May, but many extra harvests can be had at a more useful time when varieties such as ‘Grenoble Red’ (bronze leaves) and ‘Little Gem’ or ‘Winter Density’ (taller Cos leaves) are kept at a small to medium size by occasionally removing their outer leaves. Lettuce is prone to mildew in winter and ventilation is important, even in really cold weather.

MIZUNA is one of the most productive leaves and has an agreeably mild ﬂavour. I suggest sowing a little later than the other salads here, in case it peaks before winter. Try ‘Waido’ for an abundance of fat-stemmed leaves and ‘Red Knight’ for its lovely red leaves and impressive hardiness, although it ﬂowers in early March, about two weeks earlier than ‘Waido’. MUSTARDS can be abundant and I suggest not sowing too many, unless you want bowlfuls of really pungent leaves. ‘Green in the Snow’ is productive and one of the hottest to eat, while ‘Red Frills’ is milder and looks prettier than any other winter salad thanks

Grow it! September 2011 39

Veg grow guide to its fine leaf margins. Both are easy to grow but small mustard beetles, similar to flea beetles, can appear as early as February and make annoying holes in the leaves. PAK CHOI has issues with slugs, so holes are common in both leaf and stem. Try ‘Joi Choi’ for dark green leaves with thick white stems and ‘Red Lady’ for nice colour, though like tatsoi and the red mizunas it flowers disappointingly early, in March and early April. SORREL, the broad-leaved type, is hardy but watch for slugs. Just a few plants are needed for an acidic, lemony flavour and leaves are good for cooking when grown too large for salad.

for its thinner leaves with pretty red stems, ﬂowering in April rather than late May.

TOP TIP

Sowing into modules will allow young plants to be set out at their ﬁnal spacings, doing away with thinning.

WINTER PURSLANE is usually offered without a varietal name and is wonderfully easy to grow, but it needs care in picking to keep it productive. Rather than cutting across the top, which delays subsequent harvests, try cutting just the larger leaves that are tending to drop downwards around plants’ edges. I find that a weekly harvest is then possible. I also cut off any flowering stems (to eat) in order to encourage leafiness until April, when plants grow many beautiful and delicious flowers on their leaves.

Picking mustard ‘Green in the Snow’ in early February

SPINACH is my number one choice for hardy, tasty and amazingly numerous leaves in all but the coldest weather. The variety which has proved itself time and again is ‘Medania’, from which we start picking in November and continue until May. By this time there is often just too much to eat, both for salads and cooking. Every single plant survived the last winter. Another possibility is ‘Bordeaux’

Winter salad timeline

Module raised spinach and chicory ‘Castelfranco’ immediately after planting on 12 September, with more salad plants to come. Notice the generous gap between individual plants.

40 September 2011 Grow it!

Just ten days later and the plants are well settled in and have put on substantial growth. The spinach in particular is beginning to romp away.

Sowing and picking

Timing is everything, check the table on page 39’s dates. Either sow direct into shallow drills or into modules (under cover or outdoors) for planting by the end of September, or October for mizuna. I suggest thinning to one plant per module for easier picking of outer leaves and so that plants grow to a good size before their spring ﬂowering time. Directly sown rows can be 22-30cm (9-12in) apart, with plants at 15-20cm (6-8in). Plant modules at 22-25cm (9-10in) apart, allowing room for air to circulate and to make picking easier. Careful picking of leaves is a key part of enjoying steady harvests throughout winter. It is important to keep the same plants productive for many months, as there is little chance of making new sowings in midwinter to produce anything worthwhile before April. A good rule of thumb is to pick outer leaves as soon as they are touching those of neighbouring plants so that there is bare soil between them for much of the time. This results in healthier leaves with less mildew and slugs, and in this way you are always harvesting younger leaves from plants which stay in a state of productive youthfulness. Last winter we picked in late November and early December, then early February, mid February, late February and weekly during March and April. With each picking in late winter and spring the leaves become larger and glossier, so that harvests in April are often more than one can eat.

It’s the start of November and time to cover the salads with their cloches. Before doing this, one ﬁnal pick is undertaken to leave space between the over-wintering plants.

Left: Pulling string tight on cloche plastic. The string overlaps diagonally for a snug ﬁt. Below: These cloched endive may be frozen solid hard but they are protected from a heavy snowfall

Using cloches

Be wary of spending lots of money on the wonderful range of cloches offered in many catalogues. Homemade is possible and my photos give an idea. These use lengths of 4mm wire bent around a dowel of wood to create loops for securing the string, plus 15-20cm (6-8in) of wire below the loops to go into your soil. A long length of string is run under (not through!) the loops of wire, making it quick to assemble and take apart, with only two knots being needed at either end. Polythene for winter cloches wants to be thicker than for summer ones to resist wind. For this I use old polytunnel plastic. The sides do not meet the ground in places to ensure valuable ventilation: it is essential to have some air flowing through at all times to keep plants healthy. Late October to early November is a good average time for covering overwintering plants, before weather becomes too severe. Putting cloches on in early October is good in colder areas and if you want more leaves in autumn. I find that autumns where I am in Somerset have been mild of late and cloching in early November, after thoroughly picking and tidying plants (and clearing the bed of any weeds and slugs) gives healthy growth and peace of mind until early February. Aim to have moist soil when you cover plants with a cloche so that any further water is not needed for up to two months. Plants grow so little in deepest midwinter and will remain at their best when not watered at this time (December and January chiefly). Keeping plants a little dryer results in less mildew, less slugs and

Despite an impressively cold spell, the salads are doing well under their cloches. The cloche doesn’t stop plants from freezing but affords protection from snow.

less weeds. From February I water every two weeks, then weekly in March and April, giving a good soak each time rather than a light sprinkle, again so that the soil surface can dry out between waterings.

Duration of harvests

These salad plants rise to flower between March and May with edible flowers. Once they are in flowering mode there are only small harvests of slightly bitter leaves, so they are best twisted out for the compost heap at that point. To keep plants in top condition as they grow weeds should be removed. A clean, undug soil should grow only a few weeds, easily removed as seedlings whenever you are picking. Do keep on top of weed growth at all times as clean soil is a help in reducing slug numbers. We pick the plants with two buckets – one for good leaves and another for weeds, any yellow salad leaves with holes and for any slugs we find.

By February productivity again picks up. This picture, taken on 22 April, shows only spinach and endive still cropping – other salads have risen to ﬂower.

By May, after pulling ﬂowering plants and all weeds, you will have clean soil and I suggest spreading some compost or wellrotted animal manure at this time. Leave this on the surface and with no cultivation before planting vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, courgettes, summer beans or whatever is on your menu.

My winter salad bed in March after a picking of leaves and a tidy-up. The bed was then watered

The same bed in June planted with sprouts after cow manure has been spread on top. The ﬁne net covering is to keep the cabbage white butterﬂies off.

Grow it! September 2011 41

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Know-how

herbs

You could also try...

Teas of plantain, cleavers, chickweed, dandelion leaf, dill, fennel, coriander leaf and parsley three to four times daily.

Eating plenty of essential fatty acids in oily ﬁsh, nuts, seeds, whole grains, evening primrose and ﬂaxseed oil to raise metabolic rate. Regularly adding spices such as cayenne, garlic, coriander, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric to your food.

For a great weight-loss salad, try this tasty fusion. Fennel, rocket, nasturtium, coriander and cayenne help increase your metabolism. Dandelion, fennel, coriander and plantain are diuretic, aiding elimination of excess ﬂuid and toxins, while fennel has a reputation for reducing cellulite. GROWING Cover the bottom of a large container with drainage material and top

A great weight-loss salad

up with multipurpose compost. Plant the borage in the centre and one nasturtium either side. In the corners of the pot plant the dandelions, a plantain and two rockets (one in each corner). In the middle towards the back plant the corianders and in the middle at the front plant a cayenne pepper. Next to the cayenne plant the fennel. Water regularly and feed weekly.

Salad ingredients • 60g (2.5 oz) each of young dandelion, planta in and rocket leave s • Decorate with fe nnel and coriander leaves, borage lea ves and ﬂowers How to make

1 2 3

Pick the dandelion , plantain and rocket leaves and arrange in a salad bowl. Garnish with fenn el, borage and coriander to taste . Add nasturtium an d a little cayenne pepper (if you wa nt a little more spice) or cucumbe r if you want a mor e cooling salad. Pour over a dressin g made with coconut oil, cider vinegar, garlic and cayenn e to stimulate your metabolism.

Grow it! September 2011 43

EXTRACT TAKEN FROM DRUGS IN POTS BY ANNE MCINTYRE (GAIA, OCTOPUS PUBLISHING GROUP, £10.99)

PLANTS YOU WILL NEED • 1 Borage • 2 Nasturtium • 2 Dandelion • 1 Plantain • 2 Rocket • 4 Coriander • 1 Cayenne pepper • 3 Fennel

Summer-time salad Serves 2

HAT H E ST

ardening is one of the best kinds of preventive medicine and is good for all manner of ills. Growing herbs is an excellent way to get to know plants that are not only beautiful and evocatively scented but also remarkable medicines. Herbs are a very real part of everyday life; they enliven diet and cuisine, provide valuable ingredients for beauty products, cosmetics, body creams and lotions and play an important part in healthcare. Many common herbs used by herbalists to help and cure everyday ailments can be found in your kitchen, on your patio or in the garden. Here, then, are four quick-to-prepare remedies to sooth, nurture and enjoy.

• HER B AL

HAT H E ST

Garden herbs offer a cheap yet highly effective means of healing and soothing our addled bodies. Anne McIntyre shares a few easy-to-make herbal remedies for everyday ailments

• HER B AL

HEALING

Know-how

Makes one litre (1.75 pints)

This health-giving oil makes an excellent salad dressing, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. Garlic also lowers blood cholesterol, helping to prevent heart attacks. Calendula and artichoke help liver metabolism of cholesterol, while marjoram and basil strengthen blood vessels. GROWING Add drainage material to the bottom of a large square then ﬁll with multipurpose compost. Place the artichoke in the centre, the golden marjoram in the front to one side, then the purple basil on the other after all danger of frost has passed. Plant a pot marigold (calendula) either side of the back of the planter and the garlic where there is space. Water regularly and feed weekly.

PLANTS YOU WILL NEED • 1 Globe artichoke • 1 Marjoram • 2 Basil (purple) • 2 Pot marigold (calendula) • 3 Garlic

HAT H E ST

Ideal for insomnia

HAT H E ST

• HER B AL

HAT H E ST

for high for hi Ingredients • 1 litre (1.75 pint) flaxseed oil chol ch cholesterol oles ol es oil • 1 bulb garlic • 3 artichoke leaves • 400g (14 oz) each of fresh or 200g (7 oz) dried pot marigold (calendula) flowers, marjoram leaves, basil flow ers and leaves • HER B AL

Herb-infused ﬂaxseed oil

How to make

1 2 3

Bruise the flowers and leaves then place them in a large jar, using as many as you need to almost fill the jar. Pour over enough oil to cover the herbs and leave to infuse on a sunn y windowsill for two to three weeks. Strain and pour into a glass bottle with a few sprigs of marjoram, a few pot marigold (calendula) flowers and a few cloves of peeled garlic.

How to use Take one to one and a half tablespoons in food daily.

You could also try...

Taking antioxidant herbs such as hawthorn, ginger and turmeric daily. Eating antioxidant bilberries and elderberries. Oats also help lower cholesterol. Eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Herb sleep pillow Makes one herb pillow Before you rush to the doctor for sleeping pills, try some natural treatments ﬁrst. The delicately scented d herbs in this recipe have soporiﬁc qualities that promote relaxing sleep. Their fragrant essential oils are carried straight to the brain, calming tension and nd promoting sleep. California poppy is an excellent herb for insomnia, being gentle and non-addictive.

• HER B AL

GROWING Sow the California poppy seeds in spring.. In early summer cover the bottom of two large pots with drainage material and top up with multipurpose compost. Place the lavender in one of the pots and the lemon balm, holy basil and chamomile in the other. Water regularly and feed weekly.

PLANTS YOU WILL NEED • 1 California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) • 1 Lavender • 1 Lemon balm • 1 Holy basil • 1 German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) or Roman chamomile 44 September 2011 Grow it!

Ideal Idea Id ea

HAT H E ST

• HER B AL

You could also try...

Eating plenty of oats, whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Avoiding stimulants including sugar, sweets, caffeine and smoking, especially near bedtime. Avoiding stimulating the brain at night, or eating a large meal near bedtime. Taking supplements of valerian, hops and passionﬂower before bed.

Pillow ingredients • 75g (3 oz) each of dried lavender and chamomile ﬂowers, holy basil, California poppy, lemon balm leaves • Oblong of cotton fab ric large enough to make a small pillow • Needle and thread How to make

1 2

Mix the herbs together in a bowl, adding a few drops of lavender oil if you wish. Stitch up three sides of the fabric oblong. Stuff the herbs into the bag and stitch up the rem aining opening to make a sm all pillow.

How to use Use at the side of your usual pillow to promote restful sleep and a clear head. You could also pla ce the herbs loose in a bowl by your bedside.

Invigorating foot bath Makes 1.5 litres (2.5 pints)

These enlivening herbs provide ingredients for an invigorating foot bath should exhaustion strike. Rosemary and holy basil are rich in antioxidants, increase resilience to stress and stimulate the mind; vervain and holy basil strengthen nerves, with vervain especially supportive of the body during times of stress. Borage is good for adrenal exhaustion. GROWING Cover the bottoms of four large pots with drainage material and ﬁll with multipurpose compost. In the ﬁrst pot plant the borage in the middle and surround with four basils. In the second pot plant the vervain, in the third pot plant the rosemary and in the fourth pot the thyme. Water regularly and feed weekly.

HAT H E ST

• HER B AL

For tiredness & exhaustion

Foot bath ingredients • 100g (3.5 oz) each of fre sh or 50g (2 oz) dried rosemary, ver vain, holy basil, thyme, borag e • 1.25 litres (2.5 pints) wa ter How to make

1 2

Place the herbs in a teapot. Pour over boiling water and leave to infuse for about half an hour.

How to use Pour into a bowl that is large enough for your ffee eet, che heck that the temperature is right and then soak your feet for 15 to 30 minutes twice a day, or when yo u feel the need for renewed energy.

PLANTS YOU WILL NEED

• 1 Borage • 4 holy basil • 1 Vervain (Verbena ofﬁcinalis) • 1 Rosemary • 1 Thyme

You could also try...

Drinking teas of the herbs used in this foot bath three to six times daily. Drinking teas of rejuvenating herbs such as wild oats, ginseng, gotu kola, ashwagandha, vervain or liquorice three to four times daily. Taking dandelion, burdock, red clover, or nettles if you are run down from illness or longterm drug therapy. Grow it! September 2011 45

• HER B AL

Veg grow guide

i ng pS rahead Sow a crop of spring onions this month to give you some of the very ﬁrst stems of the new growing season. Delicious, easy to grow and surprisingly hardy, they’ll do you proud, argues Wade Muggleton

eptember can be a funny old month: some crops have been and gone while others are still to be harvested, yet in terms of sowing and growing it can feel like there’s little to do. The humble spring onion, however, is at least one crop that can still be started off now. Often overlooked in favour of its larger and more bulbous siblings, the salad or bunching onion is a versatile addition to the vegetable plot, great in salads, stirfries and casseroles. It is remarkably easy to grow over a surprisingly long season. While perhaps not a high-proﬁle vegetable, it is an ancient one with references to the spring onion occurring in Chinese literature as far back as two thousand years ago. Spring onions are simply white onions which are harvested young – essentially an immature onion comprising a blanched white stem with a small white bulb at the base above ﬁne, creamy white roots and a slender green stalk to top it. Known to some as ‘scallions’, they belong to the Allium family, which includes the likes of garlic, leeks, shallots and chives. Although now available in the supermarkets all year, nothing beats the taste of pulling your own home-grown specimens from the soil just minutes before using them cooked or raw.

Ready, steady, sow!

There’s something of a myth that onions prefer poor soils. In truth nothing really likes poor soil – it’s more a case that some crops are better suited to coping with it than others, larger onions being a notable example. But spring onions will in fact do a lot better in a richer soil. They are particularly sensitive to acidity and don’t enjoy soils with a low pH (anything lower than 5.5 is a deﬁnite no-no). Liming is the traditional remedy to this situation and they will grow away far happier in soil with a pH of between 6.0 and 7.5. As a rule they dislike heavy soil, so work in some organic matter and perhaps even some grit if yours is especially heavy clay.

Quick, reliable and tasty: Spring onions are a must Keep young spring onions weed-free at all times

46 September 2011 Grow it!

Left: Repeat sowings wherever space allows every three weeks for a succession of harvests Below: Spring onions grow well in containers and make good companions with other salads such as lettuce

The seeds are very small and will need to sown into a fine drill, so work the soil to a fine tilth to finish it off. Spring onions may be sown outdoors from March to early September. Early sowings should be ready for harvest within about two months from the sowing date, giving you a quick turnaround crop. The plants are traditionally grown in rows or double rows, tough they can equally be broadcast sown by scattering the seed at random. Whichever method you choose, lightly cover the seeds over with half 1cm (0.5in) of soil. You can thin them if you want larger, more developed specimens but this isn‘t really necessary and I have always used them as they come. If sowings are repeated every three weeks or thereabouts you should enjoy a good supply all summer long, keeping the kitchen supplied from June to October. Later sowings from mid July onwards will then overwinter in the ground to provide an early spring crop the following year. Covering them with cloches from October onwards will give them added protection, extend the growing season in autumn, as well as reawakening growth earlier in spring. Cloches will protect your spring onions from the worst the winter can throw at them. Be sure to select a winter hardy variety such as ‘Evergreen Hardy White’ for these late-season sowings. Due to their relatively quick growth spring onions are often used as a gap or break crop, filling in those spaces left temporarily vacant between longer term

A spring onion festival

crops. They are also a great choice for sowing at the end of winter under the cover of a greenhouse, polytunnel or cold frame.

Keep them happy

Like the rest of the onion family spring onions are not good at competing with weeds. If neglected, the resulting weed growth will quickly out-compete Sow under cover from your crop, which makes regular the end of winter for a hand weeding or hoeing necessary. very early crop Only hand weed between the onions themselves as hoes and other tools will easily damage the stems. As the plants do not need a great depth of soil they are ideally suited to the container garden. They will do well in tubs and pots in multi-purpose compost so long as they are kept regularly watered. Spring onions may even be grown in the greenhouse within a standard seed tray. For overwintering purposes they will do better in the greenhouse, either in the soil or a container. Even if you have a large plot or allotment, a few in containers either under cover or by the back door will be handy and probably mean you’re more likely to use them as and when, as opposed to trudging to the bottom of the garden.

In the Taragona region of Spain a form of spring onion, known as ‘calçot’ has an entire festival dedicated to it. During the festival locals commune for what is, in effect, a vast onion barbeque. Thousands of the onions are grilled over charcoal, wrapped in newspaper to steam then eaten with a Romescu sauce consisting of nuts, garlic, tomatoes, vinegar oil and parsley. Served with bread and lashings of red wine, it seems the people of the region have elevated this humble vegetable to loftier heights.

If sowings are repeated every three weeks or so you should enjoy a good supply all summer long, keeping the kitchen supplied from June to October

Grow it! September 2011 47

Veg grow guide All members of the onion family are renowned as companion plants, their scent supposedly confusing pests and warding off problems. By their nature spring onions often accompany carrots, beetroot and lettuce, all of which are compatible in size and growing requirements and claimed as good companions. The onion family in general is also good alongside cabbages, potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes.

A healthy option

THOMPSON & MORGAN

Spring onions are a rich source of vitamin C and calcium, with high levels of vitamin A and potassium to boot.

Home-grown spring onions will save a pretty penny on supermarket prices

STEP-BY-STEP

Their flavour is far milder than onions and they can be used raw or cooked. To prepare them, wash and remove the roots. Peel off the outer skin then slice, chop or enjoy whole. Their appeal to the cook is their use in situations where a normal onion's flavour would be overpowering. However they are used they will impart a mild yet vibrant flavour. Whilst most commonly used in salads and Asian cuisine (Peking duck pancakes being a common association) spring onions also work well in dishes with seafood or beef. One surprisingly easy use is as a key ingredient in champ, where finely chopped spring onions are folded into creamy mashed potato with grated cheese to form a quick and incredibly tasty side dish. Spring onions also make a great garnish –

slice stalks lengthways and keep in iced water for 30 minutes for attractive curls. So as summer draws closer to its inevitable end, why not sow a couple of rows of overwintering spring onions, stick a cloche over them, water occasionally and next spring enjoy a ﬁne crop of lovely stems when little else is around to pick; a short spring from plot to plate.

All members of the onion family are renowned as companion plants

Growing spring onions

The seeds are very small, so to ensure Prepare the ground in advance by adequate contact between soil digging it over and at the same time crumbs and the seeds rake the ground to incorporating plenty of well-rotted organic matter. Give soil sufficient time to a fine tilth. Pick out any remaining weeds settle as spring onions prefer firm ground. and stones.

Spring onion seedlings are easily distinguished from others. The tiny green shoots are folded over at ﬁrst before unfurling to give the appearance of rounded blades of grass.

48 September 2011 Grow it!

The plants should need minimal thinning but any that are removed to allow others to grow on will be delicious in salads. Keep your crop weed free and watered during dry weather.

Broadcast sow the seeds or thinly sow them into 1cm (0.5in)-deep rows. Space rows 15-30cm (8-12in) apart depending on how big you wish the stems to grow. Pinch closed the rows.

Cover overwintering spring onions with cloches from mid to late October, though the hardiest varieties can survive with no protection. Pull the stems as soon as they are big enough.

WHAT TO GROW WHITE LISBON: The most popular and widely grown variety, its quick-growing nature and silvery skin make it the obvious choice if you are only growing one variety. It has good overwintering ability. Johnsons SAVEL: A modern variety with a tall, upright stem and attractive ﬂavour. Can be sown during the growing season for a summer or autumn crop. Sow densely to enjoy the thinnings as baby veg. Nicky’s Nursery PURPLETTE: This early variety has pretty purple-red skin. The glossy, rich burgundy turns a soft pastel pink once cooked or pickled. The early-to-mature ‘Purplette’ may be harvested golf ball size if desired. Marshalls RAMROD: A British-bred white bulb variety with stiff, erect leaves and that’s exceptionally winter hardy. Make successional sowings from spring onwards for summer, or autumn for spring crops. Mr Fothergill’s

White Lisbon

Purplette

ISHIKURA: Another vigorous Japanese variety with excellent ﬂavoured, slender white stalks that produce no bulb to the base. Sow from March to June for a crop from May to October. DT Brown

North Holland Blood Red

Ishikura

EVERGREEN HARDY WHITE: If your winters are severe then this one’s for you. It can be treated as a perennial by dividing the clumps in the second summer to produce a new crop. Nicky’s Nursery

✦ DT Brown: 0845 3710532, www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk ✦ Johnsons: 0845 6589147, www.johnsons-seeds.com ✦ Marshalls: 01480 443390, www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk ✦ Mr Fothergill’s: 0845 3710518, www.mr-fothergills.co.uk ✦ Nicky’s Nursery: 01843 600972, www.nickys-nursery.co.uk

NORTH HOLLAND BLOOD RED: Useful not only in salads but as a bulbing onion suitable for pickling, this is a very versatile onion. Its intense red colour makes it an interesting and tasty addition. DT Brown DEEP PURPLE: Nothing to do with the 70s rock band, ‘Deep Purple’ is the only redpurple bunching onion that remains highly coloured at any temperature or age. Sow in spring and summer. Marshalls HIMONITA: This very winterhardy Japanese variety looks similar to a baby leek. The thick stems are more pungent towards the leaves but milder to the base. Some thinning is needed if large stems are desired. Marshalls

SPRING ONION SEED SUPPLIERS

Next month Look

out for perry pears in our fruit grow guide Grow it! September 2011 49

Real growers

Tarmac to taters

Championship vegetables take a Herculean effort to ensure a pristine result. Celebrity gardener Medwyn Williams talks to Dawn Francis Pester about his methods for preparing vegetable displays to attract the crowds and the judges

elebrity gardener Medwyn Williams is no stranger to success, with countless awards from the big ﬂower shows under his belt, including an incredible 11 Gold Medals at Chelsea. These days, however, Medwyn is concentrating on Tatton Park. Hailing from Anglesey, he sees this Cheshire ﬂower show as his ‘local’, enjoying the relaxed feel 50 September 2011 Grow it!

as well as the stunning scenery of the surrounding area. He also welcomes its later timing. While Medwyn’s ﬁngers are clearly green, he tells me his life didn’t always revolve around gardening. “I started out as a highway engineer but found I had no interest whatsoever in tarmac. So then I became responsible for verge maintenance in the council, which

basically meant killing plants. By now the gardening, which had started out as a hobby, was getting out of control too and I was beginning to dream about prestigious ﬂower shows.” Coming out of chapel one Sunday Medwyn took the plunge and asked a friend for space in his large greenhouse in Bangor. After taking early retirement from his council post, he could now concentrate on his passion.

2 1. Last year’s Gold Medalwinning Chelsea Flower Show display 2. The devil’s in the detail. Here team member Bryn dresses one of the tomato pyramids with parsley 3. Medwyn ties in his tomatoes 4. Inspecting the crop of lettuce ‘Sandrine’, a butterhead variety which forms large hearts

3 Expanding empire

Raising the proﬁle

Medwyn believes the simple act of growing and picking your own vegetables and eating them the same day is a privilege to be prized. For him the whole point of flower shows is to raise the profile of vegetables, which he thinks are more colourful than flowers – with the added bonus that you can eat them! “Local shows are part of our heritage and there’s something nostalgic about vegetable displays in a hot marquee smelling of grass at the village show. You don’t have to start big. I’d advise any new grower to get their next local show schedule and begin planning.” While Medwyn suggests new vegetable growers start planting food they like to eat, he is also quick to point out that the choice of vegetables for eating or showing is between the vegetable and the gardener. He has a particular knack for growing long carrots, which have impressed many a judge, but each grower needs to make their own choices depending on their soil, climate and levels of enthusiasm. To keep the enthusiasm going, it’s important to start with a few quick, easy crops that can be grown within about ten weeks. Suitable candidates include lettuce and French beans. Yet Medwyn also feels that new gardeners should be aware of some of the possible pitfalls. “Sometimes the gardening programmes make it all look too easy. It’s good to be enthusiastic but you also need to be realistic and know about things like carrot fly, otherwise it’s too

4 easy to down tools and go back to the supermarket.” But before you even think about planting, it’s crucial to have the best conditions possible, especially if you are planning to take on the more seasoned growers with your exhibits at the prestigious shows. “My biggest tip would be to have your soil analysed before growing anything. This only costs about £20 but without this you can waste a lot of time with a willy-nilly approach that will get you nowhere fast. You might ﬁnd your soil is high in phosphates if the previous gardener used a lot of bonemeal, or you might need to add particular nutrients. It’s also worth testing the soil pH every two or three years.”

When Medwyn was first given tables in the greenhouse in Bangor he was well aware of the need for heat and light early in the year for spring shows, such as Chelsea. He made such good use of this space that both his plants and his passion expanded rapidly until, after a couple of seasons, everyone else had left and he began paying rent for the entire area. Over a decade later and Medwyn now has three growing areas. He grows some vegetables at home but has a large greenhouse for early starts, as well as six and a half acres of land on the Menai Straits of Anglesey. He describes this last area as ‘the best land on the island’. It also includes a polytunnel and a glasshouse. “Greenhouses are great, and for champion growers a necessity rather than a luxury. But you do get anxious when it’s freezing outside and there’s just a pane of glass between your plants and total destruction. A while back I had plastic sheets over the top of the greenhouse. It was fantastic insulation until the seagulls started pecking at them. Then one day the whole roof blew off. “I’ve also learnt a lot about container growing from growing on tables or concrete floors in greenhouses. I used to grow cauliflowers in 15-litre pots. It’s useful to be able to move containers

"I'd advise any new grower to get their local show schedule and begin planning"

Grow it! September 2011 51

Real growers around but you need a peat-based compost to anchor the roots. You’ll ﬁnd yourself constantly adding food, so try and get some slow-release fertilisers.”

Fine art

While Medwyn’s displays are definitely creative and well thought out, he can only win prizes with the perfect combination of artistry and the bestquality crops. He believes all growers benefit from their own system of trial and error, but is also quick to share his own tips for growing quality vegetables. Tomatoes are a popular choice for flower shows and Medwyn emphasises that it’s important to plant these as early as possible in March. When the seedling is uprooted it should be replanted with the first proper leaf lying just above the soil level. This allows the hairs growing down the stem to provide further anchorage by contributing to the root system. Once the tomatoes are ready to pick, they need to be plump, round and evenly ripe, to catch the eyes of the judges. Although Medwyn enjoys growing long carrots, which he plants in deep drums or pipes, there are of course many varieties of carrot to choose from that will suit different growers. For Medwyn the biggest enemy of the champion carrot grower is carrot fly. His advice is to use fleece across the growing area to create a barrier, with the added bonus of increasing the soil temperature. Medwyn suggests growing prize potatoes in polythene pots, but remembering that each pot will need individual watering for the tubers to receive enough water. For his potatoes he uses a peat-based compost but stresses that fertiliser must be raked in too, for added food value.

Planning for perfection

With over 40 varieties of vegetable in his displays, including a range of new and unusual varieties, it’s clear that the vegetable arrangements take some planning. Medwyn describes each display as a family venture, with three generations working on them throughout the year. “It’s not just a question of harvesting the vegetables and getting them to the shows,” he

1 tells me. “The vegetables have to be carefully washed so that their colours look vibrant, but not scrubbed so hard that they get spoilt. “Apart from the bright colours, one reason my displays are so striking is that they have height. We take three large bags of moss to the show, which helps to add height to some parts of the display, but we also use lot of props which need to be stored carefully for most of the year. There are various baskets, stands and telescopic things that slide up and down. Sometimes stuff gets broken, so you need to inspect the equipment before the show, allowing time for repairs or replacements if necessary.” Medwyn remembers one year when they found mould on the equipment a bit too close to a show date. These days he uses a dehumidiﬁer to keep the storage area mould free.

With over 40 varieties of vegetable in his displays, it's clear the arrangements take some planning 52 September 2011 Grow it!

Assembling the display

While each display is unique, the general plan is the same and the centrepiece is always similar. Leeks – the national symbol of Wales – always have pride of place in the middle or top of the display, arranged in a column and usually prepared back home. Onions normally sit below this and then the rest of the display consists mainly of dishes of vegetables, depending on the colours and shapes available. “Gradually the stand starts to come alive as the vibrant colours buzz around you,” explains Medwyn. “You really need to think carefully about the colours and see the different dishes and baskets as your artist’s palette. There are so many bright vegetables to choose from, but watch out for the duller colours. One year we had a problem with sprouts which were a dead matt colour, and these had to be strategically placed, not to detract from the brighter food. You just keep working until everything

1. Vegetables such as these kohl rabi must be carefully cleaned to ensure their vibrant colour 2. Assembling the display takes many hours of painstaking work. Here Medwyn gets to grips with the celery ‘Morning Star’ 3. All hands on deck: Assembly of the display gets underway 4. Potato ‘NVS Amour’ is an eye-catcher that helps to bring colour to a display 5. Family affair: The Williams celebrate another successful result

is right, but my wife Gwenda has the final say. She has a good eye for detail and seems to know instinctively when it’s done.” As the crowds start to gather, people are quickly drawn in and fascinated by the arrangements. Soon the area around Medwyn’s display is five or six people deep. They comment and compliment, and begin to look puzzled as well as impressed. “I’m often asked if the vegetables are real and I answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ depending on my mood at the time! While they might be bigger and brighter than the average crops, this doesn’t mean they aren’t fit to eat. These vegetables are champions in every way and – just in case there’s any doubt – definitely real! “Once I overheard a lady ask my wife how I managed to grow the leeks so close together in a column. I was

tempted to give a mischievous answer and I noticed my wife hesitate brieﬂy, but she soon went on to explain about the way we put the column together after harvesting.”

Force of nature

While you’d think Medwyn might be able to grow vegetables in his sleep, he tells me there’s nothing better than working with nature for bringing everything down to a very human level. “Sometimes I wake up with a jolt and think I’ve forgotten to plant something. You can’t catch up with nature, so if you forget something you’ve had it really. It’s always useful to keep a diary and make notes of what you’ve done when, but even then, not everything works.” However carefully you select the plants to grow, you can’t order the right weather, and Medwyn remembers

some years when crops have failed due to unusually dry spells or too much rain. The bad December weather last year, followed by the dry heat in April, made early shows particularly difﬁcult to prepare for this year. “You have to remember gardening is a labour of love and embrace the idea that some things are beyond your control. There will always be a few disasters but the challenges make it very rewarding.” With so many medals and prizes it seems that Medwyn rises to the challenges pretty well. After more success at Tatton Park this year I look forward to seeing his future displays of vegetable artistry.

0 To ﬁnd more growing and showing

tips from Medwyn Williams go to www.medwynsofanglesey.co.uk

Grow it! September 2011 53

Fruit grow guide

Fabulous figs Soft, sweet and flavoursome, figs are the last word in luxury. If you can give a tree a warm spot and restrict its root run you’ll be guaranteed a fine crop, as Lucy Halliday reveals

54 September 2011 Grow it!

arely does a fruit come laden with as much mystique and cultural significance as the fig. Figs were one of the first cultivated plants; semifossilised fruits have been found in the valley of Jordan dating to 9,400 BC. They have long been a very important food source where they grow. Their range is wide, with the hardy and vigorous fruits finding many homes as it followed human agriculture out of the fig’s native climes. The history of the fig has become woven into religions and cultures the world over. Buddha achieved enlightenment under a fig tree, figs feature in the Qur’an and Muhammad recommends them as a cure for piles and haemorrhoids. In Greek mythology Apollo’s crow was tempted by figs and punished by being thrown into the sky to create the constellation Corvus. The Romans fed their geese on figs to create the perfect foie gras and even the word ‘sycophant’ comes from the Greek word sykophantes, which means ‘to show the fig’ in reference to a rude hand gesture!

Shattered preconceptions

Often considered a great luxury and, to some, an aphrodisiac, figs aren’t as difficult to grow here in the UK as you might imagine. Given the right conditions they will do well, proving a great addition to the fruit grower’s repertoire. Low maintenance figs are easy to grow. Even in the north of the country it should be possible to produce a good crop of ripe figs in a decent summer. Grow a fig tree within a container, in the greenhouses, trained against walls or fences or as specimen trees. Their reputation as either thuggishly vigorous or too tricky for our climate is simply undeserved – figs just need a bit of sensible management and care in the choice of growing site. The noble trees will reward you with their sense of gravitas – rugged trunks like elephants’ legs, sinewy branches and gorgeous Figs have a delicious green architectural flesh that’s full of leaves of true elegance. folklore – and flavour! Their beautiful transformation from bare knobbly twigs to a lush reminder of the glories of the Mediterranean will make you want to luxuriate in their shade on hot summer days as you await a taste of that most unique of fruits.

Tempting decisions

Figs (Latin name Ficus carica) are large, deciduous shrubs or small trees native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean. They have an unusual fruiting system too complex to

Figs boast deeply lobed leaves, making them attractive plants in their own right

FIGS FOR FREE Most ﬁgs are not raised from seed as this is a lengthy process and somewhat unreliable. Hardwood or semi-ripe cuttings can work very well and are easy to try at home. Take cuttings from non-fruiting sections of twiggy stem in April. Look for stems that are between pencil and little ﬁnger thickness and cut to 20-25cm (8-10in) long. Cut these to a bud at both ends and damage the cutting slightly at the base end (nearest the trunk). Do this by cutting away a thin sliver of bark in one or two places. This marks the end that will be placed into compost and stimulates rooting. Dip each cutting into hormone rooting liquid and push into pots of quality multipurpose compost so at least two-thirds of the cutting is buried.

At Knightshayes Court Kitchen Garden, Devon, where I currently work, the gardeners have had great success propagating ﬁg cuttings in a Victorian-style hotbed heated by rapidly decomposing manure to temperatures of up to 40°C. Not a single cutting has failed! This shows that some serious rious bottom heat will really improve prove your chances, if you can provide ovide it. Failing that, water your ur cuttings well and keep them em out of full sun in a warm greenhouse or cold ld frame. Cuttings can n root in as little ttle as two months in ideal conditions nditions but may take longer, nger, so patience is required. quired.

detail hear but, in summary, they bear two fruit crops each year (and sometimes three in hotter countries). In Britain only the second of these will ever ripen as after over-wintering the young fruits will benefit from a second summer to fill out and ripen fully. Because of this quirk you will have to be firm and remove any fruits, however promising, that haven’t ripened by November. Leave the tiny – sometimes even pinhead-sized – embryonic fruits nestling within the leaf axils intact; these will form next year’s crop. By removing those fruits that have no chance of ripening it will save the tree from wasting its energy. Of all the varieties, ‘Brown Turkey’ is the most commonly grown thanks to its tough and reliably

Grow it! September 2011 55

Fruit grow guide WHAT TO GROW

cropping nature. It is also the best for more northerly areas. However, there are a number of other fig varieties which will do well here, so don’t just settle for the most common, especially if you are looking to plant more than one tree. Figs have the best chance within a greenhouse. Here you could try heat-loving greenish-yellow fig ‘Castle Kennedy’, or perhaps ‘Rouge de Bordeaux’ with its purple fruits and deep red flesh. Back outside ‘Brunswick’ will do well in the South, while ‘White Marseille’ is earlier to ripen with its yellow fruits. Figs are self-fertile so you can grow as few or as many as you have space for.

Get growing

Figs do well in Although figs will grow on poor soil containers, but they in their native lands, it’s a bit of a will need potting on myth that you have to starve them. in stages to keep the Give them a loamy soil with plenty roots restricted of compost or well-rotted manure for best results. They cope well with there is another reason to reign in root growth: drought but prefer a moist but free-draining soil, restricting roots stops the development of too so add plenty of grit to the planting hole if yours much non-fruiting wood, hence giving a better is a heavy clay soil. Within containers use a John crop. Therefore a large container is ideal, with Innes Number 3 compost with 20% extra grit pot diameters starting at about 30-40cm (12-16in) added. A sheltered south or west-facing aspect and only moving up when it becomes pot-bound, is essential for the sun-loving fig so that it can get every couple of years. You can also restrict roots by the warmth it needs. planting your tree up against a substantial garden The key with figs is to wall. This will limit to some extent the tree’s spread, consider more what will especially when coupled with tough pruning. happen below ground One of the best methods for growing a wallthan above. Figs can trained or free-standing fig is to line a 60cm (23in) have vigorous roots, square planting hole with 5cm (2in)-thick paving which carry a reputation slabs, making sure they sit slightly proud of for destroying ground level to prevent roots sneaking over the foundations. This means top. You don’t have to ensure a perfect seal at the it’s never a great idea edges as the fig should be allowed to escape in to plant a tree right a few places. To give good drainage, add a 20cm next to the foundations (8in) layer of any broken bricks, pots or rubble you of a house. However, have to hand then backfill, adding compost, wellrotted manure or John Innes Number 3 compost. Plant a pot-grown fig to its original soil level, not teasing out the roots to keep in line with the ‘treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen’ policy.

ANDRE CHRISTMAN

Fruitful path

Above: A thorough watering and feeding regime is essential once the fruits start to swell. Removing excess leaves around ﬁgs in summer will help them to mature

56 September 2011 Grow it!

Figs don’t need too much aftercare but, like any other ther fruit tree, will need some attention when it comes mes to watering, feeding and d pruning. Although ﬁgs can cope ope with dry conditions as evidenced by their growing ing in rocky crevices in their native ive countries, this can cause the fruit to drop, so water ater plants regularly during

BROWN TURKEY: A great variety for cropping just about anywhere in Britain. It will reward you with large, pear-shaped figs from the end of August into September. Mr Fothergill’s ROUGE DE BORDEAUX: Grow this classic fig in a greenhouse and you may well enjoy two crops a year. Its bluepurple skin opens to reveal a tempting strawberry flesh. Reads Nursery CASTLE KENNEDY: One of the earliest varieties to crop, ‘Castle Kennedy’ bears very large fruits with a green-yellow colour skin and soft, amber flesh that’s stained red. Reads Nursery BRUNSWICK: This is a reliable choice for outdoors, tolerating much wetter and colder conditions than many. Yields are high and the figs have a very sweet flavour. Thompson & Morgan PANACHEE: The stripy fruits of this beauty earn it its other name of the ‘Tiger’ fig. It has exceptional flavour and is very cold resistant, making it pretty and hardy. Thompson & Morgan WHITE MARSEILLE: The pale fruits of ‘White Marseille’ are a real winner. There are trees of this variety in London’s Lambeth Palace that are almost 500 years old! Carreglefn Nurseries Ca

'Panachee'

LONDON LOOKS

Growing figs

NIM

the summer season. Water consistently to ensure the fruits don’t split. Feed figs in early spring using a balanced fertiliser such as Growmore or blood, fish and bone. Sprinkle this over the soil around the roots then top up with a mulch of wellrotted manure. Fragrant and bronzed: ripe fruits of the Once the tiny fruits accommodating begin to swell begin ‘Brown Turkey’ fig feeding weekly with a high-potassium plant food such as any tomato fertiliser or a seaweedbased feed like Maxicrop Original. The common ‘Brown Turkey’ is very hardy, surviving winters in the mountains and temperatures down to -10°C. That said frost can damage figs. Trees can mostly live with this but it is worth offering them some protection, especially if you only have one tree. Layers of horticultural fleece will do the trick and will help to keep the fruit-bearing tips safer. Wall-trained trees can have their branches packed in with straw but make sure this is all removed along with any coverings by mid-May.

STEP-BY-STEP

Pruning trees

Figs can put on a lot of growth when they are happy so pruning is a must and will allow you to improve the shape and structure of your tree. The sap is an irritant so always wear gloves when pruning. Trees can take a good hacking and the best time to do this is in spring – mid April in the south and the end of April further north. Remove any branches which are not in line with your desired shape, whether open crown or fantrained against a wall. A good pruning book will give advice on achieving trained shapes. Take the opportunity to prune out any branches that are crossing or damaged by frost, and always cut off just below ground level any suckers that are poking through away from the tree. Aim to leave 30cm (12in) between all branches and try to cut away those that don’t have fruiting buds on them, taking them back to one bud from the base. In summer, before the end of July, you can prune a little more, pinching back outwardgrowing shoots to ﬁve or six leaves to stop them shading the ripening fruit. In autumn – and certainly by November – don’t forget to remove any fruit that hasn’t ripened, leaving just the tiny embryonic ﬁglets to take all the energy they need for next year. Figs are ready for picking when they are soft to a gentle squeeze. They should also be fragrant and fully coloured, mostly in shades of purplebrown depending on the variety. Twist them gently off the branch and prepare for something truly special!

Despite their reputation, figs will perform better given a fertile, moisture-retentive yet free-draining soil. If necessary, add plenty of grit to improve drainage. A layer of rubble, broken bricks, pot shards etc will help to further aid drainage. Add this layer to the bottom of your planting hole. Position your fig and backfill the hole, firming as you go. For best results restrict the root run of the fig by lining the sides of your planting hole with paving slabs.

Figs will thrive best in a fully sunny site. Pruning takes place in spring, with poorly placed branches removed. A second, lighter prune is carried out in summer. In November be brutal – this is the time to remove any fruits that didn’t ripen fully. Only leave in place the very smallest ﬁglets to ripen for next summer. Figs are ready for picking when they become softer to touch and take on their full colour. The ﬁnal depth of colour will vary with the variety you grow.

Fig tree suppliers ✦ Carreglefn Nurseries: 01407 711148,

www.carreglefn-nurseries.co.uk ✦ Mr Fothergill’s: 0845 3710518, www.mr-fothergills.co.uk ✦ Reads Nursery: 01508 548395, www.readsnursery.co.uk ✦ Thompson & Morgan: 0844 2485383, www.thompson-morgan.com

Grow it! September 2011 57

Know-how

Second helpings Get more from this season’s crops and increase your total take. Dave Hamilton investigates ways of boosting productivity by minimising waste and coaxing bonus harvests from established plants

t’s always remarkable watching long distance runners continuing to plod along the last few miles of a race, seemingly completely spent of energy and ready to drop at any moment. Then, out of nowhere, they muster up a final spurt of energy to sprint across the finishing line. The human body is truly remarkable in its ability to draw on its reserves to find that last little bit of energy when it has to. The natural world is full of examples of this. Elephants, for example, can walk hundreds of miles in search of water with nothing to eat or drink on the way. Dying plants will put on a much more spectacular display of flowers than a healthy plant as it thinks this may be its last chance to reproduce. All this may seem irrelevant to the vegetable plot, but at this time of year our plants are very much like the marathon runner coming into that final mile, or a dehydrated elephant looking for that watering hole to revitalise the heard. On the veg plot it can sometimes appear like there’s nothing more for our plants to give, yet it’s usually possible to squeeze that little extra out of them. Furthermore, we can often harvest parts of the plant we’d normally overlook; just because we are not used to seeing them as edible, it doesn’t mean they aren’t.

Boost your tomatoes

Tomatoes should be cropping well at this time of year but can look a little lacklustre towards the

Sprouting broccoli offers two crops in one: tender spears and delicate leaves

TOP TIP

Bananas will help to ripen off-plant fruits such as tomatoes

58 September 2011 Grow it!

end of the season when they start to endure all kinds of illnesses and nutrient deficiencies. This is particularly so when plants are grown within the confines of a container, grow bag or raised bed. Nutrient deficiencies, such as that of magnesium, cause the area between the veins of the leaf to yellow and discolour. Known as ‘interveinal chlorosis’, it can be addressed with a boost of feed, such as Maxicrop or a homemade comfrey liquid feed. However, severe deficiencies usually mark the beginning of the end for a plant, so if it’s got to this stage it is perhaps time to consign tired plants to the compost heap after harvesting any remaining fruits. Green tomatoes can be placed into a drawer, bag or lidded saucepan (not on the hob!) with a ripe banana. This may seem strange, but bananas release ethylene gas which encourages other fruits to ripen, signalling to the hard, green tomatoes to turn red. Chillies and peppers can

Coddle plants

Tomato plants in their native Mexico and South America don’t have autumn frosts sweeping in and killing them off. Instead they enjoy a far longer growing season in balmy weather. Fruits, therefore, have that little bit longer to fully ripen. In chilly old Britain we have to treat the tomato more like that long distance runner, squeezing that last bit of energy out of the plant to ensure a decent crop. In order to achieve this with minimal fuss remove the upright supports of the tomato plant and lay the plants down along the ground on a bedding of straw. Cover the plants with a series of cloches or a small homemade polytunnel. This will give the plants extra protection from the coming frost, while offering added warmth to ripen those last few green tomatoes. The protection doesn’t have to be horizontal. If you have enough bubble wrap or plastic sheeting you could fashion a protective tepee arrangement around the plant to give it enough protection from the cold.

Two for one

Digging out old cabbage and other brassica stalks from heavy soil is undoubtedly hard work. These tough customers root deeply into the soil and despite appearances are still very much alive, even after the cabbage head has been cut. With a little coaxing, harvested plants can be made to sprout up from the stumps that remain after cutting. Simply cut a cross in the stump, give it a good water if the weather’s dry then, with luck, four smaller cabbages will miraculously sprout up from the stump. Other plants in the cabbage family can provide an extra crop over and above the one intended. For example, the leaves of sprouting broccoli can be eaten all year round, while turnip tops can be cooked or used in a salad. In both cases you’ll need to take care not to rob the plant of too many leaves so that the plant is still able to provide the crop you’d originally intended it for.

Run radish, run

Walk along the coast of the Isles of Scilly in June and you will notice a strange-looking plant of the cabbage family with even stranger looking seed

BRASSICA BONUSES CROP

ADDITIONAL HARVEST

Radishes

Leave semi-bolted plants to continue to ﬂowering stage. Eat the seed pods

Cabbages

Cut an ‘X’ in the stump left after harvesting. Allow new mini cabbages to sprout up

Brussels sprouts

Leave a few sprouts on plants to unravel. Enjoy these as a sprouting broccoli substitute

Purple sprouting broccoli

The leaves can also be eaten

Turnips

Eat the leaves, keeping enough intact to ensure the roots can mature properly

pods. These pods look a bit like small pea pods, or perhaps an enlarged version of the seeds you might ﬁnd on a bolted rocket plant. They are perfectly edible, belonging to a wild radish, and make a great snack or a tasty addition to a salad or stir-fry. es These wild curiosities are related to our ch Rat-tail radish is a domestic radish, which great snack or a itself will provide tasty addition ft edible seed pods if left to a salad or to bolt. It may not be stir-fry ional worth growing traditional radishes just for their edible pods, but it’s reassuring to know all’s not lost should they run to seed. If you fancy growing plants speciﬁcally for pods then try the ‘rat-tail’ radish, which forms bigger and tastier seed pods. However, if your radishes Rat-tail radish have already started to bolt and seedpods are an the roots are beginning to get unusual addition to the veg patch woody then, if room allows, why not let some of the plants go to seed? This way a plant that would have gone onto the compost heap will still give something edible.

TOP TIP

RUBBER SLIPPERS IN ITALY

also be picked green and allowed to ripen. The advantage of this sort of post-harvest ripening is that the fruits will ripen much more slowly than they would on the plant, helping to avoid a sudden glut. I’ve eaten tomatoes and peppers stored this way right up until early December. Be sure to inspect regularly for any that go a little mouldy. Of course, there is no end of recipes for green tomato chutney – a particularly yummy pickled treat. Cucumber and green tomato relish is also very tasty and I have a friend who regularly makes green tomato and chilli ketchup with which he smothers his spicy potato wedges.

Sprouted sprouts

Another sneaky harvest I’ve found from the versatile cabbage family comes courtesy of Brussels sprouts. Most kitchen gardeners know you can harvest the leafy greens at the top of the plant, but few seem to know the curious behaviour of this plant when it is left in the ground for longer than intended. Leave plants to their own devices and they will turn into something akin to sprouting broccoli as each of the sprouts slowly unravels to form a ﬂowering spike. Much of the bitterness of the sprout is lost if it is allowed to form these spikes, so much so they can even be eaten raw. The sprouted sprouts can also be used in the same way as sprouting broccoli – steamed with a little butter and lemon dressing.

Still green tomatoes are a common sight at the end of the growing season

Grow it! September 2011 59

Know-how GET MORE FOR LESS

Sweet stalk

Sweetcorn is a grass and, like many grasses (including sugar cane), it has a pithy carbohydrate-rich centre. Before they dry out the stalks can be put through an old-fashioned mangle or crushed with a hammer to produce a sweet, green liquid similar in taste to wheatgrass juice. Like other sweet liquids such as birch sap this liquid increases in sweetness as it’s reduced down in a pan. The sweet liquid can take some time to reduce and unless you have a source of heat that’s free or cheap (wood) or on all the time (eg an Aga) this may only worth doing in the spirit of experimentation. I found it a fun thing to do once, though I doubt if I’ll do it every year! As an alternative the stalks of sweetcorn can be used to make natural fencing. Stalks will last about a season before they start to disintegrate and look destined for the compost bin.

PLANT/CROP

ADDITIONAL USE

Poppy

Let the seed head dry out then use the seeds in bread and cake making

Nigella/Love-in-a-mist

Dry out the seed heads then collect the seeds to use a substitute for cumin

Sunﬂower heads

Leave to feed the birds or hang from a tree within a string cradle to make a pretty bird feeder

Nasturtiums

Eat the edible ﬂowers and leaves, or enjoy the buds blanched or as an alternative to capers. The stems can be used in soups

Peas

Eat the shoots – the pea tops

Broad beans

Baby broad beans can be eaten like mange tout. Leftover seeds can be sown into small plants and the resulting seedlings eaten in salads

Bonus beetroots

Beetroot is the prime example of a vegetable that looks very different in the shops to how it appears naturally. Supermarket beetroot is often peeled and pickled, or sold in bunches with the leaves and stalks removed. Yet in many parts of the world, including Russia, the leaves and stalks are widely eaten and are often turned into soup. Beetroot is very similar to perpetual spinach, chard and wild sea beet. These plants are so genetically similar they share the same Latin name of Beta vulgaris with only the subspecies name maritima indicating what little difference there is. It means that the leaves of beetroot can be used in the same way as perpetual spinach or chard, as a tasty and nutritious leafy green. One method of preparing the leaves and stalks of beetroot is to ﬁnely chop them up before frying for a couple of minutes in a little

TOP TIP

Beetroot leaves can be eaten just like perpetual spinach or chard butter. After frying, cover cove co verr the ve th greens ns with wit ith stock it and, if you wish, add other chopped vegetables such as carrot or turnip. Once all the vegetables are softened they can be spiced up with some curry powder or a little cayenne pepper then liquidised. Another option is to add a little crème fraiche' or a dollop of cream or, if you prefer a taste of the exotic, ﬂavour with lime and a splash of coconut milk. Needless to say this is a very delicious way of turning otherwise wasted foliage into a delicious extra. Young beetroot leaves may also be used in salads, but just as you would for turnip or sprouting broccoli leaves, keep enough leaves in place to allow the plant to mature and form those tasty roots.

Safe experimenting

Broad bean seedlings are tasty in salads

TOP TIP

Sweetcorn stalks can be crushed to produce a sweet liquid similar to wheatgrass 60 September 2011 Grow it!

There are plenty of other less-common uses for other food plants missed from this short article. If you feel encouraged to experiment it’s worth pointing out that you should do so safely. Thoroughly research those plants that may have poisonous parts to them. For example, the leaves of tomatoes, potatoes and most of the nightshade family are poisonous and should be avoided at all costs. Some members of the pea family can also be quite toxic. Once these potentially toxic parts are identiﬁed endless possibilities for new edible uses of everyday plants may begin to turn up. With a little research and experimentation you could start seeing your vegetable plot in a whole new light.

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GI July 11 Polanter.indd 2

26/05/2011 12:55

PRACTICAL PROJECT: SEPTEMBER

Green your outlook

Any roof can be capped with plants, offering a soothing backdrop or even another growing space. Andy Cawthray explains how to set up a simple green roof

he concept of green roofs has become increasingly publicised over the last few years, not least because of the environmental beneﬁts of having a living, breathing space where once there was nothing. Green roofs will transform an otherwise dull space into something aesthetically pleasing, while also providing you with yet another growing space. This month’s project takes you through the steps you need to master to go about constructing a simple and effective green roof in your own garden. There are options to buy

readymade matting that can be rolled out and attached to a roof, but at over £20 a metre this can prove a little prohibitive (especially as this whole project costs less than £20 if you sow or propagate your own plants). Better instead to build your own, that way you can decide the planting plan and

over the years it will pad out and provide the same effect as the matting. It also enables you to create your own, bespoke blend of weather-hardy plants, such as sedums, alpines, mosses, grasses, seasonal herbs and houseleeks. I picked out one of our temporary chicken houses as the roof pitch was just right and the structure needed no additional strengthening. You could apply the same design principles to a shed, log store or even atop a bird box.

Green roofs will transform an otherwise dull space into something aesthetically pleasing

What you will need Materials r or ✔ An offcut of pond line damp-proof liner or ✔ Geotextile membrane some old blankets ard ✔ Sufﬁcient Yorkshire bo r ete rim pe the und aro to go of the roof ✔ Sack of 10mm gravel ed ✔ Peat-free compost mix with some sharp sand ing ✔ Suitable plants, includ s sedum, grasses, houseleek ✔ Screws Tools ✔ Drill ✔ Saw ✔ Screwdriver

The plants will soon knit together to create a rich, dense green roof

62 September 2011 Grow it!

STEP-BY-STEP

Setting up a green roof

Identify a suitable roof structure, ideally with a 9-10 degree pitch. Check it is strong enough to take the weight of a saturated green roof or add supporting framework. Crossbeams attached to the side supports and roof will help, if necessary.

Cut lengths of board to create a shallow box on top of the roof. This will stop the planting medium from washing off. Allow a 5mm (0.25in) gap between the board and the roof on the lower edge to allow water to drain away.

Add a 2cm (1in) layer of the gravel to the roof. While it’s important the growing medium should hold onto moisture, it shouldn’t get excessively wet. This layer will aid water dispersal and drainage, keeping plant roots healthy.

Attach the section of pond liner or damp proof membrane. Make sure it overlaps the edges so that water will run off and not seep into the roof. Staple the membrane into position and trim off any excess with a knife or pair of scissors.

Staple the geotextile membrane (or old blanket) to the interior of the box structure. The membrane will help to retain moisture and keep the growing medium moist, thereby reducing the need for frequent watering.

The ﬁnal step before planting is to add about 5cm (2in) of the compost and sharp sand mix into the box. Level this out then start planting up your green roof. Keep plants watered in dry weather until they are established. Grow it! September 2011 63

Poultry

Mitey effective? Red mite may be a common problem of chickens but the tiny parasites aren’t always that obvious. Thankfully timely treatment will keep infestations in check, says Terry Beebe

ealing with red mite involves ﬁrst realising a problem exists. Although this may sound obvious, you’d be surprised how many keepers remain blissfully unaware they have an infestation, even when their birds are dying as a result. Part of the problem is the size of these pests; they are tiny. Couple this with the fact that they typically only operate at night, spending daylight hours hidden out of sight, and you start to appreciate how they might be missed by the uninitiated.

Spotting trouble

Even the name ‘red mite’ is deceptive as, most of the time, these tiny creatures aren’t red at all. Their natural colour is an unassuming beige-grey. It’s only after they have had a good feed that they turn a blood-red colour. This is, of course, because they are full of blood. 64 September 2011 Grow it!

Bad infestations can cause fatalities, as birds first become lethargic, then anaemic and finally succumb. As if this isn’t bad enough, many keepers fail to recognise the signs, concluding instead that their birds are suffering with some other disease. The trouble is, once red mite gains a foothold it’s very hard to shift them. It’s likely in most cases you’ll never completely eradicate er these pests; the best be you can hope for is to keep their numbers at a tolerable level. Tell-tale signs of a red mite mi infestation are as follows. fo The first signs can be that you start feeling

itchy after being inside your poultry house, especially at dusk or after dark. Red mites are attracted to body heat and, although they can’t harm you, it’s an unpleasant feeling nonetheless. If you itch, take a shower and wash your clothes. Check for evidence of what looks like cigarette ash – a grey, dust-like material – in nest boxes, on the underside of perches and where they are supported at either end. This substance is the mites’ fecal matter. You may notice birds becoming increasingly reluctant to go into the house to roost, preferring instead to hang around outside or even settle on top. Birds will become lethargic and disinterested; wings will droop and they’ll simply stand around in a generally

The life of the mite Close-up: Red mite are only red like this after feeding

• Red mite feed directly on the bird, mostly at night. Once they’ve had their ﬁll, they crawl back into their hiding places to breed and lay eggs. • It takes one to two hours to feed, while eggs take two to three days to hatch. The larvae develop legs within 24 hours then reach maturity and start feeding after just 48. • A female mite can lay as many as 120,000 eggs.

ANTI–MITE PRODUCTS

The tell-tale, cigarette ash-like fecal matter from red mite

Red Mite Concentrate X: A concentrated liquid that dilutes with water.

Red Mite Powder: An environmentally-friendly powder designed to be used directly on the bird, its bedding and nest box. Poultry Shield: Available ready-to-spray or as a concentrate. Diatom: Use this powder anywhere in the housing or under bedding.

depressed state. There will be a loss of colour in the comb and wattle, with both becoming noticeably pale. Affected birds may also present half-closed or closed eyes and may even fall over with blood loss-related exhaustion.

Prevention and control

Red mite activity is confined to the hen house, so this must be your centre of activity when dealing with them. They take shelter in every nook and cranny. Unfortunately, wooden houses present multiple hiding places; hence the difficulty in dealing with infestations effectively. The golden rule is to inspect and treat on a regular basis. Never simply imagine that one good clean-out and treatment will do the trick! During the warmer months (late April to October) spray the inside of the house thoroughly every four to five days. The red mite has a seven-day breeding cycle, which is why treatment must be made so frequently. Make sure the anti-mite product thoroughly soaks all areas of the house that are likely to harbour red mite; spray application is generally best. Always follow the product instructions to the letter, especially with regard to the welfare of your birds. The frequency of spraying during the winter months can be reduced to once every fortnight. Just because the activity of these creatures diminishes when the temperatures fall, it doesn’t mean they’ve gone away; they’re simply dormant. Always use a powder disinfectant under the house bedding material and in the nest boxes as an added line of attack. Stalosan F or Diatom are good products for use in this way. Avoid using straw as a bedding material if possible. Dry,

dust-free, softwood shavings are best and although the mite do get into the shavings, they are easier to see there than if under straw.

Alternative methods

Garlic is another natural protector and will help if you add a couple of cloves to your birds’ drinking water. Many users believe that once the garlic gets into a bird’s bloodstream, it becomes a less attractive target to red mite. However, I’ve not come across any authoritative evidence to back this up. A propane blowtorch can be used, with great care, to attack areas where it is believed red mite may be gathering. Although effective, this method of attack carries obvious dangers! Finally, Vaseline is used successfully in the treatment of scaly leg mite and, similarly, it’s ‘sealing’ properties can be used to reasonable effect on red mite. Smearing it into the cracks where these pests lurk can bring useful results but will prevent any future treatments reaching the mites too. Once a red mite infestation is found and treated, don’t forget to give your birds a helping hand by offering an additional vitamin supplement and cod liver oil. Both will help speed the recovery back to full health.

Smite: Buy as a powder concentrate or as a liquid version for diluting. Total Mite Kill: Concentrated spray available ready-to-use or for mixing with water. Not intended for use on birds. Also available as a powder in a shaker for use directly on birds.

Anti-mite treatments must be used regularly if they’re to be effective

Dealing with red mite really is a constant battle yet many keepers escape the ravages it can bring. So be on your guard at all times and include one of the products highlighted above in your house cleaning operations as a precaution, even if you see no obvious signs.

Further information

For more in-depth information on poultry keeping subscribe to Practical Poultry. Receive your ﬁrst three issues for just £3 when you take out a subscription by direct debit! Call 01959 541444 and quote ‘GI edit’. Practical Poultry includes practical articles covering all aspects of this fantastic hobby; everything from health and welfare, housing, sourcing and buying birds to owners’ stories, Q&As and reports from the active Practical Poultry forum. Grow it! September 2011 65

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Product review

Larder of life You’ve worked hard all growing season to harvest that rich array of produce, so don’t let any of it go to waste. Mike Woolnough looks at ways to store and preserve your fruit and veg

very year it happens: the sudden avalanche of runner beans, the potato harvest that needs to be dug up all at once, or the rush of raspberries which has us struggling to keep up. When you grow-it-yourself on any sort of scale you become accustomed to these seasonal gluts. Yet often you can’t even give your produce away as everybody else is faced with the same issue. Many crops can, of course, be frozen. If you are planning to store produce for any length of time it will normally require blanching ﬁrst to help to prevent deterioration. I have found that peas and broad and runner beans keep well for several months without the need to blanch. However, many crops, especially soft fruits and tomatoes, don’t freeze so well and will often go mushy unless carefully individually frozen on wire trays before bagging up together. So what are the other options? Before the arrival of freezers our ancestors devised a range of ways to preserve food for use throughout the long, hard winter. Their survival depended on doing so – there were no supermarkets from which to buy ﬂown in mangetout in February!

Traditional methods such as salting runner beans in stone crocks are rarely used today, partly due to the modern understanding of how bad salt is for us and partly, I suspect, because of the considerable time involved; freezing is so much faster. Pickling in either vinegar or brine is a good long-term storage solution, as is making chutneys or that age-old favourite, jam. Preserves such as this also offer a handy way of raising a bit of extra income as they are always good sellers. Every crop has its preferred storage method. Some crops, such as haricot beans, can be dried. Potatoes need to be kept away from frost and all light, which can turn stored tubers green, rendering them poisonous. Onions may be stored in purpose-made onion sacks that allow air to circulate, or they can be woven together into strings to hang from the ceiling of an outhouse. Make sure onions are thoroughly dried before bagging up or they may turn mouldy. In medieval times apples and pears were stored on the ﬂoor in the attic space where the temperature was exactly right for their preservation. Modern loft insulation has put paid to that method, but a range of racks now exist for storing these fruits in an

Making juice is a refreshing way of dealing with heavy windfalls of fruit

outhouse. And don’t forget the long tradition of using produce of all kinds to ferment country wines – to my mind one of the most pleasurable methods of preservation! Whichever way you choose to preserve or store your harvest there’s nowadays a vast array of equipment available to back up the traditional methods. So let’s take a look at some of those options.

Herb Dryer

Air drying is perhaps the easiest preservation method available for a variety of home-grown or foraged foodstuffs. Drying ensures that the full ﬂavour’s locked in. No more buying in of expensive jars of herbs when you can make your own simply and effectively! FEATURES ✓Natural way to preserve ✓Also dries seeds, chillies, mushrooms etc ✓Uses three drying sheets Price: £19.98 Supplier: Gardening Naturally (0845 6800296, www.gardening-naturally.com) Grow it! September 2011 67

Product review

g Produce yourorowpotn enreftrescidhin er ce jui it fru Economy Crusher

As anybody who has tried to hand-prepare apples for juicing can tell you, a mechanical pulper is absolutely essential if you are handling anything but a small amount. To obtain the maximum juice fruit has to be broken down (pulped) before pressing. Food processors aren’t up to the job but this crusher certainly is. FEATURES ✓Efﬁciently pulps fruit ✓Fits over a bucket or crossbeam press ✓Stainless steel hopper Price: £195.00 Supplier: Vigo (01404 892101, www.vigopresses.co.uk)

12 Litre Cross Beam Fruit Press

Jam Strainer Kit

This versatile kit can be used not only for jam-making but for straining cheeses or wine-making ingredients. It’s a very useful piece of equipment to have handy in the kitchen cupboard for any smallholder.

Cross beam presses work more efﬁciently than single spindle types. Again, a press is an essential piece of kit if you are working with large quantities of fruit. Whether aiming to produce your own refreshing fruit juices or a potent cider, a fruit press will make light work. Each 11kg press should produce about 4.5 litres of juice.

FEATURES ✓100% cotton, washable straining bag ✓Adjustable stand secures to your bowl ✓Spare bags available

FEATURES ✓Handsome yet heavy-duty ✓12-litre capacity ✓Processes 11kg of apples per press

Price: £9.99 Supplier: Palmers

Department Store (01493 844291, www.thecookwaredepartment.co.uk)

Price: £279.98 Supplier: Ascott

Smallholding Supplies (0845 1306285, www.ascott-dairy.co.uk)

Hessian Sacks H

Un Unlike plastic, hessian sacks allow a th through-ﬂow of air that helps keep yo your potatoes or other crops such as ro root vegetables in perfect condition fo for longer. The thick weave excludes da daylight to prevent your spuds tu turning green. FEATURES FE ✓Pack of 10 sacks ✓Size: 50x79cm (20x31in) ✓Each sack holds 25kg of spuds Price: Pr £15.95 Supplier: Su Ferndale Lodge (0844

31 3140043, www.ferndale-lodge.co.uk)

68 Se September Sept ptem embe berr 20 2011 11 Gr Grow ow it! it!

Keeps root crops well aerated and blocks out light

Stockli Dehydrator with Stainless Steel Trays This Swiss-made dryer is perfect for preserving a wide range of produce, from apples to strawberries – and can even produce beef jerky. Drying fruit seals the goodness in and enhances its ﬂavour. Additional trays are available for £12.90 each. FEATURES ✓Three deep trays ✓Option to add further trays ✓Set temperature from 86 to 158°C Price: £109.00 Supplier: UK

Juicers (01904 757070, www.ukjuicers.com)

Jam and Sugar Thermometer

Drying fruit ncseaeslsflathevougoor dness in and enha Apple Box

Accurately tracking the temperature of your jam or chutney while it is cooking is an absolute must. A good thermometer is the ﬁrst tool you should buy when you are preparing to cook a batch. This stainless steel model with a cool-to-touch plastic handle will do the job nicely.

Apple boxes hold more fruit than tray or rack systems. As your fruit trees grow and your crop increases you can buy more crates to expand your storage system. Crates are the traditional, breathable storage method for apple growers and wholesalers.

FEATURES ✓Essential for jam-making ✓Clips to side of pan ✓Downloadable preserve recipe sheet

FEATURES ✓54x36x29cm (22x14x12in) capacity ✓Stackable to save space ✓Handsome rustic look

Price: £8.95 Supplier: Burgon & Ball (0114 2338262, www.burgonandball.com)

Price: £21.25 Supplier: Wiggly Wigglers (01981 500391, www.wigglywigglers.co.uk)

Kilner Preserve Jars

Kilner jars were unavailable for many years after production stopped and self-sufﬁciency forums were full of pleas for sources of spare parts. Happily Kilner have now resumed production and although the range of sizes is somewhat reduced, it is good to see them available again. FEATURES ✓Tried-and-trusted jars ✓Replacement seals available ✓One-litre size also available Price: £22.95 (12 x 500ml jars) Supplier: Harrod Horticultural (0845

4025300, www.harrodhorticultural.com)

Ideal for keepisoungps and freezing

0.75 Litre Stack-a-Boxes

We preserve a selection of our vegetables (particularly pumpkins) by turning them into soup and then freezing them for later. These boxes are ideal as they hold a suitable volume that can be taken straight from the freezer to the microwave for an instant meal. FEATURES ✓Pack of 10 boxes ✓Dishwasher, freezer and microwave safe ✓Stack for compact storage Price: £3.99 Supplier: Lakeland Ltd

(015394 88100, www.lakeland.co.uk) Grow it! September 2011 69

Know-how

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT Potagers offer a feast for both the eyes and stomach, offering the perfect solution for smaller gardens where productivity and visual appeal must combine. Ann Somerset Miles talks us through creating one

potager is an ornamental kitchen garden comprising an eclectic mix of vegetables, herbs, salads, fruits and edible ﬂowers. The aim is to make the production of food crops aesthetically pleasing. The concept was developed in the 6th Century by French monks, subsequently migrating to both aristocratic and humble peasant gardens. Whether large or small, the traditional potager was most usually based on symmetrical, geometric beds. Many 20th-Century designers developed the potager in different directions: purely functional or deliberately nostalgic, recreating the feel of a cottage garden. Now into the 21st Century it may be time to have a rethink and adopt a more avant-garde approach. Make a point

of visiting the bigger horticultural shows – display gardens, while not necessarily designed as potagers, will spark many an idea for a possible feature, plant combination, artefact or embellishments. Photograph and document them to jog your memory when you come to plan your own unique potager.

Why potagers?

Potagers are perfect for smaller gardens and awkward spaces in rural or urban surroundings. Even a front garden can be transformed; indeed all available space can be pressed into service – the side of the drive, against the house or on the patio. Anywhere soil can be cultivated or pots positioned will suit. It’s simply a question of matching the planting with the nature of the site. The beauty lies in the introduction of ﬂowering plants that will attract pollinating insects into the mix, an edible hedge and, because crops are planted closer together, there’s less weeding! I have created six potagers over the past 20 years. Each has been very different, from the

wild and woolly, riotous with edible ﬂowers; one entirely comprised of grow bags because I did not have time to clear the weeds; through my ongoing eco-phase with a permanent fruit bed; to my latest, and the one I’m most proud of. I created it knowing I would be writing about it here, so for once I followed my own advice! I like the results and passers-by who lean over the garden wall say they do, too.

Where to begin

The shape of your plot or any minispaces you want to transform will determine what you can create. Note the site’s aspect: where the sun rises and sets, prevailing wind direction, the presence of frost pockets or wind funnels, and areas shadowed by houses or neighbouring trees.

Potagers are perfect for smaller gardens and awkward spaces in rural or urban surroundings 70 September 2011 Grow it!

Far left: Fresh vegetables for the body and ﬂowers for the soul!

Take time to think about what you need. Do you want ground level or raised beds (the latter are ideal if your soil is stony or heavy clay)? How about pots, grow bags and planters for odd spaces, so you can ﬁll every nook and cranny? You may need protection in the form of sheltering fences or shrubs and perhaps you might introduce fruit trees or bushes in large pots, or step-over apples to form a boundary. Consider the potager’s style: something cottagey or outrageously modern? It’s your garden and your choice.

Getting the look

Ornaments are what will make your potager unique. They add interest, shape and form and can range from utilitarian structures up which you can grow runner beans, squash or insectattracting ﬂowering climbers, to urns, statues, obelisks or any other hard landscaping that will enhance. These are particularly valuable in winter as they add extra visual impact and structure.

Above: Potagers are places of beauty – and productivity. This one was designed by Hannah Genders for the RHS Malvern Spring Show Left: Use containers to ﬁll any nooks and crannies

Objects can be new or reclaimed as your budget dictates. For instance, I use terracotta chimney pots to raise plants up to different levels. Don’t forget essentials such as tool storage, water butts, compost bins, chickens/bees, seating and outdoor eating areas, plus any other requirements that will help you to garden in a sustainable way. I have been

fortunate because all my potagers are small plots within our acre of garden, so my shed and greenhouse are tacked onto two of them with a compost area separate.

Mapping it out

Once you’ve reached this far sketch the space/s and take measurements. You will need to be that much more accurate if your plan involves off-the-shelf raised beds. It’s much easier if you are making Grow it! September 2011 71

Know-how The normal crop rotation rules still apply, so it's an idea to have at least four beds your own as they can be tailor-made to any specific size. Do allow sufficient space for paths, be they brick, concrete slabs or mulch fabric topped with wood chippings or pebbles. Remember the final spread of fruit trees and allow enough space so they don’t hang over a pavement or the neighbour’s fence. Now comes the nitty-gritty (and exciting) part of putting your ideas into a logical order of striking, which will depend on the time of year. Late autumn and winter are traditional seasons to get going, but if it’s spring or summer and you are anxious to start you could use my method of laying a mulch over weedy ground and then planting into grow bags and planters so that while the crops are growing, the mulch is suffocating the weeds beneath. Prepare a checklist under such headings as ground preparation, beds, paths, soil,

Flowers are an essential ingredient. Echiums really pull in the bees

STEP-BY-STEP

ornaments and embellishments. Finally, prepare a cropping plan for vegetables, herbs, fruits and seasonal ﬂowers – you want those pollinating insects to be there when needed. With plans all set, peg out your beds and attend to any surrounding trees and shrubs, pruning or planting as necessary. Raise plants indoors or in a greenhouse or cold frame and, as appropriate, sow direct into the soil. What you grow will be dictated by the size and to a large extent the shape of your plot. The normal crop rotation rules still apply, so it’s an idea, if you can, to have at least four beds for this purpose, with others retained for perennial veg, fruit and herbs. If space is tight, try varieties labelled as patio vegetables, which are speciﬁcally designed for small spaces.

My potager

This was a partial reclamation job, predicated on our inability to squeeze the ride-on mower through the gap into my ‘secret garden’. It was more or less square, enclosed by shrubs and species roses that had become very overgrown.

Creating my potager

After surveying the site and making a note of its aspect, soil condition etc it’s essential to draw up a plan. Our plan helped clarify what could go where.

The raised beds were then put into position. To these I added my own compost to add fertility to the bed and encourage deep rooting.

72 September 2011 Grow it!

The hard work could then begin. Working methodically through the space, all weeds were dug out and rambunctious trees and shrubs cut back as necessary.

This picture shows all the beds laid out with some topped up with my multipurpose-John Innes Number 3 mix.

To help us visualise exactly what the potager would look like we decided to cut paper to size and peg it to the ground to show where the paths would fall.

Fast forward a few months and the potager has ﬁlled out nicely. Note the potted runner beans at the centre which will add height and beauty.

Action checklist

The grassy centre, planted with spring bulbs, had become overrun by winter heliotrope – I knew this would be very difﬁcult to eradicate and was undecided as to whether to cover the area with horticultural matting or dig it out. I chose the latter, deliberately avoiding weed-killer to keep everything organic.

Top: Space to potter. My potager also includes a seating area to rest a while Above: This wild corner of my own potager includes a handsome willow wigwam to provide height and support for insect-attracting honeysuckle

I was drastic with the shrubbery, yet retained sufficient to provide shelter from the chilling easterly winds. I dug over the productive area to remove all weeds and decided on four raised beds, each a metre square, separated by slab paths. Containers were then positioned in each corner of the shrubbery for herbs and flowers, along with an apple tree in a huge pot and table and chairs where I sometimes sit if time allows. Each bed was filled with a layer of my own compost, plus well-rotted litter from the hen house and topped up with a mixture of John Innes Number 3 and multipurpose composts. The compact and sheltered nature of this latest potager has meant it’s at last possible to grow quick catch crops, to intercrop, and for the first time in our 40 years here in the high Cotswolds, to sow vegetables and salads in succession. I am now looking forward to autumn and using cloches when the weather deteriorates. The old shrubbery and surrounding ivy-clad stone walls provide habitats for wildlife and there’s even a wild area where birdseed falling from the feeders has been allowed to germinate. A potager is certainly worth

✦ Analyse the space: Draw a chart then take out collected cuttings, photos and notes and start collating a storyboard. Highlight those aspects you want to incorporate and formulate a rough plan. ✦ Starting point: Attend to those existing elements that will form a part of the potager, clear the remaining ground, construct any hardlandscaping and raised beds, add compost (or prepare soil) and sow or plant crops using your prepared cropping plan. ✦ Maintenance: As with any part of a garden that will work hard for you, fertility is paramount. Ensure you feed the soil. Do your best to use organic methods of pest control to create a potager that’s both productive and ecologically friendly. ✦ Inspiration: Visit the RHS Malvern Autumn Show (24-25 September), which features an Edible Garden competition. Don’t forget a notebook and camera! considering if you are short of space and desire both a productive and decorative garden where both aspects complement each other. And by adding that touch of biodiversity, your whole integrated plot will become eco-friendly and one to enjoy – and eat – all year round. MY POTAGER: Read my blog at http://dobiesofdevon.blogspot.com Grow it! September 2011 73

Veg grow guide

7 CROPS TO SOW NOW!

LAST ORDERS Summer may be long in the tooth but that doesn’t mean there isn’t time for some last minute crops. Try these quick growers and enjoy a harvest within three months or sooner

ith summertime harvests still coming thick and fast it can be all too easy to hang up the tools and let the vegetable garden coast into autumn. But that would be a shame, particularly when there’s still a good few weeks of growing weather to be had. Many crops will actually

perform better in the cooler weather of late summer and early autumn. And with plenty of rapid-growing varieties to choose from, there’s no reason why you should stop sowing now. Try any of these tried-and-tested crops and make sure you keep the harvests going long into autumn.

Radish The quickest crop on the plot. Summer types can still be started off now and will offer their crunchy kick in next to no time. Get them in quick and be on hand to cover plants with cloches if the weather really starts to cool off. Alternatively grow them in the greenhouse or a cold frame. Rows can be set as close as 15cm (6in) apart, so it’s easy enough to slot in a row or two as space is freed up by earlier crops. A real bonus is that at this time of year there will be less trouble from ﬂea beetle. It’s hard to beat the old favourite ‘French Breakfast’ for its long, white-tipped roots, which look great on the plate.

74 September 2011 Grow it!

Pea shoots

Peas are one of summer’s treasures. While hardy varieties can be started off in the autumn to give a springtime crop of pods, another option is to sow for a quick pick of pea shoots. Sowing peas fairly close in rows spaced 15cm (6in) distant will yield a ﬁne cut of the sweet shoots within just two to three weeks. Alternatively sow the seeds thickly into windowsill punnets lined with kitchen paper for an all-year-round growing solution. This is a great way to use up old seed packets that may not last until next season. Pea shoots have the same taste as peas but carry a delightful freshness that works well in salads or shown the frying pan for the very briefest of moments.

Spring onions

Spring onions may well add a peppery punch to salads but are also superb sliced on the diagonal and added to stir-fries. Sow some now and you could be enjoying young stems before the end of autumn, or allow them to grow on for the earliest crop of next spring. Pick a hardy variety – try ‘Shimonita’ for its rapid growth and propensity for reaching leek-like proportions. The joy of a late sowing of spring onions is the more staggered nature of the harvest that follows. Make sure you pick a well-drained spot in full sun to encourage good, healthy growth.

Carrots

KROSSBOW

Every kitchen garden needs some carrots and a few rows set into motion now will be ready for pulling by the end of October or early November. Pick a hardy, quick-to-mature variety such as ‘Amsterdam Forcing’ and grow them under ﬂeece to give that little bit of extra warmth. You could also try one of the quick-growing round-rooted varieties such as ‘Parmex’. Sow these into pots of multipurpose compost and move them under cover when it starts to get cold. Pots of carrots have the advantage that they will be much less likely to be damaged by root ﬂy.

Chinese cabbage Oriental vegetables such as Chinese cabbage prefer to be sown later in the year. With the days becoming shorter plants will be encouraged to produce vegetative growth rather than rushing to ﬂower as they do in early summer. Chinese cabbage is a crunchy favourite that will be ready within about ten weeks. It needs a moist but well-drained soil and can cope with some shade, making it a very useful vegetable. Sow the seeds 1cm (0.5in) deep into drills spaced 60cm distant. Keep the bed free of weeds and watch out for slugs. Seedlings should be thinned to leave 45-60cm (18-24in) between them.

Kohlrabi

You’ll struggle to ﬁnd kohlrabi in the supermarkets, yet it’s easy to grow and has a very distinct taste, fusing sweet, nutty notes with hints of celery. The alien-looking ‘bulbs’ are in fact swollen stems. Sow this brassica into free-draining soil in a sunny spot, spacing rows about 20cm (8in) apart to enjoy a pre-winter crop of golf ball-sized stems. You’ll need to keep plants well watered in the event of an Indian summer to stop the stems becoming woody. If the crop isn’t quite ready and a frost threatens then cover rows with cloches. Pick a hardier purple variety for sowing now – ‘Kalibri’ is a good choice.

Turnips Like their relative the radish, these quick-growing brassicas are very easy and can be ready for lifting as soon as a month after sowing. Enjoy them at the size of a golf ball, when they will be at their most tender and delicious. Sow the seeds into 1cm (0.5in) deep drills spaced 30cm (12in) apart. Thin the seedlings to leave about 7cm (3in) between them and keep the ground weeded and watered. The leafy tops can be enjoyed just like spinach. Recommended late-sowing varieties include the pure white ‘Tokyo Cross’ or ‘Tiny Pal’ and the purple-topped, ﬂatter roots of ‘Atlantic’.

Grow it! September 2011 75

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Well practised in veg growing but haven’t the foggiest when it comes to fruit? Then next month’s issue is definitely for you! In it we’ll be going back to basics, explaining how to choose fruit trees and bushes that are right for your plot, how to integrate them, and going behind the scenes of a thriving orchard group. Plus there will be step-by-step guidance on setting up a polytunnel, advice on taking cuttings, and an investigation into succulent perry pears. We’re certain you’ll love October’s feature-packed issue! First for fruit If you have never grown fruit before – either because you don’t know how ho or imagine you haven’t got the skills skil to do so – then fruit expert Wade Muggleton will give you the confidence to get started this autumn confid

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Young Growers LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY

It’s easy to save seeds of vegetables such as beans

s d e e s r u o Save y

Don’t splash out more than you have to on expensive seeds. Save some of your own for next year instead. Victoria Poolman talks us through the process

t’s always fun planning what you are going to grow in your vegetable patch. Popping down to the garden centre and leaving with lots of packets of seeds to sow is incredibly exciting. Seeds can be rather expensive, however, especially when you consider you can store your own seeds and use them for next year’s crop for free! If you have had a really successful crop, the only way of knowing for sure that you will be able to grow exactly the same variety again next season is to save and store seeds from that very plant. Always choose the best fruit or vegetable from which to take your seeds. This will ensure a high chance of growing a bumper crop next year. Look for 78 September 2011 Grow it!

disease resistance, good colour, size, shape and ﬂavour when choosing from which plants to collect your seeds. For this project we collected seeds from tomatoes, peppers and beans as these are some of the easiest to save. Once you’ve saved your seeds they will need to be kept in a cool, dark place until you are ready to sow them. All seed should keep until at least next spring and some seeds will even last a couple of years.

WHY NOT TRY?

JUST FOR FUN...

Q: What does th ‘A’ have in come letter m with a ﬂower? on A: They both ha ve bees comin ng after them !

Trading some of the seeds you’ve saved with other seed savers in your area? You could ask fellow gardeners, allotment holders or see if any children at school fancy starting a seed swapping scheme.

Did you know?

● The world’s biggest seed comes from the Coco de Mer palm. First identiﬁed in 1768, this palm tree only grows on two islands in the Seychelles. Each seed can weigh up to three stones! ● The world’s oldest seed on record is the date palm seed, which is thought to be an incredible 2,000 years old. It was found during excavation work at Herod the Great’s fortress near the Dead Sea in 1963 and is thought to have been preserved by the dryness of the landscape – but don’t expect yours to keep until the year 4000!

STEP-BY-STEP

Saving your own seeds

What you will need

✓ Some fruits or ve getables with seeds that ca n be saved ✓ A knife (ask an ad ult to help you use it safe ly) ✓ A chopping boa rd ✓ Envelopes and a pen ✓ Clean jam jars

Start by looking for seedpods or seed heads on your plants that have dried out. Now is a good time of year to do this. Look for them on crops such as peas, beans, broccoli and lettuce. You can either tie small bags over the seed heads just before they begin to open, or pull the plant up and store it upside down in a paper bag to catch the seeds.

For tomatoes you’ll need to use a wet processing method. Simply scoop out the middle part of the tomato and place this in a glass jar with a little water. Place the jar on a windowsill until the layers separate to leave a mouldy ﬁlm on the surface and the seeds at the bottom. Drain the jar contents then rinse in a sieve before spreading out on a plate to dry.

When you are collecting seeds from fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, chillies, butternut squash and aubergine, don’t wait until the plants die back, as the seeds will only become mouldy rather than drying out. Instead, select the fruits from which you’ll collect the seeds as soon as they are fully ripe.

Make sure you don’t get all of your different seeds mixed up! Once they are all dried out, store them in separate envelopes. Label each envelope with the variety it contains and the date you collected the seeds, before placing them in an airtight container. You could create your own seed box for all those seeds.

To extract the seeds, cut each fruit open and scoop out the innards. This will be easy with crops like peppers and pumpkins as inside you will ﬁnd a mass of seeds that can be scraped out with a spoon. Separate the seeds and spread them out on a tray before leaving them on a warm windowsill to dry out.

Store your seed box in a cool, dry place until the next growing season, when you can plant your seeds just as you would those bought from a shop. Start the seeds off by sowing them into individual pots or trays and keeping them moist and warm until the seedlings appear. Keep the cycle going for the following year’s crop!

Grow it! September 2011 79

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Book Titles 50 Weekend Garden Projects Allotment Days Country Cooking Through the Seasons The Best of Mrs Beeton’s Kitchen Garden How To Store Your Garden Produce Keeping Bees Gardening Journal Hens in the Garden/Eggs in the Kitchen Wild Food Yearbook Grow It, Cook It Growing Squashes and Pumpkins Choosing Your Chickens Organic Gardening English Traditional Recipes Herbs and Spices Companion Perfect Pickles, Chutneys and Relishes

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How does the idea of rat-tailed radish or hairy melon grab you? If we’re to diversify our kitchen gardens in the face of climate change and ever hungrier pests we may need to grow more unusual crops, says Andrew Haynes

ow do you fancy a hairy melon, or maybe a rat-tail radish? Don’t sound too good do they? But both are unusual vegetables that may be worth a try. Leafing through an old book (c. 1978) on unusual vegetables, I was struck by the number of plants listed that would no longer be considered unusual. We must have become so much more adventurous since: artichokes (both kinds), asparagus, chilli peppers, pumpkin, sweetcorn and even courgettes were all deserving of a place in the book. The 1963 Thompson & Morgan catalogue listed seeds of all these, so availability certainly wasn’t a problem. There are so many edible plants in the world and a great many of these may be grown in Britain, so there will always be something new to try. Of course, a great many vegetables remain unusual simply because they are not very nice! One plant in this category is Chenopodium capitatum, the strawberry spinach. The seed companies promise a spinach-like leaf followed by ‘delicious’ strawberrytype fruits. The reality is a very mediocre spinach substitute which becomes coarse with age, followed by gritty little fruits that are indeed red (but there the similarity to strawberries ends). Some say they become more palatable if left until they fall from the plant, but I doubt it is worth the wait. Of all the unusual vegetables that I’ve grown, Japanese burdock (pictured) has to be one of the most spectacular. Long, even-sized burdock roots, neatly packed into boxes, are a feature of Japanese markets and are considered a delicacy there. The young stems and leaves may also be eaten and require very little cooking, while the very young roots may be peeled and eaten raw. Mature roots are soaked in water, acidulated with lemon juice or vinegar for up to two hours and then simmered for half an hour before sautéing or stir-frying. For this reason I think this particular vegetable is likely to remain unusual! However, as a conversation piece on your plot, this plant is quite something. It quickly attains a height of 90-120cm (3-4ft), with massive leaves 45cm (18in) across. If you leave it to grow for a second year it will grow to twice this height and produce thistle-like flowers that are irresistible to butterflies. So which unusual vegetables are likely to become popular in the future? My money’s on 82 September 2011 Grow it!

some of the oriental vegetables, in particular some of the many quick-growing leafy kinds grown for salads or ‘greens’. These are great gap ﬁllers to occupy any empty space in spring or autumn to give a speedy and nutritious return. Many perform best in cooler conditions and will soon run to seed if too warm. Another vegetable that I think has potential is salsola, another Japanese plant, closely related to our marsh samphire. It’s a vegetable that seems to be gaining in popularity. The big difference is that salsola has adapted to grow in ordinary soil, so you don’t need a salt marsh to grow it! I have tried to grow this plant but had great difﬁculty in getting the seed to germinate, which resulted in just one, rather feeble plant. Now I’m not making any excuses, but I believe that this may not entirely be my fault since this is a seed that rapidly loses viability. Fresh seed is essential, so I’ll be giving it another try. With the peculiarities of the weather, climate change and increased incidence of some pests, such as leek moth, it seems wise to try at least a couple of unusual crops each year, just in case the old dependables should become less so.

Japanese burdock has to be one of the most spectacular unusual vegetables

Andrew Haynes has been a professional gardener for more than 30 years. He is head gardener at Edmondsham House in Dorset where he tends an area of fruit and veg equivalent to three full-size allotment plots. Andrew often leads guided tours and runs workshops at Edmondsham.

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