Kitchen Garden - August 2013 - Preview

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VOTED BRITAIN’S BEST GARDENING MAGAZINE*

No. 191 August 2013

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Down-to-earth aDvice for growing fruit & veg | kitchengarDen.co.uk | auguSt 2013

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EDITOR’S LETTER

WELCOME Since the Victorian era, the vegetable plot has usually been hidden from view, either behind high walls or more recently, at the end of the garden. Now however, more of us are forced to garden on small plots where the veg necessarily has to be seen. Well at KG we say ‘great!’. Our humble crops can be as colourful as any ornamental plant... and useful, too. To prove it we have features starting on pages 22 and 42 explaining how to add colour as well as flavour to your plot and the point is further driven home by our roundup of the best of Gardeners’ World Live 2013 on page 16 where flowers and vegetables rubbed shoulders to great effect. And veg is really important in the town of Todmorden where it can be found growing in the streets! Turn to page 28 to find out more. Have a super summer harvest!

Hot news for KG subscribers; you now have exclusive access to our new subscribers’ club.

Simply visit www.kitchengarden.co.uk/subclub for details.

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Steve Ott, editor Contact me at: sott@mortons.co.uk | 01507 529396 Find us at www.kitchengarden.co.uk

Hello from the KG team...

ToBY BUCKland

HollY Farrell

sUe sTiCKland

Caroline mills

joe maiden

emma rawlings

Toby will be a familiar face to many as the former host of TV’s Gardeners’ World as well as a prolific writer and broadcaster and contributor for KG. Toby cares for the large kitchen garden of Devon’s Powderham Castle.

Holly is a gardening author (Planting Plans for Your Kitchen Garden), writer, freelance consultant and gardener.

Previously a Head Gardener for a private estate, she trained at RHS Gardens Wisley.

Author, gardening writer and long-time contributor to KG, Sue is a former head gardener at Garden Organic’s Ryton Gardens. Sue regularly contributes on growing in greenhouses and polytunnels.

Caroline is a freelance writer specialising in food, gardens and travel.

When not writing about other people's gardens, she is in the design stages of creating a new five-acre garden on her farm in the Cotswolds.

Joe has been BBC Radio Leeds’ gardening expert for more than 40 years.

Once responsible for many of the lovely parks in Leeds. Joe now enjoys his ‘retirement’ – as a full time nurseryman and gardening writer!

KG deputy editor Emma is a self-confessed veg-aholic who loves to potter on her veg plot. She is a professional horticulturist who has spent many years growing and writing about plants.

SAVE £££s: FOR MONEY-SAVING TIPS AND OFFERS – TURN TO PAGES 47 & 94 www.kitchengarden.co.uk

AUGUST 2013 | 3

CONTENTS

EXPERT ADVICE TO HELP YOU GROW GREAT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

38 ✪ ON THE COVER FOllOW US AT facebook. com/KitchenGardenMag

6 YOU

&

YOUR PLOT

It’s time to lift onions, summer prune apples and harvest plums

9 CONTAINER CROPS ✪

SUBSCRIBERS’ CORNER

10 IN THE GREENHOUSE

THIS MONTH NEW SUBSCRIBERS CAN RECEIVE 3 ISSUES FOR JUST £3 plUS 10 pACKETS OF SEEDS WORTH OVER £14 SEE pAGE 36 FOR DETAIlS

GET GROWING 22 BACK TO BASICS ✪

JOBS THIS MONTH: 6 ON THE VEG PATCH

FOR OUR CONTACT DETAIlS TURN TO pg 21

61 Grow one of our most colourful crops with top tips from Andrew Tokely

26 ON MY PATCH

We visit more keen KG plotters. Plus send us your pictures and win prizes

Plant a herb hanging basket

Plan holiday watering, sow winter crops, gather the harvest

12 HOT TOPICS ✪

The latest news and comments from the world of kitchen gardening

16 BIRMINGHAM BLOSSOMS

Highlights from Gardeners’ World Live 2013 held at the NEC

20 YOUR LETTERS AND TIPS

Learn what other KG readers have been up to and pick up some great first hand advice

28 WHERE STREETS ARE PAVED WITH SWEETCORN We visit Todmorden in Lancashire where community gardens have gone to town

34 QUESTION TIME

Regular Gardeners’ Question Time panellist Bob Flowerdew answers your fruit and veg growing conundrums

38 TRIED AND TASTED ✪

Joe Maiden looks at six varieties of parsley and has some advice for growing a great garnish

41 USING YOUR FREE SEEDS ✪

Our guide to getting the best from your free cabbage and lettuce seeds this month

42 RAINBOW OF HERBS AND FLOWERS

Gardening expert Debbie Cooke encourages us all to be experimental with colour on our plots having trouble finding a copy of this magazine?

Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month

4 | AUGUST 2013

22

47 HIDDEN HARVESTS ✪

Sue Stickland offers her advice on finding harvests in some surprising places www.kitchengarden.co.uk

YOU

&

YOUR PLOT

Gardeners’ World Live Show Report

Birmingham blossoms The KG team took a trip to the Gardeners’ World Live show at the NEC, Birmingham, to see the latest trends in fruit and veg gardening.

Here are some of the highlights

GARDENERS’ WORLD LIVE

A

lthough the usual buzz was still in evidence at the show this year, on the day we visited (Friday) it was definitely a little muted compared with previous seasons. This may well have been due to the economic climate or the fact that the show was not televised, which in turn may have discouraged some would-be designers and exhibitors from making the trip. There were, however, still many gems for lovers of homegrown veg if you looked in the right places.

gArden to inspire

The Health For Life in the Community Garden demonstrates the potential a small area can offer for growing fruit and vegetables. Visitors to the show really enjoyed the fact this garden was so real and achievable. It not only provides food for human visitors to the plot but also wildlife.

Garden designer Debra Nixon grew all the veg in her Peak District plot. She started off seedlings in a greenhouse in January without heat and managed to produce some really mature crops for the display in mid-June. Included in her garden were some lovely groupings of old terracotta pots that had belonged to her granddad.

Health for Life is a partnership programme, promoting healthy lifestyle activities across south Birmingham. For more information visit www.tcv.org.uk

Designer of the garden Debra Nixon.

UnUsUAl veg

Leading supplier of exhibition veg seeds, W Robinson & Son, attend most of the major shows and were in the marquee with another lovely display. The Robinson team also include some unusual varieties and their display is always more than a match for the floral displays nearby. For this show they featured a number of bean varieties including the lovely pale podded ‘Kingston Gold’, ‘Cosse Violette’ and ‘Kentucky Wonder’, as well as pea ‘Purple Podded’, tomatoes and peppers in variety.

Also there was spilanthes. Often grown as a bedding plant it has recently found fame as the ‘electric daisy’ as eating it gives your tongue a shock!

Information: W Robinson & Son; www.mammothonion.co.uk www.kitchengarden.co.uk

AUGUST 2013 | 17

How to...

string onions & garlic Joyce Russell takes you through this classic process of storing your onions and garlic

L

ate July to mid-August is a good time to lift spring planted onions and garlic (see page 7). If leaves start to yellow and flop then bulbs won’t swell any more so you may as well lift the lot. I always find that bulbs look much bigger when out of the ground so if in doubt: dig one plant, hold the bulb in your hand, feel pleased with yourself for a moment, then lift the rest.

It’s best to lift garlic and onions at the start of a spell of sunny weather, so the plants can be spread out to dry outdoors. If the weather is bad, you can spread plants in an airy shed, or equivalent, but the sun dries them much faster with fewer mould and ‘soggy neck’ problems.

When the skins are dry, and leaves are dried out but not brittle, it’s time to think about storing the crop.

www.kitchengarden.co.uk

WEEKEND PROJECT

Step by step MAKING A ‘ROpe’ OF ONIONS

Step 1.

Sort the crop and remove any diseased or damaged bulbs. At the same time any that have a thick, soft neck will not store so well: if you have lots of these, put them all into a single ‘rope’ and use this first.

Step 2.

Cut a piece of strong string 120cm (47in) long.

Knot the ends together to make a loop. Put the knotted end over a nail. Fold the bottom of the string upwards to make a double loop.

Step 3.

The bulbs will now be added from the bottom up, their own weight holding them together.

Choose a large onion and slide the neck through the double loops as illustrated.

Step 4.

The first onion hangs as a weight at the bottom of the string. The loops tighten round the neck to hold it in place. This bulb forms an anchor for the rest.

TO USE Take care not to cut the string when cutting through the neck of an onion.

Step 5.

Add the next onion, winding the leaves in a figure of eight around the strings. The bulb should lie close to the string and just above the first onion. Add more bulbs, working around the string so that they lie evenly on all sides. www.kitchengarden.co.uk

Step 6.

Don’t make the ‘rope’ too long and heavy or the string may break. Cut off any stems that protrude. Trim roots and brush off any soil.

Outer layers of onion skin can be carefully rubbed off the bulbs if these are loose.

Step 7.

Make sure the knot at the top of the string is secure (tie a second one if there is any doubt) and hang finished ropes up in a cool dry place out of the reach of vermin until required for the kitchen. ➤ AUGUST 2013 | 75

GET GROWING

Step by step

MAKING A GARLIC pLAIt Garlic can also be made into ropes as above.

These look lovely hung up in the kitchen and bulbs can store through until the next year’s crop are ready to use.

If you want to avoid using string, and go for a really authentic look, try plaiting garlic stems together as follows.

Step 1.

Stems should be dried, but still pliable, before starting to plait. Dry them in full sun or in an airy shed. Don’t include any damaged or diseased bulbs in the plait.

Step 2.

Choose three large bulbs and lay them on a flat surface with the stems stretched out. Pass one stem round the other two, like a collar to hold them in place, then start to plait the stems by lifting the right one over the middle one (to create a new middle), then the left one over the new middle one (to create a new middle).

Step 3.

Add a fourth bulb in and keep plaiting as three strands, but one of the strands will now have the stems from two garlic bulbs in it. Add a fifth bulb and so on. Try to even out the number of stems in each strand as you keep adding bulbs. Don’t plait too far between each bulb or they will end up too far apart.

Step 4.

The plait will get thicker and each strand will contain many stems - a limiting factor on how long you can make the plait. Don’t worry if it looks loose or untidy - everything settles and looks better when the plait is hung up. When you can’t add in any more, keep on plaiting the stems at the top for about 15cm (6in).

TO USE Cut through the neck of a garlic bulb and the plaited stems should stay intact.

Step 5.

Tie off the stems with a piece of string, leaving the top of the stems loose at the top.

76 | AUGUST 2013

Step 6.

Trim off any roots and brush off any loose soil or flakes of skin, but do not peel the bulbs.

Step 7.

Hang the plait where it can be seen and admired. Also an ideal gift for friends. www.kitchengarden.co.uk

YOUR VIEWS

LAST WORD

Pictures: Claire Norris

G

We like to welcome wildlife on to our plots but we can sometimes be a bit selective as Claire Norris of Downham Market, Norfolk explains

ardening for wildlife. A noble cause indeed. And yet, it occurs to me, having attracted wildlife in considerable numbers, how many of us spend enormous amounts of time and effort trying to get rid of it again?

My own efforts to support wildlife have increased over the years. By not using chemicals in my garden or allotment, composting kitchen and garden waste, actively building log piles and a wildlife pond and choosing bee-friendly single flowers over their blousy relatives, I hope to encourage birds, insects and amphibians which will take their turn in pollination and pest control.

But while making my garden and allotment into safe havens for wild creatures, I find that I cannot be selective about the creatures that choose to live there. I have wrestled an enormous (honestly) snake out of my pond into a bucket and evicted it to a local field when I feared for my frogs’ safety. I have spent a fun evening with a torch, a bucket and 145 snails, finding the number too enormous to despatch

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and eventually taking them to the same local field, where they probably immediately set their compasses for the return journey. An underground wasp nest at my allotment meant that a considerable area was impossible to dig over (although the wasps themselves gave me no trouble). My lawn in midsummer is impossible to mow or even walk across due to the large numbers of tiny frogs intent on losing a limb to the whirling hover blades. One of my compost bins was unusable all last year as a very lovely toad had taken up residence in the bottom and I couldn’t bear to upset him and I have actually refrained from going outside at all because I was afraid I might disturb the wrens who were nesting near the house.

As mice in my shed chew through the plastic boxes to get to the food I have bought for the birds, and cabbage white butterflies flock to my brassicas while the tortoiseshell and peacock varieties spurn my carefully selected Verbena bonariensis, maybe I should try not to get too upset. After all, I am obviously providing a wildlife friendly environment, and that was the whole idea – wasn’t it? ■

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