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Down-to-earth aDvice for growing fruit & veg | kitchengarDen.co.uk | JuLY 2013
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EDITOR’S LETTER
WELCOME The first harvests are gathered and it’s time to think about those second sowings to keep the veg garden productive into the autumn and beyond. With that in mind two great gardeners, Pippa Greenwood and Nick Hamilton, contribute their top tips to help you get the most from your patch. We are joined too by celebrity chef (and heart throb) James Martin who explains why home-grown veg is so important to him. In this issue our resident plotters Joe Maiden and Andrew Tokely show you how to grow great crops of peas and the less familiar oca. The latter might offer an interesting alternative for those whose spuds suffer from that annual scourge – blight. Finally some great news for KG subscribers; look out soon for news of our subscribers’ club, which will offer you the chance to take advantage of exclusive offers and top tips from the KG team.
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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...
PiPPA GReeNWood
JoYce RUSSeLL
JAmeS mARTiN
Nick hAmiLToN
ANdReW TokeLY
debbie cooke
Pippa has appeared regularly on BBC Gardeners’ World and as a panellist on Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time. She is a plant pathologist and ran the RHS plant pathology department for 11 years.
A gardening author and KG regular, Joyce is based in Ireland and has a large garden which she tends with her husband Ben. Both are keen DIY-ers and regularly contribute to our weekend projects pages.
Celebrity chef and author James is a familiar face on our screens, hosting the BBC’s everpopular Saturday Kitchen. When time allows he is often to be found tending to his own home-grown crops.
Nick continues to develop Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland, founded by his father and TV gardener Geoff 30 years ago. Like Geoff, Nick uses only organic growing methods to produce his crops.
Andrew has been growing veg for 30 years and contributing to KG for 14 of those. During the day he works as horticultural quality manager for Suffolkbased seed company Thompson & Morgan.
Debbie is an awardwinning garden designer and blogger and is known for her love of colour which includes the veg garden. She is a keen herb enthusiast and contributes regularly to KG and the KG website.
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JULY 2013 | 3
GET GROWING
Fill those
summer
gaps Liz Dobbs talks to Nick Hamilton of Barnsdale Gardens and finds out his top tips on sowing little and often throughout the summer
O
nce you have gone to the trouble and expense of creating a place to grow salads and veg, it makes sense to keep the ground productive right through the growing season. So before you harvest the first of the summer produce, give some thought to how you will fill the gaps left behind. In July, there is still time to sow another quick crop to harvest this year, but you can also plant some longer lasting veg that will overwinter. Start by checking the seed packets you already have to see what will crop quickly – the chart below will give you some ideas. As you can see, acting quickly and sowing in July offers more options than leaving sowing until August. If you don’t have any seed left, or you are running a bit behind, then there is now a wide range of veg available as young plants for summer planting. Seeds are sown in summer the same way they are in the spring but you may need somewhere cooler or put some shading up while they are at the seedling to young plant stage. Lettuce, endive, radish and oriental veg such as pak choi and Chinese cabbage produce better quality plants in semishade in summer; remember to keep the soil or compost moist. ➤ INSET: Check your seed packets for fast-growing crops such as salads.
66 | JULY 2013
Keep pLOTS CROppIng
GET GROWING
Time for a cover up
46 | JULY 2013
With variable English weather, allotment gardeners Sue Hinton and David Saunderson have enjoyed growing in a polytunnel but it was time for a replacement. Here Sue describes her experience of erecting a new one
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POLYTUNNELS
W
e had used an old inherited polytunnel on a former allotment and despite its age and battered appearance we had enjoyed copious amounts of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chillies, melons and cucumbers. So eight years later, after a couple of years on our new exposed Hampshire allotment site, we soon yearned for another polytunnel. It was the thought of erecting one that delayed us investing in the joys of poly growing again. We researched several tunnels suitable for the amateur gardener on the internet and decided on a Northern Polytunnel. The specification and information promised a strong and durable tunnel and the fact that they also make commercial ones gave us confidence. So we ordered a 10ft x 8ft tunnel with sliding doors. A few days later 13 packages arrived safely by courier, were stowed away in our garage and we couldn’t wait to get going. Each package contained parts for us to systematically erect the structure in stages and we studied the easy to follow manual, working out what we would need to use at each stage.
Where to place the tunnel
We had earmarked a site to the east of our plot, orientated so the south-westerly winds wouldn’t blow straight through it. We needed to make sure that the door opening could be adjusted to protect crops from the full force of the wind, aid ventilation and hopefully stop any blight circulating on the site. On top of that we had to take account of the sloping site, which ended up dictating the door positioning. Erecting our polytunnel took place over a number of months, but not because of the actual work involved. The product was absolutely superb (I lost count how many times I heard my other half saying ‘nice bit of kit’). Our problem was that since its arrival in late October we had few weekends when we could go on the allotment – so much rain, snow, mud, wind and short days, it was April before we completed it. ➤ www.kitchengarden.co.uk
JULY 2013 | 47
Tried and tasted
Early pEas This month veg growing expert Joe Maiden turns his attention to that most delicious of homegrown crops – early peas – and puts 11 popular varieties through their paces
36 | JULY 2013
a
s a small child, in early summer I always looked forward to a visit to dad’s allotment in Penrith. My father would pick me some pods of peas and I still remember the experience of popping open the shells and enjoying the sweet delicate flavour of freshly podded peas. I remember to this day they were ‘Early Onward’, my father’s favourite variety of early pea. So of course when I was asked to carry out a trial of early peas on my plot, the first variety on my list was ‘Early Onward’ as I wanted to know if my taste buds would confirm it as one of the best. When deciding on the varieties for the KG trials, I like to include a mix of old and new – there are many of the new ones which I have
never grown before so we will see if they are as good as my memories of the old standards and if I can gather bucketfuls just as we did from father’s plots – or was that also a distant memory.
Ground prEparation
For this trial I used the area where I had grown my maincrop potatoes. This area had been very well dug for the spuds incorporating a barrowful of strawy well-rotted manure to a metre run of row. This was trenched in, a process which involves making an open trench approximately one foot deep. Manure was applied into the trench and as I continued to dig the plot I filled in the trench as I created another behind it. More manure was applied to the new trench and www.kitchengarden.co.uk
EARLY PEAS
Joe sowed his peas direct last year, but within three days pheasants had eaten the lot.
This year the crop was sown in small pots and cell trays prior to planting.
Sowing
were seen on February 26 with good germination by March 12. Once growing well, the greenhouse was well ventilated to get them ready for planting.
Last year when I tried to grow this pea trial, I sowed outside on March 1 and just three days later a family of pheasants had eaten the lot. I then tried again but disaster struck as my soil was flooded and most of the seed rotted. It then was too late. So this year my sowing was done in small pots, five peas to a pot, and module (cell) trays were also used. They were filled with multi-purpose compost and this was kept just moist until the seeds germinated. The pots and trays were kept in my cold greenhouse and protected from To get a good crop of mice with traps. fresh sweet tasting My peas were sown peas, water well when on February 12. The plants are in flower first signs of germination and podding up.
TOP TIP
so on until all the soil was dug over and manured. This organic matter ensures that the soil will retain moisture in dry weather and peas need lots of moisture when podding up. After all my potatoes were lifted, the ground was in perfect condition. The one criteria when using land where potatoes have grown is to make sure that you do not leave any small tubers in the ground as they will regrow the following year, often with disastrous results as they often emerge in the middle of the rows of peas, soon smothering the pea seedlings. The area was roughly dug and left for the winter weather to work its magic; breaking the soil down to a fine crumbly structure. In February, I applied lime to bring the pH of the soil to approximately 6.8 and this was then worked in by using my mini tiller, so providing me with an excellent tilth. In early March, the final preparation was completed by treading down the area when I applied 56g/2oz per yard of Growmore and raked this in. www.kitchengarden.co.uk
Planting out
The peas were strong, sturdy plants by March 20 when they were planted out. This was a simple job; holes were made with my long-handled planter (primarily intended for planting bulbs, but works equally well with veg plants); without any root disturbance they were settled into the planting hole and firmed in well.
Protection after Planting
To keep off rabbits, jackdaws, pigeons and pheasants, I used fine mesh wire netting; also I remembered to watch out for mice, although thankfully this time they were not a problem. ➤
Wire netting is needed on Joe’s plot to help keep out the local wildlife.
JULY 2013 | 37
GET GROWING
Planting time: NOVEMBER – MARCH
Fruit at a glance
Cherries
■ GREAT VALUE ■ GROW IN SMALL GARDENS ■ DELICIOUS FRESH FROM THE TREE ■
Cherries are an expensive fruit to buy in the supermarkets but they are very easy to grow. KG’s Emma Rawlings has some essential tips for those wishing to grow their own SPACE TO GROW?
Cherries used to make large trees but today there are modern dwarfing rootstocks that keep the trees to a manageable size up to 2.4-3.6m (8-12ft). If you don’t have space for even a small tree then you could always grow them trained as a fan against a wall or fence or even grow in a large container.
ACID OR SWEET?
Sweet or dessert cherries can be plucked and eaten raw from the tree and so are perhaps more popular. The acid cherries are
56 | JULY 2013
best cooked and made into jam etc. but they are good for north facing sites and will tolerate a little shade.
PLANTING
Cherries like a sunny spot and a rich deep soil so if you can incorporate some well rotted manure or garden compost at planting this will give them a good start. Cherries flower early and are susceptible to frost so if you garden on a slope avoid planting at the base where cold air sinks.
GROWING ON
The first few months after planting make sure the soil does not dry out. If the weather is dry then give the tree a bucket of water every two or three weeks. Cherries flower in early spring and once the flower buds form and start to open, watch the weather forecast. If frost is expected then cover the tree with some fleece at night. Uncover during the day to allow the pollinating insects to gain access to the flowers. Cover again as the fruit ripens to deter birds.
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Gardening expert Pippa Greenwood gives her top tips on getting more from your existing crops as well as planting now to keep your plot harvests coming.
G
ardeners are renowned for wanting good value, and so it makes sense to ensure that, whatever you’re growing in your veg plot this summer, you prolong the cropping period as much as possible. All too often those muchloved and potential-packed veg plants fail to give you the heavy crop that you’ve desperately hoped for, but with a little bit of extra time and effort on your part they could well give you massive rewards. ➤
Extending the
cropping season
get groWing
From pot to plot with
James Martin
His Dig Deep series saw celebrity chef James Martin come a cropper in what was an initial foray into fruit and vegetable cultivation. But the Saturday Kitchen host has continued investing time into cultivating home-grown crops, as he explained when quizzed by Kitchen Garden.
KG: hoW did you become inspired to groW your oWn fruit and vegetables?
KG: When you first started your plot What Were the main challenges to the project?
JM: The biggest challenge was moving in and preparing the soil – over 800 tonnes of it – and ensuring drainage was correct. And the planting of trees (almost 100 of those) was backbreaking. In terms of choosing what to grow, well, that was the pleasurable part, but we had to get the whole plot ready from scratch and there were a few times when I was left wondering if it was all worth the effort! There is also a lot to learn. Naturally I knew about things like hybrids and heirlooms from my cooking, but the actual detail in terms of how each individual crop fares is something that has to be learnt over a huge amount of time.
KG: What vegetables did you start With and hoW did you feel When they reached the time for harvesting?
JM: I started with beetroots, chillies, carrot, potatoes, radishes, tomato plants, onions, garlic, beans, lettuces and more. I also went with red cabbages, but my inexperience got the better of me with them and I panicked when I thought the pests were getting to them. Actually, who am I kidding? I made loads of mistakes, but it’s all a learning experience. Certainly there is huge satisfaction when your basket begins to fill.
KG: Were there any vegetables you found easy to groW and could recommend to neW veg groWers?
JM: Well I suppose the old favourites – carrots and lettuces – would be top of the list, for sheer profligacy of crop. It’s one of those where you put the early effort in and let nature do the rest.
JM: Well first and foremost I love giving myself challenges. We recently did the second series of Operation Hospital Food, which was another considerable diversion into cost sector catering. The Dig Deep series was doing something else outside of my comfort zone, and leant on the memory of working the farm with my family back in Yorkshire when I was a child. I used to love the investment and the excitement and wanted to see if it was still the same. I’m glad to say it was and it is!
pests got the better of james’ red cabbages.
82 | JULY 2013
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