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Down-to-earth aDvice for growing fruit & veg | kitchengarDen.co.uk | June 2015
6 page SUMMeR SpeCIaL
CROP CAGES
SuccEED with STRAWBERRIES STRAWBERR STRA RR RRIES NEW KIDS ON THE PLOT
Turn your veg paTch inTo A POSH POTAGER
how To inSpirE your young garDEnErS
Control pests naturally
TESTED
Only in
KG
Tv GARDENER
JOE SWIFT’S vEG PLOT cONFESSIONS
MAKE A DIY WATERING SYSTEM ★ GROW PATIO HERBS
CONTENTS
EXPERT ADVICE TO HELP YOU GROW GREAT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
10 YOU
&
YOUR PLOT
JOBS THIS mONTH: 6 ON THE VEG PATCH
✪ oN tHE CoVER Follow us At facebook. com/KitchenGardenMag FOR OUR CONTACT DETAILS TURN TO Pg 18
SUBSCRIBERS’ CORNER See page 32 for details
Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month
4 | JUNE 2015
GET GROWING 23 VEG AT A GLANCE: SWEET POTATOES
sow runner beans and basil, plant out courgettes and tomatoes, harvest early potatoes, pick strawberries, grow companion plants, keep weeding
A KG mini growing guide for sure-fire success with these tasty tubers
10 IN THE GREENHOUSE
learn how to grow fresh green salads to fill your fridge
Pollinate aubergines, care for tomatoes and peppers, earth up cucumbers, try kohl rabi
12 HOT TOPICS
26 BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO LETTUCE
34 POTTY ABOUT HERBS ✪
the latest news and comment from the world of kitchen gardening
Gardening expert Joe Maiden has been growing herbs in pots for many years and reveals his top tips
16 YOUR LETTERS AND TIPS
38 GROWING UP THE WALL
learn what other KG readers have been up to and pick up some great first-hand advice. Plus enter our spot the Difference competition
20 QUESTION TImE
Ben Vanheems encourages us to reach for the sky with our veg
42 NEW KIDS ON THE PLOT ✪
Regular Gardeners’ Question time panellists Bob Flowerdew and Anne swithinbank answer your fruit and veg growing conundrums
Keen allotmenteer and gardening writer sally Ashworth explains how her parents’ wedding gift of a veg patch inspired her young family
102 NEXT mONTH
48 GROWING WITH JOE ✪
some highlights to be found in your July issue plus details of great free gifts
hAvINg TROUbLE FINDINg A COPy OF ThIS mAgAzINE?
42
38
106 LAST WORD
this month KG reader David Elsey from somerset reveals his not so wacky new invention!
we share a cuppa with garden designer and Gardeners’ world presenter, Joe swift
50 SAVE WATER, BOTTLE IT! ✪
Practical gardener Julie Moore has inspiration for a recycling project to keep your plants watered this summer www.kitchengarden.co.uk
JUNE 2015
RECIPES
KG chef Anna Pettigrew brings you some delicious recipes using strawberries, peas and oregano
98
Pg 98
5 PAGES OF MONEY-SAVING OFFERS ONLY FOR KG READERS
48
78
54 FRUIT AT A GLANCE: GOOSEBERRIES
66 SAVE £18.60 ON SOFT FRUIT
58 BEAT PESTS – NATURALLY ✪
69 SAVE £8.25 ON ORGANICALLY GROWN SALAD PLANTS
Organic gardening expert Mike Hedges explains how to fight pests using their natural enemies
Forgotten to sow your salads? Then why not buy one, get one free on a cut-and-comeagain salad leaf collection
62 HOW TO MAKE COMPOST TEA
Composting expert Andrew Davenport has a quick method for making super-rich plant foods
76 SAVE £9 ON DELICIOUS STRAWBERRIES
66 POTAGER PLOTTING ✪
You’ve read about them, now you can grow them with our fantastic money-saving offer!
Gardening expert, designer and author Michael Littlewood has some delicious design ideas for your veg plot
86 READER SAVERS ✪
PAGE STRAWBERRY SPECIALFEATURE ✪
50
71 SENSATIONAL STRAWBERRIES
KG’s Tony Flanagan explains how to ensure strawberries and cream are always on the menu
74 ANNE’S TOP 10 STRAWBERRIES
Gardening guru Anne Swithinbank reveals her must-have strawberries
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£
We have teamed up with top fruit breeder Lubera to bring you savings on some unique raspberry and blueberry varieties
A KG mini growing guide to help you grow bumper crops
6
WHAT TO BUY
26
78 AN ANTIQUARIAN VEG PLOT
This month claim your free summer salad and herb seed collection plus save on bean, root, cabbage and quick crop seed collections
88 TRIED AND TESTED ✪
The KG team put a selection of crop protection frames through their paces
92 GARDEN STORE
Gardening writer Naomi Slade visits Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire and Elizabethan kitchen garden restored to its former glory
News of the best new products and services to reach the KG offices this month
96 DIARY DATES
This month you could win plant protection kit, anvil secateurs, new Suttons growing boxes, soft fruit bushes and much more
Plus details of seed and young plant suppliers and giveaways coupon
93 GIVEAWAYS WORTH £2725 ✪
JUNE 2015 | 5
YOU
&
YOUR PLOT
HOT TOPICS
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF GROWING YOUR OWN FRUIT AND VEG
GREAT BRITISH BEE COUNT 2015
Gardeners are being urged to see how bee-friendly their garden or allotment is by taking part in the Great British Bee Count 2015. Organised by Friends of the Earth, Buglife and Waitrose, the Great British Bee Count, which is taking place throughout May, aims to build on the huge success of last year’s inaugural event. A staggering 23,000 people took part in the bee count last year – which featured on BBC’s Springwatch – spotting more than 830,000 bees. This year’s event promises to be even bigger. Allotments and gardens were two of the top three most popular habitats in last year’s bee count – with the countryside being the third. As bee populations continue to decline, the Great British Bee Count aims to provide an annual picture of national bee populations while also raising awareness of bee diversity. The data can be easily recorded via the free smartphone app. Bee expert Professor Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex said: “It is fantastic that the Great British Bee Count got 23,000 people out looking at our wild bees last year, let’s hope for even more in 2015. The idea of including photo uploads this year is really important as it will allow the records to be checked by experts.” To find out more about the event, including how to take part, visit www.greatbritishbeecount.co.uk
GETTINGYOUR TEETH INTO SHEDS
The Hobbit House, an entry for this year’s Shed of the Year competition
12 | JUNE 2015
The results of the Shed’onomics report to mark the annual Shed of the Year competition 2015, sponsored by Cuprinol, reveals some weird and wonderful statistics. ‘Sheddies’ will spend nearly a year in their sheds during their life, but nearly three-quarters of Brits (71%) are hoarding useless items in sheds, with nearly a third (32%) admitting their shed was so messy they could barely get through the door. Ex-husbands’ possessions, retro cassette tapes and Second World War gas masks are among the common items Brits are hoarding in their sheds. The report continues to show, however, that we are a nation of shed lovers – 5% of Brits even admitted to partaking in sexual activities in their shed, while 12% use their shed to get away from their partner! The top five useless items kept in sheds were old tools, rusty bikes, old house furniture, broken deck chairs and old sports gear. Among the most unusual items people admitted to having in their sheds were mannequins, old bird food, stuffed owls, punctured paddling pools and, yes, of course, false teeth.
HOT TOPICS
TOP TIPS ON SLUGS & SNAILS
With this year expected to be the worst on record for slugs and snails, Martin Duncan, head gardener at Arundel Castle and Gardens, offers some timely advice. “We have found the use of organic slug pellets effective, but if you are lucky enough to live by the sea and can get hold of some kelp, do scatter this around the plants as the salt in the seaweed is a very good deterrent. However, make sure you do not to put this directly on to the plants.” Martin also recommends that the garden be kept clean and tidy to limit the number of hiding places available. A useful tip is to make the ground around plants uncomfortable for slugs and snails, so lay down broken eggshells or gravel.
MANCHESTERART GALLERY IN BLOOM A major new garden installation at the Manchester Art Gallery is currently showcasing the city’s rich gardening heritage over the last four centuries. The Lost Gardens of Manchester, produced by the National Trust, has been created by a team led by the conservation charity’s gardener in residence and 30 volunteers using 10 tonnes of compost and 500 flowers and plants to include favourites such as foxgloves, peonies and grasses. The installation took 12 days to create. Sean Harkin, National Trust gardener in
Another option is to place copper bracelets around favourite plants, though Martin says this might be expensive. “There are also two fairly new products on the market including compressed sheep’s wool which you can scatter around your plants, as well as nematodes which you water on to the soil around your plants to deter those naughty slugs.”
residence, says: “With the help of volunteers and local historians, we delved into the past of Manchester’s major former gardens and came up with various ideas for conjuring up their beauty and sensory elements. “We hope visitors will be amazed by the sheer scale of the installation and will be able to enjoy the sights and smells of the plants, relax amid the foliage and find themselves a world away from the hustle and bustle of today’s Manchester.” The Lost Gardens of Manchester opened on April 2. However, the gardens will be evolving over the year and there will be events running alongside, culminating in a huge display of pumpkins on October 31 (Halloween).
PLUG PLANTS FOR FIRST TIME GROWERS Thompson & Morgan is offering plug plant collections aimed at gardeners new to growing or those without the time for detailed crop planning at the start of the season. Each plug plant collection is made up of several varieties that can be planted in one hit but will crop at different times to give the longest harvest windows. Thompson & Morgan horticultural director Paul Hansord said: “We’ve taken the guesswork out of crop timings with these young plant collections. Simply plant your rows with the earliest variety at one end, the latest at the other, and pick your way down the row as the season moves on.” The plug collections are also helpful to those starting a veg patch late in the season or as an insurance policy against lost seedlings due to pests, diseases or unfavourable weather. They can be planted out immediately on delivery with little to no need for frost protection. Customers can also add Incredicrop to their order. This one-off specialist feed encourages up to four times more fruit and vegetables, and will support everything on the patch for a full seven months from a single application at planting time. For the full range visit www.thompson-morgan.com
WINATHOMPSON & MORGAN VOUCHER
KG is delighted to have 25 T&M vouchers to give away, each worth £10. Vouchers must be spent by June 30. The competition closes on (25 AVAILABLE) Thursday, June 4, 2015, at 5pm. To enter, visit: www. kitchengarden.co.uk/competitions
WORTH
Sean Harkin, National Trust gardener in residence
£10
Do you HAVE SoME HoT STorIES For our nEWS PAGES? SEnD THEM To TFLAnAGAn@MorTonS.Co.uk www.kitchengarden.co.uk
JUNE 2015 | 13
KG mInI GrOwInG GuIde
GET GROWING
Plant: May-June Harvest: September -October
Sweet potatoes ATA GLAnCe
Boiled, steamed, baked, mashed or turned into warming soups, vitamin-rich sweet potatoes are truly delicious. Here is our potted guide to growing this tasty crop
F
lick through many old recipe books and two vegetables now common in UK kitchens are likely to be conspicuous by their absence – garlic and sweet potatoes. The first are now a staple veg on many British plots; the only thing which might discourage some from trying the latter is their reputation for requiring a warm summer for success. This is less true nowadays with the introduction of hardier varieties and pot-ready plants, but in cooler areas it is still the case that a good crop is more assured in a greenhouse or polytunnel. In favoured districts or given a long, hot summer, sweet potatoes can be grown successfully outside.
Laying it on its side on a thin bed of compost in a tray, half bury with potting compost. Alternatively, stand the tuber up in a glass of water; you can cut large tubers in half and place each half, supported with cocktail sticks if necessary, over a glass or jar. Cut surfaces must be held below the waterline. Maintain a temperature of 21-24ºC (70-75ºF) and over a period of four to five weeks it should root and send out shoots (if growing in water, change this occasionally to keep it fresh). Once the shoots are Rather than being a ‘real’ about 15cm (6in) long they tuber as with our traditional ProPagation can be removed by gently potato, the sweet potato is It is possible to produce your own pulling them away from really a swollen root. The plants via slips and this is a great the tuber. Stand these in young leaves and soft way to get the kids helping. First another glass of water and shoot tips are take your tuber (some shop-bought they will root within 14 days. also edible tubers are treated and may not shoot). Once they have produced a
TOP TIP
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Sweet potatoes are propagated from ‘slips’, shoots which are pulled carefully from the parent tuber
reasonable amount of root they can be potted up, or immediately after removing from the tuber, pot them into small pots filled with multipurpose or cutting compost to root. Alternatively, you can buy plants from many suppliers and this has the advantage that you know the variety and that it should better suit UK conditions (shop-bought tubers will have ➤ JUNE 2015 | 23
GET GROWING
Varieties
■ ‘CAROLINA RUBY’ (Organic Gardening Catalogue [OGC], T&M): Ruby-red skin and sweet orange flesh. ■ ‘BEAUREGARD IMPROVED’ (D T Brown, T&M, Suttons, OGC): Salmon orange flesh with a distinctive flavour. ■ ‘BURGUNDY’ (Suttons): Uniform, redskinned tubers with burgundy-orange flesh. ■ ‘MURASAKI 29’ (Suttons): Purpleskinned tubers with creamy coloured, nutty flesh. Great for chips. Recommended also for edible leaves. ■ ‘BONITA’ (Suttons): Pale-skinned tubers with sweet white flesh. ■ ‘T65’ (OGC): Large roots with red skins and creamy flesh.
The young foliage is also edible
‘Burgundy’ produces uniform tubers
‘Beauregard Improved’
been grown in warmer climes). Plants generally start to arrive from suppliers in May and such is their popularity that if you haven’t ordered them already you’ll need to get to it without delay.
The plants need plenty of space as they trail over the ground. Plant 30cm (12in) apart with 75cm (30in) between rows. Planting through slits in black polythene helps to warm the soil and keeps down weeds. GROWING ON In pots you can allow the long trails to simply Pot your slips into 13cm (5in) pots using any roam over the edges of the pot (they will tend to good multipurpose compost and grow on until root where they touch bare soil) or train them the beginning of June or when the frosts are over up a trellis of canes to save space. Long trails can in your area, at which stage they can either be be pinched back to encourage shooting and potted on into large pots, patio tubs, potato bags more leaves to feed the crop beneath the soil. or planted into the greenhouse border. Keep the plants well watered but not Alternatively, you can plant wet and feed every few weeks with a outside into well-drained, liquid fertiliser such as a tomato friable soil (heavy or stony feed or scatter some general soil tends to produce oddfertiliser lightly around the Slugs and snails may nibble shaped tubers). Cover with base of the plants. the foliage as it trails over the a cloche on exposed sites or soil. Use your favoured form during cool, wet weather.
What wentwrong?
HARVESTING
For full details of suppliers see page 97
With good growth you may find that some tubers will start to push themselves out of the pot and this is a good indication that they are ready to harvest. More often the top growth will begin to turn yellow and the crop should be lifted before the frosts arrive to cause any damage. Tubers left in situ for as long as possible are likely to be sweeter than those lifted early. Lift carefully on a dry day (outside) and leave on the surface of the soil for a few hours to harden. Wash and dry them and place on the greenhouse bench or in a tray in a warm shed for seven to 10 days to allow the skins to cure, after which they can be stored in a cool, but frost-free dry place for several months. ■
of control where necessary. Sap-sucking pests such as greenfly may infest the soft shoot tips. Rub them off or spray as necessary.
Sweet potato chips – sweet and delicious!
24 | JUNE 2015
Harvest the roots when the leaves begin to turn yellow
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Growing up the wall With the size of the average garden ever-shrinking, keen gardeners are left with only one option – to reach skywards. Benedict Vanheems looks at how vertical gardening can help your harvests really take off
A simple trellis screen complete with espaliered apple tree creates an attractive division between two areas of a garden
38 | JUNE 2015
B
ritain is renowned as being a nation of gardeners and yet, for many of us, the size of garden we have to work with is frustratingly small. We live on a crowded island and with land at a premium the first thing to be sacrificed is garden space. It’s an exasperating situation but there is a solution: if you’ve run out of ground space start growing upwards. The vertical plane is unlimited and a well-covered wall or fence can be every bit as productive as a traditional vegetable plot. It requires a little ingenuity but the effort will pay off handsomely. Vertical growing all manner of fruits and vegetables has its advantages. By raising produce off the ground you can dramatically reduce the incidence of troublesome pests: so long slugs and see-yer-later carrot flies! Better air circulation will reduce the disease risk too, while raised crops are easier to tend and harvest, saving the back and making cultivation less of a muddy affair. Gardeners growing on a south or west-facing wall can also take advantage of the storage-heater effect, as the structure soaks up the sun’s rays
during the day to radiate warmth back on to your plants at night. The effect is a cosy microclimate significantly warmer than that at ground level. Further winter protection is simply a matter of securing fleece or polythene over the wall, or moving a plant house into position.
EYEING UP THE OPTIONS
Vertical solutions start with traditional climbing vegetables or wall-hugging fruit trees and extend, at the more ingenious end of the spectrum, to purpose-made wall-mounted planters. The way to maximise what you grow is to combine these options in a way that makes the most of the space you have available. The logical place to begin your upward journey is with those fruits and vegetables that naturally climb or can be encouraged to do so. Obvious options include climbing beans and peas, indeterminate (vining) varieties of tomatoes and members of the squash family, such as sprawling melons, cucumbers, squashes and trailing types of courgette. Natural sprawlers, such as squashes, will require regular www.kitchengarden.co.uk
GROWING UP THE WALL
ON THE FRAME
Burgon & Ball 5-A-Day show garden
Make an A-framed support by securing two sections of trellis or two screens of netting together with hinges or wire at the top end. The frame can then be unfolded as a temporary support for climbing peas and beans. The ground between the frames can be used to grow shade-tolerant leafy salads – spinach or lettuce would work well. At the end of the season simply clear away what remains of the plants and lift up the A-frame to store until next season.
Planters, trained fruits and climbing vegetables combine to pack a lot into this small garden
Climbing beans and sprawling squash look magnificent growing up and over an archway
This ingenious home-made vertical planter turns an old pallet on its head to create a herbal heaven
tying in to help them on their way. Grow them up trellis or perhaps over a pergola or archway so that the fruits dangle down and create a feature. Climbing plants with tendrils, such as peas, will easily find their way up just about any support, once they’ve found their feet, while beans can be grown up the usual bamboo canes or, for a more decorative and eye-catching focal point, up wicker wigwams. Beans with coloured pods such as French bean ‘Blauhilde’ (purple) or Borlotti bean ‘Firetongue’ (speckled red) look especially decorative smothering a trellis screen, arch or obelisk.
established they will yield pounds of fruit from what will be a very compact footprint.
FRUIT TREE WALL
Tree fruits such as pears, apples and cherries may be grown on a dwarfing rootstock so as to limit their final size and make them more amenable to training into wall-hugging shapes such as parallelbranched espaliers, fans, or single-stemmed cordons. Trees may be grown against a wall or on horizontal wires stretched taut between freestanding posts to create a natural – and edible – division between two areas of the garden. Once www.kitchengarden.co.uk
An espalier apple against a wall
lightweight and breathable, with a front that enables excess moisture to simply evaporate away. Like other wall-mounted units, Woolly WONDER WALL Pockets are secured to the wall using fasteners Cloaking a wall with verdant produce is where and wall anchors. vertical growing really comes into its own. There Other wall-mounted units include modular are broadly three options here: training planters such as the Verti-plant system climbing or sprawling crops up from Burgon & Ball, which features from ground level, as described “THERE’S three pockets, one above the other. previously; using stackable top two pockets have PLENTY OF The planters from the ground up to drainage holes in their base, provide multiple planting ROOM IF YOU which allows excess water to drip spaces; or making use of any through to the pocket below, LOOK UP number of wall-mounted making watering considerably planters. Stackable and wallmore straightforward. TOWARDS mounted planters open the door Needless to say, there are THE SKY” plenty of free-standing solutions to any number of lower-growing vegetables, salads, herbs and fruits. that can be located anywhere on a Wall-mounted systems range from the patio. These typically take the form of decidedly ordinary (hanging baskets!) to clever shelving units on to which pots can be placed or designs that have brought modern thinking accompanying growing trays slotted into to the challenge. An example of the latter is the position. The shelves are either stacked one felt-like Woolly Pocket. Made from recycled above the other, or splayed out on an A-frame plastic bottles, the pockets are, crucially, to achieve better light availability. ➤ JUNE 2015 | 39
SAVING WATER
Save water, bottle it!! plants to use. Leaching of nutrients from the soil through surface run-off is prevented while soil erosion is minimised. As a result, you’ll find that your crops will grow more quickly and will be more productive because they have all the water and nutrients from the soil they need – growth will not be impacted by water stress. A drip irrigation system can also help combat weeds since water is only delivered to where it is needed i.e. your plants. As a result, the soil surface between both plants and rows remains drier, discouraging weed seeds from germinating. Not only will you have better access to your crops, you’ll also be spending less time weeding.
OJECT
A
s responsible gardeners, it’s imperative that we protect the water sources we have available to us and water our crops frugally. With the prospect of hosepipe bans looming, it’s time to make your own simple, effective and efficient bottle drip irrigation system to ensure that your crops beat the summer heat. A drip irrigation system is not only a simple concept, it’s also an efficient and economical method of watering, saving you time and energy while conserving water supplies. Under a drip irrigation system, small quantities of water trickle slowly into the soil over a long period of time. This means the water is directed to where your plants need it most: the root zone. As the water penetrates slowly downwards, soil particles have ample opportunity to absorb and hold the water ready for your
PR
Garden writer and DIY enthusiast Julie Moore recycles plastic bottles to make watering devices that direct water to the roots of plants, saving water and money
REC
YCLING
When using garden hoses or watering cans, it’s inevitable that water comes in contact with plant foliage. This moist environment encourages foliage diseases such as powdery mildew. A drip system can help to control fungal diseases, which would otherwise spread under damp conditions throughout your crops, as water is directed away from foliage. While there are a number of excellent systems available (see KG July issue), by recycling some materials, you can make your own for free. Not only will you be able to water your plot all at the same time, you’ll also be able to carry out other garden chores while your crops are being watered wisely. ➤
“a DRIP SYSTEM CaN HELP TO CONTROL FUNGaL DISEaSES”
When using watering cans, it’s inevitable that water comes in contact with plant foliage – this moist environment encourages foliage diseases such as powdery mildew
A bottle drip irrigation system using plastic tubing buried in the soil www.kitchengarden.co.uk
JUNE 2015 | 51
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