Fine weather, growing veg & allotmenteering

I hate to do it, but to quote The Sun – phew, what a scorcher! The weather this week has been fabulous - if you like warm, sunny days out of keeping in April that is. I guess we'll have to pay for it later on in the year - snow in June?
It has meant I've spent a lot of time away from my computer over the last few days and spent it in the garden & on the allotment - topping up the tan. Which also means I've caught up and got ahead of jobs.
I've sown my tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, courgettes and squashes. I've also sown lots of salad and brassica seeds in modules to transplant out later. I find this far better than sowing seed direct into the ground - especially for plants on the allotment, as it gives them a better start in life so they make stronger plants.
I'm also growing lots of grafted plants this year, as I had such great results last year - especially with the aubergines as they were my best ever.
The allotment is looking very pristine - thoroughly weeded and the grass paths mown. Yesterday, I planted the early potatoes - 'Charlotte' is the one I always choose. And I've been picking and eating asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli, kale and leeks like they're about to become extinct.

In my 'spare' time(!) I've been creating a vegetable growing course for MyGardenSchool.com  If you're interested and want to sign up to learn how to grow veg to perfection then visit the MyGardenSchool website.

Grow Your Own & Edible Garden Show

Wow, what a month it's been. After a slightly quiet and slightly nervous January, where workloads were looking a little low - February exploded into a massive work meltdown. To be honest, in January I was thinking OK, no worries, at least I can spend more time in the garden/on the allotment. As it turns out, at the moment the garden is something that 'exists' somewhere outside my office!

I signed up to be a tutor for MyGardenSchool.com - an online horticultural teaching facility, which meant sorting out scripts and images and going off to record the scripts for use in the online tutorials. They'll be going live by the beginning of April, so sign up if you want to learn from the master!

The RHS asked me to write another book for them in the practical gardening series - this time on pruning. Of course, I said, how long have I got (thinking four weeks, like the last three books)? 10 weeks was the reply - 10 weeks, wow - more than double the last three. However, three weeks into writing, I get an e-mail saying that schedules have been changed and I need to get it all finished in three week's time. A bit of a shock - but still 50% greater than previous books. Today I'm tackling pruning fruit.

Scotts Miracle-Gro has just asked me to help their Interactive Manager manage the website - lovethegarden.com - and work on their e-mail campaigns and e-newsletters, among other things.

The 'other' things include doing talks and demonstrations for the company at The Edible Garden Show on March 18-20 and the Capel Manor Spring Gardening Show on April 2-3. If you're going to either show come and say hi!

I have promised myself a trip to the allotment this weekend. I'll probably need to take a machete!

Raised bed a go-go

OK, not as much progress as I'd hoped, but I have finished filling the second bed and moved the soil where the third one is meant to go. Sadly, I haven't treated the wood for the last two beds, yet - so onwards & upwards - that's a job for today. In fact, now, as soon as I finish scribbling this down.

Just finished my RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. And the results are in...
Blackbird 7, collared dove 3, greenfinch 2, robin 4, blue tit 4, dunnock 3, house sparrow 5, song thrush 2, carrion crow 1, feral pigeon 2, starling 5, chaffinch 1, great tit 3, woodpigeon 1, magpie 2. If I remember rightly the numbers are about the same as last year, but I'm missing goldfinch and long-tailed tits from the previous survey. I have had a couple of visits from a sparrowhawk, so maybe this has dealt with the tits - not sure it would go for goldfinches. I have seen a couple of piles of feathers...!

After 10 years in this house and garden, I've never had any 'mammal issues' in the garden - and I've always boasted about it when people ask me how to deal with squirrels, rabbits, foxes, deer and moles. Well, my boasting has just come back to bite me on the bum - a fox and a squirrel have moved in over the last couple of days. Time to put my own pest control suggestions into practice in my own garden.

The rise of raised beds

Well finally, me and my big mouth. In my blog on November 27 about putting up raised beds I stupidly said we'd have a bad winter - and so we did. All of which meant that I've not been able to get any further with the raised beds - that is, until today.
I bit the bullet and managed to put down the first 1.8m bed, fill it with soil, move the soil where the first 2.4m bed was meant to go, build it, install it and start to fill it. Sadly, rain, bad light and a knackered back have stopped play. So, not quite half way there.
Not to worry, it's still too cold to sow directly outside - a minimum soil temperature of 7C is needed for most seeds to germinate and it's nowhere near that yet.
Hopefully this week I can get away from the computer, sneak outside and start treating the wood for the last two beds with wood preservative. Knowing my luck it'll pour down all week. Aha, will I never learn? Bearing in mind my winter comment I shouldn't have said that.
Also, on my website, I've put up a load of information about square foot or block layout veg growing, which you may find useful interesting. There's a load of info about yields, spacing and how many plants of each veg to grow.

Going back to blighty

This year, it wasn't too bad. The previous two years were quite bad. The year before that was awful. What is it? Tomato and potato blight - the scourge of veg growers.
OK, we have blight-resistant varieties - the Sarpos, for instance. But I like to grow the varieties I like to eat.
Years ago, when blight was bad, I was happy to spray plants with Dithane and the control was excellent. Then that got taken off the market and so this year I used Bayer Garden Fruit & Vegetable Disease Control with good results. Then horror of all horrors, I read in Which? Gardening that copper-based fungicides are being withdrawn. Cheshunt Compound (which contains copper sulphate) is no longer available to buy from November 30, 2010 and any existing tins must be used up by November 30, 2011 or disposed of safely. The report goes on to say: ”Other products containing copper sulphate, copper oxychloride...are also being withdrawn. Bordeaux mixture, which contains copper sulphate, is currently approved for use until the end of 2013." Bayer Garden Fruit & Vegetable Disease Control contains copper oxychloride. So, I did some checking around - including the PSD website - and also got this information: "Bayer is going to continue to support Fruit & Vegetable Disease Control and so it will go on beyond 2012/2013." So I'm happy.
There were some reports in the summer about genetically-modified resistance to potato blight and then I saw this today on the Horticulture Week website (www.hortweek.com): Researchers from the University of Dundee, the Scottish Crop Research Institute examined the behaviour of Phytophtora infestans and how it interacts with potato plants, and identifying the proteins secreted by the pathogen that play an essential role in infecting the plants. The researchers now know a lot more about how P. infestans gets round the potato plant's natural defences and what it takes for the plant to resist infection. They can now look at a potato plant's genetic make-up and say whether it will be sustainably resistant to late blight. All good news.
The other weapon in my blight arsenal is the Blight Watch website (www.blightwatch.co.uk) where you can put in your postcode and get a warning when blight is forecast in your area. All very clever.

The fall & rise of raised beds

Finally, after eight years, my raised vegetable beds have bitten the dust - literally. For the last year the wood has slowly started rotting away. Now the sides have given up the ghost and started to go awol.
Good time to replace them I thought. So I ordered four new beds - 2 x 2.4m long and 2 x 1.8m; the two old 4.8m long beds were too long - they bowed in the middle and took ages to walk round. Lazy? - me!
Last week I cleared away enough soil to put down one bed, with the intention of filling and moving the soil to get the others down and filled in a logical (kinda) manner. Yesterday the beds were delivered and I stood out in the freezing cold treating them with a wood preservative. Now, today, we've got 5cm of snow, the ground is frozen and everything is on hold.
Thank gawd for the conservatory. After clearing out enough rubbish to give me some room, I've started building the beds indoors. I just need to remember, like someone I knew who built a motorcycle in his attic and then couldn't get it out again without partially dismantling it, that I need to ensure I can get them out of the patio doors.
No doubt, despite my excitement to get them finished asap, we'll have another bad winter and I won't be able to start using the beds until May. Good job I've got some frames to start everything off from seed.

Veg & allotment plotting - and other writing

Wow, what a busy week. Can't complain though - it keeps me off the streets, and off my soaking wet allotment. The life of a freelancer is fraught with job juggling, being pulled in all directions and trying to remember exactly who you spoke to and about what.

Following the successful writing for the RHS Allotment Handbook (which looks like it's either going to be available at the end of February/early March), the publisher, Mitchell Beazley, has now commissioned me to write the RHS Allotment Journal. They only want 40,000 words and they only want the copy in four weeks' time! Typer's cramp here I come - pass me the Red Bull and Pro-Plus. The book is meant to be ready for sale in October, hence the short lead/writing time.

Talking of veg plotting, the lovely Veg Plotting is organising a get-together for all gardening bloggers at Malvern Flower Show in May. Great idea, but sadly I'm going to be 'performing' at Grand Designs Live at London Excel so probably won't be able to make it.

I've finished testing the electric propagators for Garden News - you'll have to buy a copy of the February 16 issue to find out which one I thought was the best. Now I've got secateurs and fleeces turning up by the dozen and coming out of my ears for the next two articles. The curtains in my street are twitching regularly as yet another delivery van turns up with yet another parcel.

And now Garden Bargains want me to write articles for their online magazine, which is available from the website every fortnight.

It's just a good thing that it's so cold and miserable outside - or I might start going stir crazy. But if it's this mad in spring...

Now, pass me another keyboard.

Grafting for supper

I guess I have to put my hand up and admit to being one of those sad buggers who likes looking through seed and plant catalogues and placing orders. I especially like looking at what's new and novel.

I mentioned a couple of days ago about the new flower sprout from T&M, which I'm definitely growing this year. There are other 'newbies' that I've ordered and am having a go with this year, but possibly the one that I'm looking foerward to the most is the new range of grafted vegetables from Suttons. I mentioned these when I went to their Press Day last year, but now I've actually got some coming to grow at home.

I've ordered the pepper 'Sweet Chelsea', aubergine 'Scorpio', chilli pepper 'Medina', melon 'Sweetheart' and the double grafted tomato for something really unusual. If you're interested and want to have a go, visit the Suttons website.

New vegetable - the 'flower sprout'

Plant breeders have done it again. Produced something that will be loved by many and probably hated by many more - especially children.

The 'flower sprout' is a cross between Brussels sprouts and curly kale to produce a vegetable that produces rosettes of loose, frilly-edged buttons on a long stalk with purple, green and bicoloured leaves. For those desperate to try it, it will be on sale at M&S shops next Monday.

I first saw this at last year's Thompson & Morgan Press Open Day. It certainly looks interesting - good for those who want ornamental veg for their beds and borders - and it has a good flavour, similar to one of my favourite veg - spring greens - rather than Brussels sprouts. Because of its parentage it's very winter hardy.

For those who want to try growing it at home this year - and I suggest you give it a go, you can buy seed of Brassica 'Petit Posy'™ from T&M. Click here to find out more and place your order

Hard graft - easy graft

I've just got back from the Suttons Press Day at Capel Manor in Enfield. Another great day, very useful and informative - thanks David, Tom and Fran.
Among all the new flower and veg seed introductions for 2010, probably the most exciting news is the introduction of a wide range of grafted vegetable plants. You may have grown some of Suttons grafted tomatoes this year, but the new range also includes sweet peppers, chilli peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and melons.
The advantage of grafted plants (that is grafting a known vegetable variety onto a known, reliable rootstock) are many, but include: healthier, stronger plants that are especially better in poor summers (2007-2009 for example!); heavier and better yields produced over a longer period (both earlier and later); better disease resistance; and plants less susceptible to nutritional disorders - although they do need more feeding with potash fertilisers, due to their strong, vigorous growth.
None of this is new. Gardeners used to regularly graft their own tomatoes back in the day, but it's difficult, tedious work, Commercially most aubergine production is from grafted plants as is the majority of organic pepper and organic cucumber production. But what is new is that these methods are now available to the home gardener as ready-to-grow plants. Okay, they may be expensive to buy (around a tenner for three plants), but apparently people have been lapping up the tomato plants this year, so these new introductions should prove just as popular.
As Tom Sharples from Suttons says: "Grafting helps make the uncertainty of growing some of these crops more certain. Those that have depended on a good summer or even having to be grown in a greenhouse to do well will now be available to everyone and produce a reliable crop."
The grafting process is also giving Suttons the opportunity to experiment. They are grafting two different tomato varieties onto one rootstock to produce a 'family tomato' plant and, due to the increased vigour, even running up two main shoots from each plant - or four from the family tomato. This not only increases yield from each plant, but also allows you to grow more in a smaller space. Good thinking.
If you've grown the grafted tomatoes this year I'd love to hear your comments.

I'm a good author...

Well, that's according to book publisher Mitchell Beazley, who are publishing the Allotment Handbook for the RHS and for which I've written the section on vegetables.
But it's not necessarily because I write well - it's because my deadline is tomorrow and I sent all the copy last Friday! Now there's one advantage of not having a proper job and lots of time to fill.
Let's hope when they get round to reading the copy whot I writ they'll still have the same opinion. I guess the ultimate test will be how many copies the book actually sells. For those who are desperate for another veg/allotment book you'll have to wait until March 2010 to get your hands on it.

More seed sowing - and growing on

The evening's are lighter and the days are longer, which means just one thing - there's time in the evening to do some gardening after getting home from work. So, with one hand carefully nurturing a bottle of Perroni, I've put the other to good use this week sowing more veg in pots and putting them in the propagator.

Joining the assortment of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and courgettes already sown, we've now got aubergine 'Fairy Tale' and that good stalwart 'Black Beauty', tomato 'Burpee's Jubilee' and 'Falcorosso', chilli pepper 'Tropical Heat', 'Hot Portugal' and 'Georgia Flame' and cucumber 'White Wonder' plus a tray of celeriac 'Giant Prague'. The cucumbers have already germinated!

From the first sowing in March, all the tomatoes have grown well and these have now been potted up into 9cm pots and are lined out in the lean-to frame.

Outside the veg garden, I've taken the plunge and cut back all the artemisias, penstemons and hardy fuchsias - Clare has been getting impatient over the last few weeks as they were all looking decidedly floppy and untidy. Let's hope we don't get any severe frosts - fingers crossed.

And, as usual I've been on my regular pest watch patrols - looking for any nasties that are lurking and taking advantage of new, fresh growth. So far, nothing to report. Any I mean nothing. The slugs and snails are being taken care of by the army or frogs and toads in the garden and a liberal scattering of slug pellets. And I know that lots of people are talking about early attacks of lily beetle but so far nothing. About this time last year our Lilium formosanum var. pricei had been totally ravaged and gave up the ghost soon afterwards, but this year not a sign of damage. So let's hope it stays that way. I have given all the lilies a thorough spray with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer to offer some protection, but if the lily beetles were active, there would be some signs of nibbling - but so far nothing.

And now it's the Easter weekend, so in between entertaining friends and eating fatty choccy treats I'm hoping there'll be some time to get outside and get on with things.

Sowing the seeds of success

Well hopefully. Although I've got to say it's a slow start - probably not warm enough for seeds to germinate properly and, as a result, not much is showing in the veg plot at home. Of all the things I've sown so far only the radish and broad beans are doing anything.

But onwards and upwards. With so much to do in the garden - and keeping true to my word (so far), not spending as much time as usual in front of the computer screen - I decided to take a day off work today. I also needed to recharge the batteries as the RHS website is going through a major overhaul and it's exhausting.

I spent a few hours on the allotment, doing some more weeding and tidying up. I also planted out a Coronet family apple tree, which came courtesy of Springfield Nurseries in Ireland. This joins the other two Coronets, which fruited magnificently last year.

Because things aren't germinating at home I've decided to give sowing on the allotment a miss at the moment. But at least the onions, garlic and shallots are making a breakthrough. And the potatoes are chitting nicely at home waiting to be planted out, probably - to keep things traditional - at Easter.

Instead we've decided to sow things in pots and modules here and then transplant them into the allotment later. So, there's three trays of leek 'Jaune de Poitou' (a lovely early yellow variety), one each of beetroot 'Burpees Golden Globe' and kale 'Nero di Toscana' and another follow-on crop of broad bean 'The Sutton'.

I've also put in a few more rows of salad crops outside at home - it must be warm enough now surely (but I've covered them with fleece just in case!) including carrot 'Early Nantes 2', radish 'Zlata' (a golden-yellow variety), cos lettuce and red-veined sorrel.

And I decided to sow a Westland Horticulture Instant Planter in the greenhouse with more cos lettuce (should grow quicker than outside), rocket and some salad leaves from the new collection from Lakeland.

But all good things must come to an end - I've now got to get ready to give a talk to a local(ish) gardening club. It's one I've never been to before, but they sound a friendly bunch and I always enjoy giving talks.

Spring on the allotment

True to my word, Sunday was spent on the allotment. Although we've had a slow start and didn't go there for weeks for one reason or another, I'm amazed at how good it looks. Hardly any weeds, and what there were came out really easily.

The main reason for going was to (finally) plant out the garlic, shallots and onion sets - both red and white.

We'd also been given a couple of blackcurrant 'Big Ben' bushes by Suttons and these needed planting out. This spectacular new blackcurrant has huge fruit - double the size of other varieties - and is very high yielding too. The fruits are produced early in the season and are sweet and juicy. Plants show good resistance to mildew and leaf spot.

After a spot of weeding and tidying up we'd more or less finished for the day - apart from harvesting a whole load of leeks, a load of cut daffs and some pretty unspectacular celeriac. They may have looked unspectacular but they have made some really delicious cream of celeriac soup.

It was interesting to see who and how the other plots had changed. The plot run by the school kids had disappeared and the gravel and raised beds were replaced with a standard plot. The greenhouse a few plots down had been completely de-glazed - apparently by the lovely youth of the area! New people had started two plots up from us - Clare picked them a bunch of daffs as a welcome present. But there was one standard - Bruce the site guardian - and his cultivator. His plots are the most cultivated anywhere, but he loves to rotovate other plots too if you let him. He can never understand why we say no. But we can never understand why he likes rotovating couch grass!

Spring resolutions under way

My new spring resolution - spend more time gardening not thinking about it, is working a treat. Yesterday I spent most of the day in the garden or doing things connected with gardening. Although, the spanking the Red Devils took from the Scousers did split up the day and make me sit indoors enduring torture - plus the texts from Liverpool supporting friends.

Most of the gardening time was spent making a start on getting the veg garden up and running.
The garden frame has been sitting on the raised beds all winter, so the soil was lovely and warm and welcoming for some early crops. So an early row of rocket, a row of beetroot 'Detroit' and one of lettuce 'Stoke' (a variety from the Heritage Seed Library) have joined the broad beans sowed last week.

Outside I put in a row of salad onion 'White Lisbon', Continental salad mix, radish 'Amethyst', celtuce and carrot 'Egmont Gold' (another from the Heritage Seed Library) plus some 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli in a seed bed.

I'm also testing a new product - the Seedbed Roll from The Master Herbalist. The company produces a couple of different types and I've used the English Summer Salad - a mix of lettuce and salad leaves. This is a professional way of growing veg that is meant to produce better and faster germination, stronger growth and needs less water and no chemical controls. The seed comes pre-sown on a biodegradable paper mat that is covered in a clear layer of compostable film that conserves moisture and warmth and acts like a propagator. It'll be interesting to see how it performs.

Finally, Clare and I set up our exotic veg seed sowing production line - filling pots, firming compost, writing labels, sowing seeds, covering with vermiculite and watering. We've sown our first batch of indoor tomatoes, aubergines, sweet and chilli peppers, basil and courgettes. Last year we sowed too much too early and all in one go - this year we're doing things more carefully and steadily to prevent the seedling mountain we suffered last year.

Well, The Archers omnibus has just finished, the sun is shining and it's a proper spring day out there, so we're off to the allotment. Twice in quick succession - the allotment won't know what hit it! But there's lots to do and we've got onions, shallots and garlic to plant as well as some new fruit trees and bushes.

Stir crazy

At least I think I might be going that way. What with an excess of work, excesses of weather and the fact that the EU decimal 100-hour day hasn't yet been introduced, I haven't had much/any/enough time in the garden recently.

Last weekend I managed a couple of hours - much of which was spent dealing with/tidying up the ivy-covered tree stump that came down in the snow; luckily it hadn't done much damage - apart from bending the frame of the lean-to greenhouse a tad. The lawn had its first cut of 2009 too, after nearly killing myself with the annual raking and scarifying. I even managed to sow a couple of rows and a couple of trays of broad beans, including an old heirloom variety called 'Martock'; don't know it, never grown it, but who cares!

Today was definitely - "right, I'm going to the allotment whatever happens" day; bad choice really. Apart from the fact that it was blowing a gale, it started raining/sleeting/hailing/snowing and was just flippin' cold. Never mind, I got quite a bit of tidying up done and even dug over quite a lot of it too. Message to self: must spend more time there this year; message from self: then don't take on lots of other/new projects as well.

Now, if only the clocks would go forward and that 100-hour day was introduced...!

Getting blown away

Wow, it's windy. And if there's one thing I hate (since experiencing the Great Storm of 1987) it's wind. We've had a few fence panels become dislodged, but managed to rescue them before they completely blew away. Now I'm inside catching up with work - rather than being outside, which is what I'd prefer.
In the lead up to the week before the big gardening weekend - Easter - I've been recording more messages for Garden Radio. Looks like potting compost, young herbaceous plants and a vast array of fertilisers are the big things being promoted in garden centres - and it looks like there are a lot of great offers available.
The broad beans and lettuces in the growing frame are growing at great speed. They even needed a watering this week, as the conditions in there are so warm that the soil had dried out quite a lot. Then typically it started to rain soon afterwards. Never mind, the rain just can't penetrate deep enough, so they needed a good watering. Mind you, according to my Oregon Scientific weather station we had 32mm of rain last night. The pond certainly looks full!
The garlic plants in the lean-to frame, which were meant for the allotment are growing well and have put on a spurt of growth. Sadly, the allotment isn’t quite ready for them yet, so I had a change of heart and have planted out two rows in the raised beds. There’s still a tray of 12 left so these can go out onto the allotment at a later stage. They might need potting up first though as the cells are getting chocka with roots.
I made the first outdoor sowing yesterday of radish - four cultivars in fact as I'm taking part in the RHS radish trial. Can't wait to see how each one grows and, more importantly, eat them.
And I've also managed to sow some chilli and sweet peppers in the propagator.
I’ve just received some young tomato plants from Suttons. These are plants they want to trial. There’s ‘Elegance’ and ‘Hundreds and Thousand’ plus a grafted plant of ‘Elegance’. Suttons are selling grafted plants this year on a rootstock that will give them greater strength to fight off diseases including tomato blight. After last year’s fight with blight I’m looking forward to seeing how they perform – although I’m not looking forward to blight returning as bad as it was last year.

The early bird...

“I’m late!, I’m late! For a very important date.” So said the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. And if I was an exhibition veg grower I would be late. I’ve just sown some ‘Mammoth Improved’ onion seeds for this year, whereas exhibition growers always try to sow on Boxing Day or as soon after the shortest day as possible.
These are now sitting in the propagator in the garage. Sadly, I can’t get electricity down to the greenhouse, so always have to sow seeds nearer to home. In the past I’ve always used the conservatory, but light levels here (it’s north facing) mean that the seedlings grow a bit tall and lank. But how can the garage be any better. Well, my girlfriend is the Gardening Editor on Garden News and she’s testing a growlight and we’ve set it up in the garage to see how well it does. We’ll be using it to grow on a range of plants; I’ll let you know how we get on.
So how did 2007 end on the veg front? Well the year itself was a complete washout – no pun intended – and one of the worst I can remember for veg growing. I feel really sorry for all those who started veg gardening for the first time, only to be beset with failures, disappointment, doom and gloom. But be positive – this year just can’t be any worse, can it?!
Like most people I suffered (well, not personally you understand, it was my crops) from potato and tomato blight – although a couple of sprays with Dithane did hold it in check and the crops were OK.
The low light levels in summer and resulting cool temperatures did for my aubergines, sweet peppers and courgettes – the crops were abysmal (keep it a secret, but from six aubergine plants I cropped one aubergine!). Thankfully, the chilli peppers were a huge success and in the pantry I’ve still got a couple of jars of dried chillies plus some fiery chilli jam.
Leafy salad crops, on the other hand, grew really well, lasted until November and basically I was self-sufficient in salads for nine months. I also feasted on peas, runner beans, French beans and globe artichokes from the allotment.
So how has 2008 started? Well the garage still contains two types of potatoes and the very last of the onions. The allotment has crops of Jerusalem artichokes, a range of brassicas and leeks. At home the only crop growing outside is kale, but I have broad beans and garlic growing on in the lean-to frame and lettuce in the greenhouse all ready for planting out.
So here’s to 2008 – let’s hope the weather is just a bit more conducive to veg growing and we have a much better year. If you’re reading this please join with me by crossing your fingers, toes and anything else you can lay your hands on.