Vegetables | Bedford and District Gardeners Association

Garden Notes

Spring it seems is about to be sprung at last. The willows are changing colour, the buds in the hedgerows are swelling fit to burst and the early bulbs and flowers are giving us a welcome show of colour. Now, the shrubs in our borders are forming leaves, so we know more of the damage the winter did and what to prune out to rectify it. Even the grass has started to grow in the early sun and will need a little TLC to restore it to it’s former glory.

I think the first thing to do is to spike the lawn. Take a fork and stick it into the lawn about six inches deep and rock it back and forth to create some slits. Do this every four inches until you have been over the hole lawn, and then with a dry fifty fifty mix of sharp sand and peat or grow bag compost fill the slits to improve drainage. Next give the grass a treatment of weed, feed and moss kill at the advised rate. Usually about four ounces to the square yard. When the moss turns black, rake off as much as you can. This can be put on the compost heap, as long as it stands for at least six months. By this time you will be ready to start cutting the grass.

When we feel the warmth of the sun we all want to rush out and start growing things and this is the time to do it. Lots of things can be sown now, such as carrots, beetroot, onion sets and some brassicas. As there is still time for the weather to turn a bit nasty, it is just as well to exercise a bit of caution and if you cannot provide a bit of shelter such as a cold frame, cloches or fleece, it does no harm to wait. Things sown when conditions are ideal will do better than stuff sown too early. As long as the soil is not too cold and wet potatoes can go in now and should come to no harm. If you have a greenhouse, heated or unheated, the world is your oyster almost and you can grow everything that is at least half hardy. Even things like tomatoes will germinate indoors now, so let’s get some dirt under our fingernails and get started.

Happy gardening, Richard Callaghan.

Winter Garden Notes

If nothing else, December’s spell of inclement weather was enough to keep all but the foolhardy out of the garden. There were however some bright spots to it. When we had the hard hoar frosts they made a fantastic display of the spiders webs on the wrought iron fencing, and enabled me to take some terrific black and white gothic like pictures. When we had the snow we put out food and drink for the birds and were rewarded with a succession of visitors. Most of them were fairly common, a variety of tits , starlings robins, and blackbirds. We even had a visit from a fieldfare. One morning I had to delay making the fires while a wren searched the wood pile for spiders and other creepy crawlies. I also had the good fortune to watch a tree creeper and a pair of goldcrests searching the yew trees for a bite of breakfast. On Christmas eve I went to the plot to get some vegetables but it was not a pretty sight. The Brussels were flat on the ground under a mound of snow and I didn’t bother scratching around to find my parsnips. Since then I have managed to prune, feed and tie in my soft fruit, and I have cleared the sorry things that should have been my purple and white sprouters. On the brighter side though, I have got a coldframe of Little gem lettuce that are doing very well. Any time now we will be buying our potato sets to start them sprouting prior to planting. For the past two years I have grown a row of Sarpo Mira potatoes. I bought a trial pack and set just fifteen tubers over a twenty foot row. They kept on growing and well into October they were still growing. They were as green as anything and the stems were six foot long and as hard as tree trunks. But they had to come out, and I got over a hundred weight from the one row and did as well this year from some that I saved from last year so I think they are worth a try.

Happy new year, Richard Callaghan

Month by Month Growing – October by John Harrison

Month by Month Growing – October

By now the weather is cooling fast and the first frosts will probably hit this month so we move from the growing season of one year to the preparation for the next season.

The late maincrop potatoes will be coming out of the ground now to store away.

After the middle of the month it is probably not worth trying any green manure crops except for the field bean which can be sown as late as early November.

It’s not too late to plant out over-wintering onion sets, these are hardy and will overwinter producing a crop about a month earlier than the spring planted onions in theory. A cloche or fleece covering will get them off to a good start and stop the birds from pulling them out.

You can plant your garlic now although this job will hold over into November easily. If you have time and the weather is fine, it’s worth doing it when you can because who knows what November’s weather will be like?

Towards the end of the month you can sow broad beans for the earliest crop, all being well. It’s always more of a risk sowing at this time of year because in wet soil they may just rot rather than geminate Always sow a few spares in pots to fill in gaps in the row. If you are in a cold area or have a particularly wet and heavy soil it is probably not worth winter sowing, especially if you cannot provide cloches to cover them

Remove any yellowing leaves from over-wintering brassicas, they are of no use to the plant and will encourage botrytis to develop and slugs.

The greenhouse will basically finish this month. Remember that peppers, both chilli and sweet, that start green and then turn to colours can taste just as sweet or hot in their green state and may as well come out.

The runner beans will certainly finish this month as will any French beans. Where you’ve allowed the bean to develop in the pod, these should be dried out. Spreading the pods on the bench in the greenhouse to finish and then the shelled beans are dried further before being stored in air-tight jars for use in winter soups and stews.

When the beans come off, cut the foliage at the base for the compost heap and leave the roots with their nitrogen store in the ground to release in the next year.

Cabbages can come up now too, they’ll keep remarkably well in that frost-free shed but beware the slug that may be lurking under the leaves. Sprinkling the outside with salt will deter them from eating away through the winter.

As ground becomes vacant you can dig it over and spread manure over the surface. Leave the soil roughly dug in large clumps and the worms will break these up as they get the manure. The freezing and thawing of water in the soil will cause the soil to break up finely so becoming easier to handle in the spring.

If you don’t have a cage for your leafmould and want to make it, get started at the beginning of the month to be ready when they arrive. If you have one of the combined vacuum and shredders that sucks the leaves up and shreds them into a bag then your leafmould will be ready in late spring. It’s worthwhile being a good neighbour and clearing their leaves if they don’t want them because leafmould is a fantastic soil conditioner.

If you are going to be using the greenhouse through the winter, you can now insulate it. Bubble wrap is good and will do the job. Don’t forget you will still need some ventilation or mould will run riot in the house.

You can also get a last sowing of hardy lettuce like Arctic King and grow them on in your greenhouse border to give you a salad whatever the weather.

About the Author

John Harrison is the author of Vegetable Growing, Month by Month and The Essential Allotment Guide amongst others. His home is in Cheshire from where he runs the Allotment Vegetable Growing web site and grows his own fruit and vegetables on his two allotments around the corner.

Red Electric onion sets – REDUCED!!!!

Hurry while stocks last but we have reduced the cost of the Red electric onion sets!!!

Autumn Onion Sets

The yellow Autumn Onion Sets – RADAR – are now in at Newnham & Brickhill allotment trading sheds!!!

Jerusalem Artichokes-why you might NOT want to grow them

They grow from tubers and you dig them up in the autumn when the tall plants begin to die down. However, you can never get them all up and you now have jerusalem artichokes for the duration. AND they spread. Every piece of tuber generates a new plant come Spring. They do taste quite nice but they make you very windy and unsociable

Shallots

Hi, I’m Bob was surfing the internet and came across your site. I have popped into the trading shed at Newnham a few times this year. In fact I bought my shallot sets from you – yellow moon and pikant.

My question is:

How do I know when they are ready? Wait for them to die down like onions?

Never grown them before. They’ve all clumped up well.

Thanks Bob

Bedford and District Gardeners Association

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Garden Notes

Winter Garden Notes

Month by Month Growing – October by John Harrison

Red Electric onion sets – REDUCED!!!!

Autumn Onion Sets

Jerusalem Artichokes-why you might NOT want to grow them

Shallots

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