Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Kitchen Garden

The UK climate can be unpredictable so anything that can help to turn the odds in our favour has to be welcome. At KG we’ve long valued greenhouses and polytunnels as a way to extend the season and protect tender fruit and veg even in the poorest of summers (they could even help you beat food shortages after cold Spanish winters). This month, with sowing in full swing for many of us, we have a 5-page buyer’s guide for those of you who might be thinking about investing in a polytunnel. Turn to page 38. Short on space, but determined to grow your own? Then why not look skyward and grow some crops in hanging baskets and containers? KG regular Ben Vanheems reveals his favourite 12 delicious fruit and veg…

HARVEST SPRING GREENS Spring greens that were sown from seed last August or September should be making good growth now and just about ready to pick. You can basically pick and eat them at any stage of growth that you want to. Early in the season they are green and leafy, but by April and May the cabbages will have started to develop a loose heart. Either way, they taste delicious. CLEAR LEEKS FROM PLOT Leeks are just about at the end of their season now and although some late varieties go on into May, I like to start clearing leeks from the plot now to make room for new summer crops, which in my rotation system are root crops. These late leeks, however, are still perfectly good to eat…

KG WELCOMES AWARD WINNING BLOGGERS Recently voted Garden Blog of the Year by the Garden Media Guild, The Agents of Field, aka Ade and Sophie Sellars, will be contributing to the KG website. Ade grows and Sophie cooks, a perfect combination. Both love their allotment, regularly sharing their growing and cooking adventures on their blog. The name Agents of Field is derived from the US TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, who are a group of highly trained agents locked in mortal combat with supernatural forces. The couple see themselves also as fighting a battle, in their case against “the equally sinister powers of industrial agriculture, corporate greed and a disposable society where food is simply not valued in the way it should be”. To see their blog go to: https://agentsoffield.com…

MADAMLOU: Just wondered if anyone on this forum can help me with my new garden in France? We moved here last summer and I’m really looking forward to growing my own. We have moved to the Charente SW France and the soil is clay. Is there anybody with experience of this region? PA SNIP: Unfortunately, cannot say I am familiar with the clay of south-west France, but am only too familiar with clay in mid southern England. My suggestion would be that if you can afford it, after your move last summer, add plenty of sharp sand and compost mix. I hope you have also been composting your kitchen and garden waste (excluding meat). If you haven’t, then that’s your first job, make a compost heap. TIGERBURNIE: Raised beds spring…

Our Star Question winner will receive vouchers worth £25; the writers of all other questions printed will receive a £10 voucher. They can be redeemed against any products in the latest Mr Fothergill’s catalogue, which will be sent out with the vouchers so you can choose from the massive range of quality products including seeds and garden equipment. To receive a free catalogue, call 08453 710518 or visit www.mr-fothergills.co.uk Email questions to tflanagan@mortons.co.uk or post to Question Time, Kitchen Garden, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR . Please include your full address on letters and emails. We do not publish full addresses.…

• TOMATOES: Well-behaved cherry tomatoes, such as the almost impossibly prolific ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ are best. Or try a vining tomato grown upside-down (see guidance on previous pages). • STRAWBERRIES: By raising them off the ground the fruits will stay clean, with minimal risk of rotting, and free from the unwanted nibbling of slugs and snails. • PEPPERS: Both sweet peppers and chillies will love a hanging container suspended against a sun-facing wall that radiates heat. • SALAD LEAVES: Opt for cut-and-come-again salad leaf mixes rather than full-blown heading lettuces. Rocket, spinach for salads and mustard also work particularly well. • LEAFY HERBS: Many herbs, especially leafy ones such as basil, parsley and mint, will grow well lifted up into the light, where you’ll be more inclined to pick them…

1. WATERING Don’t water. Dale doesn’t water his onions at all. It’s always better to let plants find their own water rather than encouraging shallow roots by watering. Some vegetables such as beans may need watering when you put them in but that’s about settling the soil around them rather than giving them water. 2.FEEDING Feed the soil before planting, not afterwards. Dale uses a variety of things for this including: • Ecothrive Charge, made from the droppings of organically reared beetles • AZOS – a nitrogen-fixing bacteria • Mycorrhizal Fungi – TNC Mycorrmax Once the plants are growing he doesn’t feed the ground but relies on foliar feeding. Shropshire Seaweed is one of his favourite foliar feeds. 3. RUNNER BEANS Plant them with the sticks pointing outwards, not in…

Those of you who remembered the Sowing New Seeds project run by Garden Organic, which collected exotic crop plants grown across the Midlands a few years ago, might have wondered what happened next. Part of the project’s success was the addition to the Heritage Seed Library of successful new species of vegetables with cultural and ethnic heritage, which actually grew well in the UK because they were being grown by people here on allotments or in back gardens who knew about them and recognised which plants to save seed from. During the project both Anton Rosenfeld and I visited more than 80 allotment sites and community gardens. We discovered so many great stories from the people, about their lives and growing their crops, we thought these were as worthy of…

1. ‘DANVERS HALF LONG’ (1886) - Plump, sweet roots. Does well on clay soil and stores well. (Available from Marshalls) 2. ‘JAMES SCARLET INTERMEDIATE’ (1870) - A good ‘old fashioned’ tasting carrot. This used to be the most grown carrot in England at one time. Long pointed roots which grow vigorously. (Available from D T Brown) 3. ‘CHANTENAY RED CORED 2’ (1920) - You’ll have probably seen Chantenay carrots in the supermarket, as they know that this carrot is traditionally thought to be the best tasting carrot. (Available from Dobies of Devon) 4. ‘EARLY SCARLET HORN’ (1610) - Originating in the town of Hoorn, Northern Holland. This old variety is short, stump rooted, well flavoured and has a crisp texture. (Available from D T Brown) 5. ‘SPANISH BLACK’ (UNKNOWN) -…

MATERIALS • 3 @ 245cm x 4cm x 4cm wooden posts, square section with moulded corners and a pointed end. • 400cm x 50mm x 20mm wood batten • Pressure treatment makes the wood last longer but make sure the treatment is environmentally safe. • Large mesh netting to fit the finished frame 200cm x 183cm • String • 16 @ 4mm x 40mm stainless steel screws TOOLS Saw, drill with 4mm drill bit, screwdriver, tape-measure, pencil, crowbar, sledgehammer, scissors Bean frames come in many different shapes and sizes. There’s the traditional A frame (see Joyce Russell’s feature, KG May 2015), or a tripod, and then there are woven basket shapes or long splayed structures. Some people simply provide free-standing canes pushed into the ground, but these are prone to…

It’s the time of year when the seed catalogues start to arrive. Looking through the pages, I’m overwhelmed at the profusion of choices available. So how do you pick out what to sow and then fit everything into your available planting spaces? The key is to ensure the proper proportions of each crop will yield a usable harvest without overproducing or wasting space. Here are some tips to find that perfect balance to plant enough, but not too much. MATCHING NEED WITH AMBITION Firstly, consider the needs of you and your family. Perhaps your family enjoys a nightly salad or you want to be self-sufficient in chutneys and pickles. Do you want to preserve any of your harvest either by solar dehydrating or freezing? However, freezing requires a power source…

SUPER START SWEETCORN PLANT COLLECTION This exclusive collection contains 32 sweetcorn plants which will crop from late August to late September. You’ll receive 16 plants of early season ‘ACX SS7403RY’ and 16 plants of mid season ‘ACX SS7078Y’ – both bred specifically for our cooler climates. 32 Plants (16 of each) £10.90 LONG-CROPPING LEEK PLANT COLLECTION Two different varieties chosen for their different cropping time to give you leeks ready for harvesting for up to eight months of the year! ‘Carlton F1’ is ready to harvest from August and will stand through to October and ‘Sultan F1’ crops from November through to March. 60 Plants (30 of each) £11.90 30 Plants of individual varieties available for £6.95 ~ (see coupon) CELERIAC ILONA PLANTS With abundant hybrid vigour, ‘Ilona F1’ is…

DIG is the vegetable gardener’s version of desert island discs. You were on a cruise visiting exotic gardens when disaster happened and you were washed up on an uninhabited island. Your island has a clay-rich soil and a small freshwater stream. The ground is quite hard once off the coral sand beach. You find a waterproof container washed up with you containing only six packets of different vegetable seeds. Which six varieties would you wish them to be and why? You are allowed one book, what would you choose? You will have to make your own hand tools, what would you attempt to make first? Pa Snip, Berkshire The tool would be similar to an adze or Spanish hoe. I take it we have stones or rocks to use, no…

GUY BARTER We welcome RHS chief horticulturist Guy Barter to KG this month. Guy joins our team of experts to answer your gardening queries, in this issue explaining how best to use mushroom compost on the veg plot. EMMA RAWLINGS Deputy editor Emma will soon be sowing her free seeds in a bid to grow the marrow she hopes will beat the rest in our fun competition (see page 60). “Don’t let it be her”, sow yours and claim the £100 prize. STEVE NEIL Gardening writer Steve travels to Somerset to visit a stunning walled kitchen garden which not only supplies many of the ingredients for a hotel restaurant, but also grows veg that is worthy of the show bench. COLIN RANDEL Colin has worked with the RHS Vegetable Trials…

• Plant onion sets out into the garden in ground that has been raked and fertilised. Space the sets around 15cm (6in) apart and push or plant them on to the soil so the tip is just visible. • Apricots and peaches in flower will benefit from a little help in the pollination department. This is done simply by using cotton wool or an artist’s paint brush to stroke the open flowers to transfer pollen from one flower to another. • Continue to plant potatoes as the weather warms up. Start with first earlies and towards the end of the month plant maincrop varieties. • If the weather turns dry after you have sown seeds in drills, use a watering can with a fine rose to water the soil to…

SAWFLY Check for sawfly caterpillars (pale green with black spots) under the leaves of your gooseberry, redcurrant and whitecurrant bushes. Pick off larvae or spray with an organic pesticide. FLEA BEETLES These make lots of little holes in radish leaves, rocket leaves and young brassicas. Cover plants with insect netting (such as Enviromesh) or set up yellow sticky traps. CABBAGE ROOT FLY Protect your brassicas from cabbage rootfly by fitting collars at the base of the stem. Make your own from cardboard or buy ones commercially available.…

Standing in the Saloon of Ston Easton House, looking through the old glass of the window at the cascaded waters created by Humphrey Repton, you wouldn’t think for one moment that you were in a hotel. You would think you were a guest of the family, invited to a country house weekend in Somerset. And of course Ston Easton was a house at one time, the family home of the Rees-Mogg family. The past may be a foreign country where they do things diflerently, but here some things haven’t changed. Every country house always had its kitchen garden to provide it with fresh fruit and vegetables for the table, and in the last four years Ston Easton House has revived that tradition. FRESH VEGETABLES Steve Hargreaves, the head gardener, is…

Botany – the scientific study of plants. Chances are, like most gardeners, your eyes have already started to glaze over at the very mention of the word. I know many horticulturalists who can grow pretty much anything you care to put in front of them, but would struggle to explain what the words ‘F1 hybrid’ on the back of a packet of seeds actually means. However, some basic facts about how plants have been bred, and the changes that occurred when they were, can give gardeners a huge insight into the plants that we grow in our own gardens today. And the good news is that the plant which we will be looking at here, the jostaberry, is a fantastic addition to any soft fruit garden – providing delicious fruit…

10 MINUTE JOBS SORT CANES Check garden canes and sort them out into the various lengths to make sure you have enough for use through the summer months. Long canes that are starting to get past their best can often be trimmed down to make perfectly good short canes for small plants. CHECK ASPARAGUS From early April start checking the asparagus bed for signs of growth. The cutting season traditionally starts on April 23, St George’s Day, but in mild weather spears can start to push through a week or two earlier. Start cutting when the spears are 15cm (6in) tall. FEED SOIL April and May are the main months for sowing vegetable seeds outside and the soil needs to be prepared in advance. To make sure the plants have…

April is all about keeping up with the plan. There’s sowing, potting on and taking care of larger plants. This is the month when so much is possible: if you want to try a new thing then give it a go. Buy in small plants if you don’t raise your own. Keep tender plants warm and get beds prepared for planting out. Things change a lot from the start of the month to the end of it: stay observant, keep busy, and be at your green-fingered best. SOW & PLANT IN APRIL • Sow sweetcorn in pots deep enough for long roots • Sow pumpkins, squash and courgettes for planting indoors and out • Sow extra cucumbers and basil in case earlier sowings fail • Plant out tomatoes at the…

Send us your tips and pictures and if your letter is published you will get a £10 Dobies voucher. If you are lucky enough to have yours chosen as our Star Letter you will get a £25 voucher. Your voucher will be sent out with a Dobies catalogue and you can choose to spend your winnings on a fabulous range of seeds, young plants and gardening sundries. You can get hold of a copy of the catalogue now by phoning 0844 701 7625 or go online to www.dobies.co.uk You can reach us by letter, email or via our Facebook page: FACEBOOK.COM/ KITCHENGARDENMAG Email your letters to tflanagan@mortons.co.uk  or post to Letters, Kitchen Garden, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR…

THIS MONTH’S EXPERT PANEL: CURSED WITH CANKER I am writing to you in desperation over a problem I have with parsnip canker. I follow a four-year rotation on my allotment and grow the variety ‘Gladiator F1’ which is supposed to be canker resistant. I am at a loss to know what to do to produce clean white roots with no large discoloured lesions, particularly on the shoulder. I sow the seed in April towards the end of the month to achieve better germination and thin out to 4-6in apart. I usually use blood, fish and bone incorporated into the soil about 10-14 days prior to sowing. Mr Hartill, Devon COLIN SAYS: Parsnip canker is a regular problem, although infections have lessened in recent years with advice from the seed…

SOW: April to June HARVEST: July to October WHY CLIMBING BEANS? For their delicious, nutritious pods produced in profusion and because they are great for freezing there is little waste. Also the upward growth gives them a small footprint on the plot, they are easy to grow, and have lovely flowers that are great to look at and welcoming for pollinators. PREPARING THE GROUND Beans do best in a sunny, sheltered spot, preferably south or west facing, and where they won’t shade other crops for too long each day – unless you want to use this to grow things such as leafy salads which might appreciate the cooling effect the shading provides. They like a fertile soil which is neutral to alkaline and for the best results the soil should…

SOW: April to May HARVEST: July to October Marrow is one of those crops that will often produce a couple of massive fruits that you then wonder what on earth you can do with them. However if grown a certain way and with the right varieties you can produce more fruits which are smaller and more manageable in the kitchen. There is of course another way to grow them and that is to aim for the biggest. We are inviting everyone to have a go at this with your free seeds this month and enter our competition for the biggest marrow and you could win a prize. HOW TO SOW Sow the large seeds one per 9cm (3½in) pot in a multi-purpose compost approximately 13mm (½in) deep. Sow the seed…

The history of the humble carrot is shrouded in mystery, with rumours, facts and old wives’ tales all mixed into the story. Involving kings, rebellions, night vision, war and designer veg, it certainly is a veg worth shouting about! Wild carrots have been around since Roman times with them mainly being used as an animal feed. Back then the carrot was a thin, tough, fibrous root, which forked badly and was hard to prepare. In fact, it was almost overlooked as food fit for human consumption and was relegated to animal fodder. PURPLE PATCH It wasn’t until the 900’s that the carrot started to be developed in Afghanistan. At this time, the roots were mainly purple and spindly, yet very high in anthocyanin, which is reported to help fight cancer.…

GROWN IN A BAG TRIALS Many of the varieties produced high fruit numbers and ripened over an extended period. Fifteen new cultivars were awarded an AGM and two, ‘Corno di Toro Rosso’ and ‘Diablo F1’ ( both 2005), retained their AGMs. • ‘MONANTA’: Fruit shape: medium cone. Colour: cream to orange then to red. Brix (the standard measure of sweetness): 7.0. High fruit numbers setting and maturing over a long period. Medium flesh thickness. Average number of fruits per plant = 20. Average fruit weight = 91g. (Available from Thompson & Morgan) • ‘LONG YELLOW RINGO’: Fruit shape: long cone. Colour: medium green to yellow. Brix 9.0. One of the tallest cultivars in the trial (170cm). High fruit numbers, thin sweet tasting flesh, fruit size average 16.5 x 6cm. Average…

STRUCTURES WITH STYLE Enhance your kitchen garden with Agriframes’ elegant crop cages, supports and Grow at Home accessories, or create your own bespoke garden structure with the help of its designers. Agriframes’ structures make no compromises on either style or quality – they look good and are built to last for years. Agriframes also makes arches, pergolas, screens, obelisks and gazebos in a wide choice of classic and contemporary styles. Its range also includes cloches, tunnels, growhouses, cold frames, pond covers, pots, planters and propagation equipment. KG readers can claim a 10% discount on any purchase from www.agriframes. co.uk  by quoting code ‘10KG0417’. Offer valid until April 30, 2017. ‘CUSTOMER FAVOURITES’ COLLECTION Thompson & Morgan is offering six top-selling potato varieties in one fantastic…

Club root is the scourge of brassica growers everywhere. While there is no known cure, you can minimise the effects by planting naturally resistant varieties. Our collection contains: cauliflower ‘Clapton F1’, cabbage ‘Kilaton F1’, Brussels sprout ‘Crispus F1’, red cabbage ‘Lodero F1’, calabrese ‘Monclano F1’. This collection will give you harvests from early August through to October. You’ll receive five plants of each, 25 plants in total. ALL plants despatched from mid to late May.…

BETTER SOIL IN THE BAG The perfect topsoil is an organic-rich, contamination-free, friable sandy loam. If yours is somewhat less than perfect, a delivery of quality topsoil this spring could make all the difference. Rolawn has supplied quality products to the landscaping industry for many years and has developed a range of topsoils to meet the needs of gardeners. Rolawn Vegetable & Fruit Topsoil is a fertile blend of topsoil, organic matter and soil conditioners formulated to suit a wide range of crops. It is screened to 20mm (¾in) and is light and friable, so it is easy to work even in wet conditions. It is peat-free and does not contain manures, which are variable and in some instances potentially harmful. Rolawn sources its topsoil from prime arable land, so…

SPANISH EGGSWITH PARSLEY & CHORIZO Bursting at the seams with colour and flavour, this Spanish egg and chorizo dish is great served for lunch or dinner SERVES 4 Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes 4tbspoliveoil 1 onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, chopped 1½ tsp hot smoked paprika 1 tin chopped tomatoes 1 tsp tomato purée 100g/3oz fine green beans, trimmed 4 free-range eggs 10-12 slices chorizo 1 red pepper, roasted and skinned, cut into strips A large handful of parsley, chopped Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/ Gas 6 2. Heat the olive oil in a large, lidded, ovenproof frying pan or cast iron dish over medium heat. Cook the onion for five minutes, then add the garlic, chorizo and…