Girls With Sheds.com

Just a very quick one.

If like me you love growing vegetables you probably prefer earthing up potatoes or pricking out tomato plants to faffing with flowers! I have several rose bushes in my garden and despite their stunning  red and pink blooms (expect the Mountbatten - very stately yellow blooms with dark waxy green leaves and long stemmed -yes, its my favourite rose), they get very little attention.

I have been taught yearly (for the last 20 odd years) by my mum (garden guru) the proper pruning procedure, and at last I think I’ve got it. 20 years on I have graduated to rosh bush tip number 2 and this one is easy. Put chopped up banana skins on the ground around the base of the plant to prevent and cure Blackspot. Not sure why, she did explain, but it works.

I put several around the bushes in February and firstly the black spot stopped getting worse after about a fortnight and now the leaves are all but clear! It is good because I consider myself to be an ‘almost organic’ garden and I won’t have to use a black spot spray gun. I will write again if I am entrusted with further rose related tips.

There are wooden tools available in garden centres and online to allow you to make pots out of newspaper which I know many people swear by but I find them really fiddly to use. My method of ‘green’ garden pot making is much more simple. I use cardboard toilet roll tubes (or kitchen roll tubes cut in half) and half a sheet of tightly screwed up newspaper (tabloid size local newspaper to be precise) in the bottom, then fill with compost and add seeds.

This method is good because the tubes stand up well on the greenhouse shelf during germination and will take about a dozen good waterings before starting to biodegrade, by which time they should be ready for direct planting in the ground. It makes a free and green alternative to peat pots and the cardboard keeps the young plant warm in the soil before breaking down and composting the soil.

These little pots are good for growing:

Runner beans, French beans, broad beans, peas (which don’t like their roots touched anyway) - use one in each pot.

Carrots, parsnips, raddishes,  - use three in each pot.

Courgettes, marrow, pumpkin, squashes, beet spinach, - use one in each pot.

There may be other plants you can grow, so experiment and let me know if you have success.

Growing seeds should be easy. After all they have two chances. They either germinate or they don’t. Sadly that is not always the case and in our keeness to start sowing we often give are seeds too much assistance.

Starting seeds off on a warm windowsill or in a greenhouse seems like a good way to cheat nature and achieve a headstart in the garden but it is no good starting early if outside conditions are not suitable for the young plants.

We visited garden centres and nurseries and see polystyrene containers filled with plants ‘ready to go’ before we even open our packets and this tempts us before the ground outside is even clear of snow.

I don’t personnlly hold to much store in the sowing and planting out calenders printed on the back of seed packets, and treat them as a guide rather than a gospel truth. Each gardens soil is different, each street is different and in the UK temperature can vary dramatically even within a 30 mile radius. Learn to take calulated risks and learn from your experience by keeping simple planting diaries.

If you start to early there is a risk that your seedlings will recieve too much heat on the windowsill or greenhouse and they will grow to be ‘leggy’ meaning long and stringy while you are waiting for the ground to warm to transplant them. Putting them outside to harden them off will probably kill them, so first aid is needed.

If you can, gently earth the seedlings up (this is particularly good with brassicas and tomatoes as it will help establish better root systems. Next cool the seedlings down gently by making a shield with newspaper. This sunny hat will cool the plants and stop the gaining height.

If these to strategies fail, learn from experience and sow again!

I managed to grow carrots last year for the first time every! For years I have sowed with no or little success. I tried starting the seeds in pots as with the radishes and transplanted them to the vegetable plot with a knitting needle. Some grew which was a record for me but never more than an inch. I had tried growing ‘Nantes’ and ‘Junior’ in cardboard toilet rolls tubes (like I do with parsnips, broad beans and peas) but to no avail. This year I spent a long time preparing the soil until it ‘resembled fine breadcrumbs’ and my fingers were numb and sowed the seeds thinly and put the lightest covering of soil on top. It worked…. This year I will be growing different carrot varieties, see my page on ‘100 Carrot Varieties’ on this blog.

Can’t type more…. still in shock!

Always found them easier than carrots the grow and the seeds in cardboard toilet roll method has worked for years (a green alternative to peat pots). Plant as many varieties as you can because the difference in taste and texture is amazing. I always leave a few to go to seed and then collect and swap seeds. Sometimes the seeds revert to their non cultivated state and this can be exciting because you don’t know what you will get. I love parsnips roasted, in soup and chopped up in casseroles. Favourite varieties are Countess because of their reliability, Albion is slightly sharp and Imperial Crown for creamy taste so great for soup.

True watercress is possible if you have a clean pond but it does prefer running water. I have considered foraging for it in a local river but I am nervous about industrial pollution. If you are considering harvesting wild foodstuffs, I recommend you do some research first. Landcress is a brilliant alternative to watercress and can be grown in shallow pots and troughs. It is easy to grow but if it doesn’t germinate first time just loosen the soil gently with your finger.

Love or hate? Sprouts not Marmite! I was told that Britain is the only country in Europe to do sprouts. Urban myth? Not sure but it is strange to think that Brussel sprouts aren’t eaten in Belgium. I am in the love them camp and don’t see eating them as a Christmas chore. I never eat many for obvious reasons and never eat them out of season. I get really excited when I pick the first sprouts of the year off the stalk. I plant 6 to 8 plants in the garden and that is enough for the season. I have tried Montgomery, Wellington, Peer Gynt and Bedford varieties but Topline are my favourite. Easy to grow and reliable. You would benefit from lots or netting to keep birds out. I learnt this the hard way the first year I grew them. Pests such as caterpillars and aphids need watching too.

I heard a good tip on Radio4’s Gardener’s Question from Bob Flowerdew, and I won’t pass it off as my own! If garden is breezy and the sprout plants are prone to blow over (as in my garden) plant them in threes and when they are tall enough tie the tops together with string to form a self supporting tripod. Brilliantly simple - the man is a genius - in 20years I never thought of that!

This year I am using ‘Salad bowl mixed’ as I find I now prefer the mixed leaves to the more traditional ‘ball’ or ‘headed’ lettuces. I used to be a fan of Iceberg but after be seduced by supermarket mixed bags I prefer the peppery taste of mixed leaves. This can be grown in two ways firstly as a ‘cut and come again’ salad vegetable or secondly if you leave them to mature they develop into ‘proper’ lettuces. You can use both methods by transplanting the nicer looking plants on to the veg plot or into their own pot. Mixed leaves are good for successional planting through spring and summer. Scatter a little amount of seed every couple of weeks to ensure a constant crop. I use 10inch terracotta pots (the £1 from B&Q or Homebase ones) and fill halfway with polystyrene to reduce the amount of compost used but put in a sheltered position as top heavy pots blow over easily in a strong wind.

Wild Rocket is peppery and easy to grow. I do it the same way as the landcress and salad bowl mix in shallow pots or by using polystyrene to save compost. Warning about polystyrene though. It is great padding and makes the pot really light to move around but it also makes it top heavy and if you are in a windy location the terracotta pots might blow over and smash. Keep the close to a wall or fence to minimise accidents.

Easy to grow as long as they are warm and you don’t over or under water. Growbags garden canes and string and your away. I have always grown ‘Moneymaker’, Ailsa Craig, and ‘Brandywine’ beefsteak in the past but next year I am going to try Tumbler as I like the idea of mixing crops with flowers in a hanging basket. The advantage or tumbling tomatoes is that you don’t have to pinch out the side shoots. I found out last year that the sideshoots can be rooted in water and planted to give you additional plants. I tried it and although not as prolific I extended the growing season by a couple of months. I think I will use trailing nasturtiums in my hanging baskets and use the flowers in salads. Black Velvet nasturtiums look good but they are late season so wouldn’t match the tumbler growing season perhaps I will stick to a standard mix. Suggestions welcome.