Surrey Homes | SH42 | April 2018 | Garden supplement inside

SH Garden Supplement
My soil dries out quickly, so I usually dig something called
a ‘bean trench’, which involves making a trench in the bed
about 50-70cm deep and filling it with a combination of
kitchen waste and compost. You can use anything organic
that will help to hold in the moisture; I have used newspaper,
cardboard, old woollen jumpers, even an old hat. Then pile
on some soil and plant the crop. The compost layer will act
as a reservoir later in the season and keep the roots cool and
damp in dry weather.
Some like it cooler
A few vegetables respond to warmer weather by getting
overexcited and running to seed almost as soon as you’ve sown
them. These cool weather crops do not like hot dry weather,
so grow things like spinach, rocket, coriander and oriental
greens in early spring or late summer and avoid growing them
at the height of the summer.
The quickest summer harvests
If you are impatient to see results, there are vegetables that
will spring into action and be ready for harvest in as little
as 3-4 weeks. The fastest maturing crops are probably leafy
salads; look for seed packets of ‘speedy’ salad mixes. Radishes
are also quick to grow, and kohlrabi is also speedy. There are
other leafy crops, like rocket (the name gives a clue), some
mustards, spinach and oriental greens. Be careful when you
sow these, though, as they are prone to bolting (running to
seed and turning bitter).
Keep on cropping
Growing in succession is the ideal way to avoid a glut, but it
doesn’t work with all vegetables. The idea is to sow a small
quantity at regular intervals, ensuring that you spread the
harvest. I have done this successfully with peas, French beans,
salads such as loose leaved lettuce and rocket and other fast
growing vegetables. The problem comes when the weather
starts to warm up and speeds up the rate of growth, so that
later sown crops quickly catch up with the earlier ones.
Spave-saving summer crops
Even if your plot is tiny there are ways of growing crops -
climbing plants like beans and small pumpkins make use of
the vertical growing area (i.e. the sky) and there are dwarf,
but bountiful versions of many crops that can be grown in
containers or squeezed into corners.
I have talked before about growing three different
vegetables together in one space; the ancient native Indian
technique called the three sisters involves squash, climbing
beans and sweetcorn all grown together and using each other
for support and nutrients.
Beans climb the sweetcorn and feed the soil with nitrogen,
sprawling squash plants provide shade and suppress weeds,
but (as often happens when three sisters are grown together)
the result can be a bit chaotic.
Too much of a good thing
Even if courgettes are the mainstay of your diet, I promise
that you will only need two plants. You may only need one,
but for pollination purposes it will help to have more than
one plant. Do not plant a whole row.
Fortunately, there are 101 delicious recipes for courgettes,
less for monstrous marrows, which is what they turn into
when you’re not looking. Beans and tomatoes can also be
overwhelming. If you can’t help growing in quantity, make
space in the freezer, or cultivate some new friends to offload
your surplus onto.
Permanent crops
If you have a dedicated place to grow your vegetables, then
it is well worth growing a permanent crop - asparagus and
artichokes are top of my list. They do take a few years to
establish, but will then go on to provide regular harvests for
many years to come. Asparagus beds just need to be kept
weed free and supplied with an organic mulch in spring or
autumn. Artichokes form impressive, architectural clumps and
look just as good in the borders as in the vegetable garden.
The mad spring rush is hard to resist, but with just a little
planning, we will be able to sow the right thing, in the right
quantity at the right time - in theory at least. Let’s get out
there.
For details of Jo’s vegetable growing course visit
hornbrookmanor.co.uk or phone 01233 861149
Cut and come again
This works well with salad leaves, as you can harvest the outer
leaves, let the plants recover, then cut again. I find that after
two or three cuts it is best to sow a new lot, but it is possible
to make one row of salad last a whole summer.
21 surrey-homes.co.uk