Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Kitchen Garden

The season should be hotting up by now, even if June does not exactly live up to its old description of ‘flaming’. To reflect the increase in frenetic activity on veg patches and allotments all around the country we have a packed issue for you covering a wide range of topics. Veg expert Rob Smith offers his top tips on growing courgettes and reveals his favourite varieties while KG regular Ben Vanheems has advice on growing that most colourful of veggies, beetroot. Julie Moore looks at crops you don’t even have to sow yourself (well, not after the first packet anyway), while former head gardener Sue Stickland explains how Brexit might offer opportunities for those looking to grow a more diverse range of edibles. Professional grower David Patch explores the…

It is obvious to see how this flower got its name although it isn’t edible and it’s not a cut flower. But it certainly warrants a place on every veg patch, as Emma Rawlings explains I think if there is one flower we should make room for on our plots, it is this one. Its Latin name is Limnanthes douglasii and although not the most spectacular it is pretty enough. You can’t cut it or eat it – so why grow it? Poached egg plant is the equivalent of a fast food restaurant for pollinators. They love it! On a warm summer’s day you will find a clump of this alive with hoverflies and bees, jostling to get at the rich nectar. As a benefit to gardeners they may also…

Producing seeds from your own plants is great fun and offers many advantages. It is normally done by physically selecting, harvesting, drying and storing seed from all the plants which do well in your garden, so that over time, your seed collection begins to adapt to your own specific conditions. But some crops seem programmed to reproduce themselves without any intervention from us. Instead of raising your arms in despair at yet another bolted crop, consider it Mother Nature’s way of helping to simplify your sowing calendar and providing you with free crops. SEEDS FOR SURVIVAL When an annual or biennial flowers, sets seed or ‘bolts’, it signals the plant’s natural survival mechanism – to produce seeds for the next generation. Seedheads left on the plant will become dry and…

■ ‘MORELLO’ – heavy crops of dark red fruit which turn almost black when fully ripe. Completely self-fertile and resistant to canker and fruit split. Compact in growth, and will even crop well on a cold north wall. ■ ‘MAY DUKE’ – partially self-fertile, so will set a crop if planted on its own, but will do even better if another variety such as ‘Morello’ or ‘Stella’ are nearby. Superb quality fruit, a lovely deep cherry flavour with a hint of acidity. Like ‘Morello’, tolerant of shade and more compact than some other varieties. ■ ‘STELLA’ – the product of a long breeding programme in Canada, this produces an abundance of dark red fruit, bursting with sugar. A reliable cropper, even in the north of the UK, and self-fertile. An…

If harvesting in stages, begin when the roots are a little smaller than a golf ball and never let them get larger than a tennis ball – they may look impressive but they’ll be horribly tough and woody. When harvesting from a cluster, be super-careful: gingerly twist the roots till they come away, with minimal disturbance to their neighbours. Beetroot offers two crops for the effort of one. Cook the leaves in the same way as Swiss chard or perpetual spinach. Younger leaves are especially tender, while those of very mature beetroot are generally tougher and often scarred and pock-marked. Some varieties are even sold specifically for growing as salad leaves – look out for the richly coloured ‘Bull’s Blood’. Any beetroot is a gardener’s privilege. If you haven’t grown…

By the time you find your first New Zealand flatworm, it’s too late. Lurking under stones, planks or pots, they keep a low profile, but they are impossible to eradicate and their effect on soil ecology is profound. New Zealand flatworms feed exclusively on earthworms, with such efficiency that populations can be virtually wiped out. This has serious repercussions for soil structure and fertility. I first encountered flatworms some 15 years ago, in my father’s Shetland garden. Enriched with barrowloads of compost, it should have been teeming with earthworms. By the end of his time there, hardly any earthworms were left. Flatworms – thought to have arrived with topsoil for a local building project – were squashed on sight, but it was a losing battle. Today, my father gardens in…

GLASS SQUEEGEE The head consists of a soft, absorbent sponge which will wash away loose dirt and grime on your greenhouse glass. The other side of the sponge has a rubber blade for drying the glass after cleaning. To be used with a Spiral Flow Hose or Swoop Top Pole (both sold separately). DARLAC http://darlac.com (FOR STOCKISTS) TEL: 01753 547790 PRODUCT CODE: DP573 PRICE GUIDE: FROM £5.99 KG VERDICT  This is a labour-saving gadget, great for getting to those higher areas of the greenhouse. We liked the design with the drying blade on the reverse of the sponge. The pole is easily extendable and gives plenty of reach. Quality ★★★★★ Effectiveness ★★★★★ Value for money ★★★★★ ALGON ORGANIC CLEANER This outdoor cleaner can be used for a variety of purposes,…

10 MINUTE JOBS TRIM YOUNG FRUIT TREES Check young fruit trees that are being grown as standards or half-standards and trim off any new shoots growing from the main trunk, flush back to the trunk. If left to grow all summer, they spoil the shape of the tree and use valuable energy. WATER NEWLY PLANTED VEG Keep an eye on newly planted vegetables to make sure that they are settling in and establishing. If the weather is warm and dry, water the soil around the roots to prevent the plants from drying out. This is best done early morning or in the evening. PINCH OUT BROAD BEANS When broad beans are in full flower pinch out the top few inches of the growing tip. This diverts the plant’s energy into…

KEEPING THEM SWEET Someone on our allotment site said that you shouldn’t sow different varieties of sweetcorn in close proximity, as cross-pollination will reduce the sweetness. Is that true and if so, what would be a safe distance between plants do you think? Rob Bennett, South Yorkshire Andrew Tokely, horticultural director, Kings Seeds ANDREW SAYS: If you are growing all F1 hybrid sugar enhanced varieties, then these can be grown side by side and will not affect the sweetness of the cobs produced. But if you were growing a hybrid variety and you wanted to grow one of the older standard varieties (a non-hybrid that is not sugar enhanced) then these should be kept apart as the hybrid sugar-enhanced variety would lose its sweetness if cross-pollinated by a standard variety.…

The Whitfield Road allotments are on the edge of the village of South Petherton, down a track that’s been muddied by the July rain. Here in South Somerset you’re never that far from a rich seam of gardens. Less than a couple of miles away, the doyenne of cottage gardening Margery Fish planted her garden at East Lambrook Manor, and the National Trust’s Barrington Court and Tintinhull are all within easy reach. These are gardens of some historical significance, and it’s not stretching the point to say that they have an effect on what happens at the Whitfield Road allotments. The other key influence on the allotments is the character of the village. Situated on the River Parrett, South Petherton has the soft, honey-gold hamstone houses and church, with mullioned…

Courgettes have to be one of the most prolific vegetables you can grow, easily giving you a minimum of two to three fruit per plant per week. Grow them in the garden or allotment and, if you choose the right variety, they can even be grown in pots in the backyard or on the patio or balcony. In the US they are known as zucchini and in South Africa they are referred to as ‘baby marrows’. Botanically, courgettes belong to the species Cucurbita pepo. They need to be eaten fresh as, like other summer squash, they don’t store well. SOWING Courgettes can be sown in two main ways, either direct into the soil or into small pots for an earlier start or if bad weather is forecast. I always sow…

Meet Kirsty Ward, a rising star in the world of allotment blogging. She started gardening in April 2017 as a means of improving the state of her mental health following a difficult time in her life, and soon realised she was enjoying being outside more than she thought. You got the keys to your allotment in April last year and from then on you were hooked – what made you go for an allotment in the first place? It was a mixture of things that made me decide to apply for an allotment. I have always fancied growing my own fruit and vegetables and from being a young girl I have some memories of going to the allotment with my dad. My dad has always grown his own vegetables in…

Lots of people barely know of or discuss bantams when thinking about utilising their back garden, allotment or smallholding. Yet they can be highly advantageous and productive for the keen gardener or homesteader. Firstly, what are bantams? Bantams are basically, in laymen’s terms, a half-sized chicken. They are the toddler of the poultry world. Bantams are a small, condensed, compact size chicken which come in many different breeds and types. Bantams can have as much character and charm as a full-size chicken and can be highly useful to the gardener. In this article, I hope to share some tips and information about this fascinating and brilliant addition to the garden or allotment. Beginners and expert poultry keepers can keep bantams and they can produce fresh eggs for the whole family.…

Beetroot is one of those vegetables it most definitely pays to grow yourself. Vacuum-packed balls of pickled slush or over-priced bunches that have seen better days? Neither thanks! I’ll go for fresh, radiant roots of earthy goodness every time. Like courgettes or runner beans, homegrown beetroot is both prolific and simplicity itself to grow, which makes you wonder why anyone would pay a pretty penny to buy it. It doesn’t matter anyhow, because with so many characterful – even eccentric – varieties to grow, your own beetroot will always be superior in both quality and taste. These intense-tasting roots take on many guises. Roast classic red varieties in a sheen of olive oil with sea salt, ground pepper and generous handfuls of home-grown oregano; shave stripy ‘Chioggia’, together with carrots,…

■ ‘ALBINO’: Quick growing and very productive, the leaves of this white beetroot also make very good eating. Kings Seeds ■ ‘BOLTARDY’: Always reliable and very slow to bolt. Pick this classic crimson beetroot for a trouble-free choice. Mr Fothergill’s ■ ‘CHIOGGIA’: Its quirky rose-red and white concentric rings make it a must-grow for salads. It has a great flavour too. Thompson & Morgan ■ ‘CYLINDRA’: Long and, well, cylindrical roots! The long roots mean it can stand for longer into winter. Thompson & Morgan ■ ‘TOUCHSTONE GOLD’: Golden roots. Look out for other golden roots too, including ‘Golden Detroit’ and ‘Boldor’. The Real Seed Catalogue…

The seed of open-pollinated varieties comes from plants that have either self-pollinated, or have been pollinated by natural means (wind or insects) from a plant of the same variety, or a mixture of both. These seeds will produce plants that are roughly identical to their parents, so gardeners can successfully save seed from them. Nevertheless, they still carry a healthy amount of genetic diversity, which allows the variety to slowly adapt to local growing conditions from year to year. The seed of F1 hybrids is deliberately created by crossing two different, heavily inbred, parent varieties under controlled conditions. The breeder thus creates a seed which inherits particular characteristics from the parent plants, which the plants uniformly exhibit. Some F1 hybrid varieties also have increased vigour. However, the seeds saved from…

Gardeners have to be patient people. We do plenty of work, of course, but deferred gratification is often our lot. We wait for seeds to grow, for temperatures to rise, for rain to come (or stop). If all is in order, we wait for crops to swell and produce an amazing harvest. There’s a lot in between that can go wrong, but let’s assume the plant is one that will produce fruits or pods; let’s assume that we have tended it to the point of growing an abundant display of flowers. We stand back, admire, and expectations rise. “It’s going to be a great year for runner beans,” we say, when there are masses of scarlet flowers among the foliage, or “we’ll have tomatoes in June” when the lowest trusses…

GRAND EVENTS AT BLENHEIM We’ve teamed up with Blenheim Palace to offer you the chance to win a Family Ticket for two adults and two children to one of two very special events taking place at the historic Oxfordshire World Heritage Site this summer. BLENHEIM: THE GREAT BRITISH GARDEN PARTY Discover a quintessentially British affair at Blenheim Palace this summer, with iconic characters brought to life, fabulous live music, delicious food and drink and an exciting fireworks finale at the new Great British Garden Party. Taking place on July 13 and 14 from 6.30 to 10pm, this event offers a unique opportunity to explore inside the palace, as well as the park and gardens, while enjoying spectacular entertainment. Play giant chess and other garden games, or laze in a deckchair…

BBC GARDENERS’ WORLD LIVE JUNE 14-17. National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. Show gardens, stalls, talks from Gardeners’ World presenters. 9am-6pm. 0844 581 1340 www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com PEST AND DISEASE MANAGEMENT JUNE 27. Ryton Organic Gardens, Wolston Lane, near Coventry. How to prevent and control problems in your garden and allotment. 10am-4pm. Book on 02476 303517 www.gardenorganic.org.uk MEDICINAL HERBS, JUNE 6 RHS Garden Harlow Carr, Harrogate, Yorkshire. How to make your own herbal remedies from the garden. 10am-4pm. 0845 265 8070 www.rhs.org.uk/harlowcarr OPEN GARDEN SQUARES WEEKEND JUNE 9-10. Explore a range of gardens across London, including allotments and fruit & veg plots. www.opensquares.org STRAWBERRY FAIR JUNE 10. Brogdale Farm, Faversham, Kent. Enjoy the first fruits of the season, market, orchard tours. 01795 536250 www.brogdalecollections.co.uk PLEASE NOTE  We have made every effort to ensure these…

WHAT TO DO IN JUNE ■ Plant aubergines, peppers and melons if you haven’t done so already ■ Mulch bare soil so it doesn’t dry out too fast ■ Thin the number of bunches on grapevines ■ Nip out tomato sideshoots on all except bush varieties ■ Leave doors/windows open as soon as nights are warm enough ■ Water every day, mist first tomato flowers, and spray paths on hot days ■ Feed plants in pots and growing bags ■ Look around the greenhouse every day: deal with small problems before they become big ones, e.g. pests A NEW GREENHOUSE: PATHS A path may be no more than a well-trodden strip of earth or it may be a more elaborate paved structure. There are many options in between such as:…

POWDERY MILDEW This fungal disease thrives in hot dry weather. Lack of soil moisture is also a contributing factor. SOLUTION: Careful watering is the best defence along with resistant cultivars. There are no fungicides for this but the fungal structures are ‘collapsed’ by baking soda and potassium carbonate, both allowed under EU rules. SB Plant Invigorator has the same effect. FRUIT LOSS Female flowers fall off without fruit, fruitlets suddenly rot or collapse and swelling fruit suddenly ‘stall’. This is caused by insufficient plant resources in the early part of the season. Failure to pick maturing fruits fast enough suppresses new fruit formation later in the season. SOLUTION: More generous watering and feeding in the earlier part of the season and prompt picking in the later part. ROOT ROTS Planting…

■ ‘SYROS F1’ – Compact, bushy, spine-free plants ideal for patio containers but also for garden growing. The tasty, dark green fruit are produced on longer stalks for ease of harvest. It also boasts excellent powdery mildew resistance, which means harvesting can continue for longer. And it’s resistant to mosaic virus too! Improved variety. (www.dobies.co.uk) ■ ‘PARTHENON F1’ – A unique variety which can pollinate itself and thereby produce fruit early in the season and in cool weather. This also makes it ideal for growing under cloches. Beautiful glossy, dark green fruits.(www.organiccatalogue.com) ■ ‘SOLEIL F1’ – Intensely bright, yellow skinned, very straight fruits produced on compact, yet vigorous plants. Has the added bonus of tolerance to powdery mildew and is very high yielding.(www.mr-fothergills.co.uk) ■ ‘LUNGO BIANCO’ – Italian in heritage,…

TIME LINE FOR GRASS CARE Grass paths and lawns are often the areas of garden that get the least attention apart from when we brutally chop at them once a week with the mower. However, grass is like any other plant that we care for, it has needs otherwise it doesn’t thrive. Here are some key seasonal points to keep grass areas around your plot looking good. SUMMER ■ The mower blades can be lowered a bit if necessary but don’t be tempted to scalp the lawn, it will only stress the grass and allow other plants, such as moss, to grow in its place. ■ If you missed a lawn fertiliser application in spring you could apply in summer but wait for some wet weather, otherwise you could scorch…

“If you only have room to plant one cherry tree, make sure it is one of the self-fertile types such as ‘Stella’” ‘A triumph of hope over experience’. This is how the renowned gardener and journalist Bob Flowerdew has described growing cherries. The list of potential pitfalls is certainly extensive – birds stealing the fruit, bacterial canker, aphid damage, birds, vigorous growth and tricky to prune – oh, and did I mention the birds? Almost everyone who has tried to grow cherries has suffered the heart-breaking experience of patiently watching the fruit gradually ripen, only to discover that birds have stripped the tree bare a day before you planned to pick them. However, with a little planning, a bit of knowledge and a touch of good fortune, it is certainly…

If variety is the spice of life, then beetroot is among the spiciest! The range of varieties is reason enough to make space for it in the veggie garden. I’m always going to be a big fan of crimson-red beetroots – such vibrancy on the plate! For the first sowings of the season start with the ever-popular ‘Boltardy’ and if you only have room for one beetroot, this is the one to grow. ‘Boltardy’ is bred to resist bolting (running to seed), an all-too-common consequence of sowing too soon in the season when it’s still a little cold. With a bolt-resistant staple like this, a trouble-free run to harvest is almost guaranteed. Sowings made from mid-spring are far less likely to bolt, so the choice of what you can sow…

We try to reduce ‘vegetable miles’ by growing our own and buying locally, but often forget that their journey actually starts with the seeds. Hardly any of the vegetable seeds sold to UK gardeners and growers are produced in this country. Similarly, other products with local provenance are valued – local cider or breeds of livestock, for example – but rarely local varieties of vegetable. Change could be on its way, however. Small independent seed companies are becoming more popular; Brexit could bring new regulations that govern which vegetable varieties they can sell; and there are moves to encourage local production of seed. All this could lead to more choice for gardeners – giving us some tailor-made varieties and better quality seed. “When Britain joined the EU in 1973, many…

As the name suggests, using the QR method, compost can be made very quickly in as little as four weeks with the additional advantage that turning is not required. I have been using this method for about 15 years now and I can honestly say that not only did it revolutionise my compost-making skills (which I have to say were abysmal!), it also radically changed our garden from the soil upwards. QR can be used on any scale from a backyard to a farm – the only necessity is something to compost. Following on from the book I wrote in 2008, Quick Return Compost Making, I have made quite a few developments that I would like to share with you in this short series. In this article I will be…

1. POLLEN IS TOO DRY OR TOO WET Pollen shouldn’t be saturated, but it can help if it is slightly damp. Plants grown in a greenhouse or conservatory are more likely to have dry pollen. The first trusses of tomato flowers will set fruit best if they are lightly misted with water. Runner beans set more pods if flowers are misted with water in a spell of dry weather. Misting means the finest spray possible and not enough water to wash pollen out of flowers. Pumpkin and squash flowers can fill with water in wet weather. Use partial covers over plants to avoid this (leaving access for pollinating insects), or grow one plant under cover and use the male flowers to fertilise outdoor female ones. 2. TOO EARLY IN THE…

RHUBARB ‘APPLE DELIGHT’ & ‘POULTON’S PRIDE’ PLANTS Rhubarb is a crop very close to our heart and varieties ‘Apple Delight’ and ‘Poulton’s Pride’ are some of our favourites. With both plants offering completely different variations of the classic rhubarb flavour we all know and love, you can expect a good lengthy harvest of long, flavoursome stalks. Both varieties carry a hint of the characteristic sharpness to be expected with rhubarb, but with a sweet and fruity flavour. Not only do both taste fantastic but they also crop for a long time too. Unlike other rhubarb types, which go dormant during the summer, these varieties have had the dormancy bred out so you can enjoy harvesting from as early as February (if forced) and continue through to November – that’s for…

RUSTIC COURGETTE TART This puff pastry tart is a joy to throw together and takes no time at all – but it looks and tastes fantastic! Use a variety of colourful courgettes to make it even prettier. SERVES 4 Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 40 minutes ■ 2 medium courgettes ■ 1 tsp fine sea salt ■ 1x 375g pack ready-rolled puff pastry ■ 1 medium egg, lightly beaten ■ 300ml crème fraîche ■ 3 spring onions, finely sliced ■ A handful of mint, chopped ■ 200g/7oz feta cheese, roughly crumbled or chopped ■ 1 tbsp olive oil 1. Trim the ends off each courgette, then use a vegetable peeler to shave ribbons from top to bottom, turning the courgette as you go. Discard the core. 2. Rest a…