Spade Work : From Plot to Plate

No Swift Success

A tray full of corn sown (Swift) and only about half germinated. I'd covered it with fine wire mesh against mice and there were no signs that they got in.

Has anyone else experienced low germination rates?

I've sown another tray this evening. I know it's not the most productive crop in our climate but nothing beats the taste of it freshly harvested so it's worth the effort.

Florence Fennel

I tried Florence fennel for the first time a few weeks ago and I'm hooked. Food writer, Sophie Grigson loves it. Nothing 'namby pamby' about this vegetable, she writes.

I doubted I'd like its aniseed flavour but in the spirit of expanding culinary horizons I was willing to give it a go, especially as some of the recipes called for lashings of cheese and olive oil.

Opting for gently stir frying (about 15 mins low heat until fully softened) with plenty of olive oil, red onion and red wine vinegar it was meltingly mellow and a winner all round.

Grated raw in a salad is another matter but I'd like to try it blanched, then baked and finished with cheese.

It has the reputation as a tricky vegetable to grow. Has anyone tried growing it and is it worth giving it a go?

How Much Is Enough?

On Christa's blog (Calendula & Concrete) a newbie veg grower asked :

'how to calculate how many plants you need based on how much you eat. I can't seem to find any good rules of thumb.'

It's a good question and one you can answer the better with experience. Most seed packets will tell you how best to sow but not how much to sow. So here are my rules of thumb (weather, blight and pests excepted) based on growing and cooking for two. This will yield plenty for the table, some for the freezer and a bit left over to give away.

Potatoes: PD (pre-diet),when we were holding our own in the heavyweight division, most days we'd stare across a mountain of spuds on the table (it's a genetic thing - you can take the Paddy out of Ireland but not the spud out of the Paddy). Now its measured at 5oo grams (that's about 2 good sized Golden Wonder or five to six Charlotte or other small salad types) and we don't have them every night. As for planting I've found each seed potato yields between eight to 12 potatoes at harvest time (some heritage varieties a little less). This year I'll sow at least three 30 foot rows.

Peas: I grow them to eat fresh and I'm not trying grow enough to preserve or freeze. So I can have a three to four week supply with two ten foot rows of mange tout/sugar snap types and two, four cane wigwams, of Alderman (very sweet and very tall shelling variety).

Raspberries: For eating fresh off the cane and freezing for later in the year. I planted ten canes of Autumn Bliss, a late variety that fruits on new growth (pretty much thornless) so you can have a harvest the year you put them in. They've had little care apart from some thinning and I've just cut all the canes down to ground level, a job I do each January. No fiddly messing about with new and old canes. A little manure and they'll be off and growing producing an abundant crop in August and through to the first frost. Plenty to eat there and then and lots to freeze as well. As a bonus they don't need much tying in as the canes support one another.

Tomatoes: Last season was a poor one. But we'd still plenty to eat fresh from three Golden Sweet plants, three Illdi and three Gardeners' Delight. The San Marzanos did poorly but I did get a few tubs of sauce for the freezer. This year I'll plant more San Marzanos the sauce was so good and rich and as an experiment I'm trying to get something from the saved seed of a store bought canned tomato...just to see what grows, if anything.

Courgette/Zucchini: Two plants are plenty, one in the garden I harvest almost daily; the other on the allotment I get to once a week and in peak season there will always be a monster lurking under the leaves. Great grilled and for soups and hash.

Beans: Mostly climbing types. Four, four cane wigwams planted with green, purple and yellow varieties gave ample fresh beans, plenty to store and enough seed for next year. I don't plant for dried beans. On alternate years I'll sow a fifteen foot row of broad beans and get four or five small servings out of this. I also put in three dwarf/bush bean plants (yellow as it brightens the plates)dotted about the allotment where there is space - they don't take up much room at all.

Chard: Ten plants growing, sow seed for 15 and thin down. Will reduce this amount this year as we aren't using enough.

Carrot and Parsnip: I've not had much luck with either so this year I'll try extra hard. I've been harvesting parsnip Tender & True from two 15 foot rows since mid December and there are probably two more servings in it.

Kale: I transplant at least 12 plants from the seed bed to grow on. I'll do more next year as I'll probably not grow grellos again. As to why, think furry teeth and cold strong black tea.

Brussels: Plant out at least 12 plants. Eat the tops as well when you've finished with the buttons. This year the red brussels (four plants) failed so we've a 'shortage'! I much prefer growing them to other cabbages - pick as you need them, they freeze well and so far they've not had any slug damage.

Purple Sprouting Brocoli: I've had six plants in since last April I think. So it'll be almost a year before I harvest from them and I've no idea what they'll yield. Anyone guess?

Grellos/Turnip Tops: A ten foot row still stands in the garden and it probably won't be touched. Maybe I planted these a little early (mid August) and that explains their bitterness even after cooking them with some sugar and garlic.

Lettuce: Over the years I've tried many varieties and made my own mixes but I've now settled on 'cut and come again' growing using the lettuce mixes sold by Franchi (Seeds of Italy). Ten foot rows successionally sown give plenty. I've lots of praise for Franchi - good tasting crops, generous sized packet and a fair price.

Parsley: Ten plants of flat leaf parsley has filled several trays of pesto in the freezer. They get two or three 'haircuts' in the season. This year I'll go for double the amount.

Rocket: The wild type by Franchi is the one I swear by. Two ten foot rows are plenty. I do cut and come again with them also and make pesto for freezing. Also sow successionally as it's quick to bolt when there is any heat about.

Coriander/Cilantro: Grew four plants reasonably well this year and cut them down before bolting and froze as a pesto (got two ice cube trays worth). Great with fish and squid pasta.

Aubergine/Eggplant: Six small fruits off two plants grown outside. This year I have a greenhouse so I may try again but it's a lot of work for a vegetable I don't have that often. (Thouygh if I'd had more I'd have eaten them - just think garlicky baba ganoush. I think I'm better off not trying to beat the weather and concentrate on growing something more suited to conditions here.

Onions, Leeks, Garlic: Most of our meals have one or more of these. I know onions are cheap to buy but I like growing them and I'm almost obsessional about the number of ingredients  coming from the garden in each meal. I use sets not seed for ease: this year 1kg white onion sets, 250grams red; 6o leek transplants. I've sown 13 varieties of garlic - plenty for those 40 clove chicken recipes.

Fruit trees: The espalier pear returned 22 fruits this year, up on 18 last year. At the new house we've inherited some ancient plums, damsons and apple trees so we'll have to see how they do. They are not dwarf or trained in any way so harvesting will be a challenge.

Odds and Sods: A couple of mint plants in pots to stop them invading; a couple of pots of chives, one rosemary bush - its belting away so were profligate with branches of rosemary in the roasting tin; one oregano bush; one bay tree (unlimited supply of bay leaves which also double as curry leaf when the recipe calls for it) and I'm still getting chillies from the three plants I dug up and took inside to overwinter - two yesterday with five green chillies coming on.

Squash: Two tiny unripe butternuts off 6 plants. Weather victims.

All this writing about crops is making me hungry. I'm off to cook.

Signs of Hope

The first snowdrop is up in the bed outside the front door. But it's a hands and knees job to appreciate these signs of hope. And when you get down you see all the other small green shoots making their way up.

To Everything There Is A Season

To everything there is a season and this time of year it's sowing, planting out and more sowing. The time to reap will come.

So much for my promise to myself of a little and often but at least I've not been digging, much.

Here's what's gone in on the allotment, the garden and the Friary border over last week:

A seedbed row of Kale, Nero di Toscana, Leek, Musselburgh  and St Victor, Radish French Breakfast, Cabbage January King, Red Cabbage Marner Lagerrot, Brussels Sprouts Seven Hills and Red Bull, Parsley Italian Flat Leaf  and Parsnip Tender & True and Hollow Crown. Celeriac sown in plugs.

More rows of Pea Norli and Alderman direct sown in the ground.

And another 5 metres or so of the Friary south border has been cleared and a second Photinia planted. Getting the right plants for the dry, poor soil conditions will be key and we are raiding Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden and Nicola Ferguson's Right Plant, Right Place (North American readers may know it by its previous title Ferguson's Garden Plant Directory) for ideas.

Potato Planting

I've put in my potatoes a little earlier than usual this year as I'll be away later in the month. I used to plant on March 17th, St Patrick's Day, but it's usually too early; the ground is often too cold and wet and the foliage emerges while there's still a risk of frost.

Digging  the trenches over several days in an attempt to avoid back pain, following the 'little and often' regime I've promised myself, I lined them with grass clippings from the first cut of the season.

I've found this an excellent way of avoiding scab on the tubers at harvest time.

In went several Red Duke of York, which will give me a fairly early crop; also Forty Fold swapped with Rebsie at  Daughter of the Soil and some Golden Wonder I got from my allotment neighbour, Carol. The rest are Charlotte my favourite second early, salad type, excellent as a roaster and it produces a rich buttery looking mash too.

I'll plant several rows on the allotment as well including some Mr Little's Yetholm Gypsy (again from Rebsie), Markie (again from Carol) and a couple Edzell Blue to try out for the first time. As for the rest - more Charlotte.

The trenches are back filled and then the loose soil mounded up to 'earth up' the tubers. That way there shouldn't be much, if any, growth above ground until mid May by which time the risk of a frost checking growth should be over at least here in the South. As the foliage emerges I'll earth up more soil. By June or when the foliage is meeting in and between the rows, the tubers will be growing away in a large mound at least a foot and a half deep or so.

Sunflower Seed Saver

It seems ages since this sunflower 'Italian White' was in flower.

And I'd forgotten about the heads I'd been drying on a sheet of cardboard above the wardrobe.

They seem to have kept fine all winter and the seeds and chaff separated easily.

Time will tell if they're still viable but it's worth a try as this variety makes a fine cut flower.

Growing Grelos

I've never seen a serving suggestion on a seed packet before but here's grelos or turnip tops with chorizo. Tastey, I'd say.

I tried grelos for the first time last week in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on a short break and had a delicious dish of lacon con grelos or loosely translated as best my understanding of Spanish is, joint of pork with turnip tops (shoulder I think but by the look of it the piece on the plate came not to far from the trotter).

And excellent it was too with the pork falling away from the bone and the wilted turnips tops absorbing lots of garlic.

Next day I went in search of seeds, slightly unusual in a city known more for its pilgrimage than plants and came across an old fashioned hardware store run by three shop coat wearing gents who were able to sort me out with a packet of Grelos de Santiago. Wrapped in brown parcel paper of course. Personal service you don't get many places and all for one euro.

So now I have another winter vegetable to add to my plans for this growing season. But the sowing instructions leave me a little puzzled. On the reverse of the packet, the English translation reads;

"Like all rape varieties they acquire their development in fresh and humid weather. Can be sown July to October in lines 20 - 50cm apart or at volley with the seed superficially buried."

I suppose they'll grow here as, after all, we grow turnips for their roots but where will they fit in my rotation and has anyone any growing tips for a first timer?

What No Gloves?

Look, no gloves! I'm always doing it - promising I'll wear them and then just getting stuck in and by then it's too late.

This chunky clove of  German Extra Hardy was planted on Saturday along with Red Toch and Polish White which I got from Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots

I also put in several lines of Thermidrome and two lines of Radar onion sets plus two rows of broad bean, Aquadulce Claudia, in another bed.

It was the first time in three weeks that I had been able to get to the allotment and it wasn't  looking too bad.

The asparagus foliage is beginning to turn and the kale is coming into its own. The parsnips are doing well; the Autumn Bliss raspberries are still putting out fruit and the dahlias continue giving a good show, while the leeks after an unpromising start are bulking up nicely.

Garlic from Amsterdam

I was delighted to receive a package from Bifurcated Carrots in Amsterdam with some new to me garlic bulbs - German Extra Hardy, Polish White and the very coffee house sounding Red Toch.

They've also included some tomato seeds - yellow, pink and black varities to add interest next year. I'll be reporting.

For those of you new to seed saving and seed sharing there is an interesting programme on BBC Radio 4 ' A World in Your Ear' available to listen again over the internet until Saturday. Follow the link from here to hear Neenah Ellis of Grandmothers' Seeds explain why it matters.