Your GARDENING FORTNIGHT
Lucy explains how to make the most of the next few weeks
With many parts of the country experiencing a very wet 2023/24 winter, and April traditionally being a notably wet month, let’s turn our eyes to the skies and work out how best to deal with rain on our plots.
Weather extremes seem set to become more commonplace, so I’m drawing up a plan to cope with gluts and dearths of water. Did you know that the average house roof can capture 50,000 litres of water, annually? That’s a staggering amount! I’m ashamed to say that at present, I have no water butts connected to my house roof, so that absolutely has to change. I have two galvanised water tanks at the back of my greenhouse – collectively they hold around 400 litres. But my 10 x 8 greenhouse can collect 5,000 litres of rain each year, so again, my existing set up is woefully inadequate. Compulsory water meters for many of us means we could make big savings by installing more rain tanks. And while ornamental gardens planted with trees, shrubs and lawns make us reluctant to dig up these areas, vegetable plots are better placed to offer options such as underground storage facilities.
So, with ample back-up supplies helping with dearths, how do we deal with rainfall gluts? For general waterlogging, add bulky organic matter to the soil as this helps boost drainage. Flooding can be especially destructive for edibles, as water contamination can then make harvests unsafe to eat. If you live in a low-lying area or have slow-to-drain, heavy soil, raised beds can offer help. As an example, standard metal-edged beds are 40cm high, but you can source 80cm tall models, if you feel its warranted. Does your plot have access to a well-maintained, clear ditch? If so, you could arrange to dig a drainage channel towards it, so that at least if flooding does occur, the water has an ultimate soak away route of escape.
Sow sweetcorn
I grow by far the best sweetcorn when I start plants off early. While these gargantuan grasses are tender, they develop an extensive, drought-proof root system if sown now, for transplanting outside in late May or early June. So, fire up the propagator or heat mats to 18-22°C and follow my lead.
Sweetcorn on the whole needs a long season and we can’t reliably provide that in the UK. So, ideally, choose early-maturing varieties that are British-bred to have built in cold tolerance (e.g. ‘Earlibird’ and ‘Northern Extra Sweet’). Make a note also that modern, tendersweet (e.g. ‘Swift’) and supersweet (e.g. ‘Mirai Picnic’) types aren’t best mixed with older varieties (e.g. ‘Golden Bantam’) as the cross pollination can cause kernel starchiness. Sow your corn one seed per 10cm pot of moist multipurpose compost
