Your GARDENING FORTNIGHT
Val explains the wider, beneficial impact of more natural methods of vegetable growing
I’ve just given a talk on growing vegetables organically for Northleach Church in Gloucestershire. I always think growing vegetables is a bit like doing A levels in gardening, because it’s quite involved. You’re mostly dealing with annuals that will only get one chance in that year. Once the seeds are sown, you’re in the lap of the gods, so it’s always swings and roundabouts. One year your onions will fail, perhaps due to a dry, over-warm spring, but your brassica and beetroot crops will thrive.
I also mentioned the importance of having a compost heap in my talk, so that you can enrich your soil, although you should never put diseased material on your heap. The compost we make is devoted to the vegetable beds and it’s either dug in, laid on top, or buried underground. It increases moisture content and adds an airy texture and helps promote growth. Enriching the soil is very important at Spring Cottage, because our light soil has little or no clay. It sheds water quickly and doesn’t hang on to nutrients very well either.
I also mentioned rotating your crops. I use a simple 3-way rotation which begins with nitrogen-fixing legumes – or peas and beans. Brassicas follow on, because they need nitrogen and I provide more with chicken pellets. Then it’s root crops in the third year, because these tap-rooted plants don’t enjoy rich soil. Rotating helps to prevent pests and diseases from building up in the same plot.
Every garden is different so do what works for you
Timing is also vital and that’s one of the hardest things to explain to inexperienced vegetable growers, because catching the right moment is key to success. Sow or plant too soon and you’ll end up failing. If you sow or plant a little later your crops will soon be up. The message is ‘bide your time’ and that’s very true in my highaltitude Gloucestershire plot. If I followed the instructions on the seed packets and actually sowed my parsnips in February - they would fail.
I’ve learnt to sow my parsnip seeds in April here, once night-time temperatures have warmed up. Parsnips still take about 30 days to germinate, even if the conditions are perfect, so it’s worth recording the sowing date! Carrots take 14 days here and both are umbellifers, (members of the cow parsley family), so they need warmer nights for germination.
I also talked about choosing seeds. My Yorkshire heritage means that I examine prices and seed counts quite rigorously. I do go for some costlier F1 varieties, because they are mor
