ROB SMITH
Some plants will be fine to go outside now to create some extra room
KITCHEN GARDENER
Helping you get your best-ever fruit and veg
As the greenhouse becomes ever more crowded, it’s time to move some of the more robust plants outside – especially those which are happy to bask in the sun and cope with a typical British summer at the same time.
The miniature ‘Pixie’ grapes have settled in well in their small planters and are already starting to produce small clusters of flowers at just 30cm tall, so they’re being moved outdoors; hardening them off and hopefully creating sturdy little plants that can be kept on the patio once they begin to fruit – bringing a taste of the Med to Yorkshire! As grapes are hungry plants, I’ll give them a seaweed feed every three to four weeks, especially as these varieties produce multiple crops throughout the season, as they’ll soon use up the nutrients in their small pots.
Other plants to be evicted and transplanted into the garden are the parsley seedlings, which are now large enough to hold their own. I’m going to plant them in the corners of the raised beds, as this allows me to squeeze extra plants into the space, without giving over a full row to the much-loved herb. I prefer to grow multiple plants of any herb, so I can harvest a few leaves from each, leaving the plants looking good, rather than as if they’ve been chopped back: removing just a few leaves from each plant also allows you to create a bettershaped plant at the same time.
The small comfrey ‘Bocking 14’ plantation I’ve grown behind the greenhouse seems to have settled in well and is producing masses of foliage and flowers, benefiting both me and the local pollinators. Instead of chopping the flowering plants to the ground and allowing them to grow back, I’m removing the leaves and leaving the flowering stems in place for the insects. The non-flowering stems will be used in the greenhouse to create a ‘crumb’ to help feed the tomatoes and other fruiting plants. Simply chop the leaves and stems into 5cm pieces and add them as a mulch around your plants. This will very quickly dry up and crumble into a powderlike substance while feeding your plants at the same time. The benefit of doing this is t
