My neighbour down on the allotment starting growing and eating a lot of kale, last summer, because he had heard it was the best thing to eat.
However, after three weeks, the veins on his arms turned black. When he went to the doctor to find out what was going on, he was told because he was taking tablets for blood thinning he should not eat kale.
When he stopped eating kale, everything went back to normal.
I eat two leafs of kale a day with no side effects.
I am not on blood thinners.
Do you grow Kale, but not use it? A walk round my allotment site will show me that most people grow kale but very few harvest it.
I eat two to three kale leaves a day in a smoothy.
The reason I do this is to keep my lungs healthy at this time of Covid.
I have bronchitis, which means I cough a lot and live on antibiotic. I got fed up with this and researched how people look after their lungs in times gone-bye.
Apple and kale was the answer and so I started making my smoothy with one apple and kale every day.
The result: I have stopped coughing and have not felt better for years and years.
As we enter the winter and start spending more time indoors, are you making sure that you are getting enough vitamin D as the days become shorter?
It is very important to remember how important this vitamin is. The most vital being to keep your immune system going in this time of a pandemic.
You can make sure that you are getting enough vitamin D by growing and eating :
Berries
Pumpkin
Sweet potato
Also buy and eat:
Mushrooms, Oranges, Pineapples, Fish and Eggs
Get out in the garden when every you can to catch some Rays
It is mid November and my Rhubarb is growing and in leaf.
This might not sound serious, but it is. Rhubarb should not start growing until late February.
Last year, my Rhubarb started growing around Christmas and went on till end of October.
Which is not right because it should be there from April till end of August.
What else is going on that we not know about?
Latin Name
Spinach Oleracea.
History:
Unlike many plants, spinach does not come from the Mediterranean area of the world. This is because spinach does not grow well in the heat.
Spinach is first mentioned in around 230A.D. and comes from Persia.
Health benefits:
Well, first off, it's "Greens" which we all know we should eat. Full of vitamins and iron.
The best way to tell you how good it is: eat it for six months and see how much better you feel.
Soil type:
A good rich soil, well worked loam is the best. However it will grow in most soils
Place in rotation:
Spinach is part of the beetroot family and grown after Onions, Garlic and Leeks.
Variety:
I am not going to give too many varieties here. Best way to choose is to see what people around you are growing and have a look in your favorite catalogue.
It is enough to say: if you are starting out, do not get carried away and purchase too much. Buy a few and look after them properly and you will not become discouraged.
I like to grow heritage seeds and the two I use are:
Magenta Magic Orach also know as German Mountain Spinach:
I like this Spinach because it grow very early in year and gives me tender leaves that can be eaten in a salad or cooked. The trick is to pick them little and often.
The other variety that I use is:
Perpetual Spinach:
This is my winter Spinach which I sow in late August. The plant loves cold and rarely bolts and will last all winter.
Below are two varieties that I would not grow.
Bloomsdale
This deals with cold, however very likely to bolt as soon as the weather turns warm.
Lazio
A modern variety of spinach that is mainly grown for supermarkets.
Sowing:
Spinach is one of the first crops that I plant. The day that I sow Spinach seeds, is the first day of Spring for me. In a few weeks, I will be harvesting tender leaves and this is the main reason that I grow my own plants.
I sow mid February to March and again late August to mid September. This depends on the season, of course.
Planting out:
I always plant my spinach out as " plugs". In rows one foot apart and eight inches in the row. This leaves me plenty of room for my hoe.
Feed:
The better the soil, the better the plant that is grown. I am fortune enough to have good soil. My allotment plot is on the banks of the River Thames and is made up of thousands of years of silt, the only draw back is that every three or four years there are floods, luckily they are mainly in the winter months.
I feed my soil with leave mould. I get the leaves from St.Johns College Oxford: heap them up in compost bins, and turn them with a fork every six months. After eighteen months I have wonderful compost which I dig into my raised beds.
Before I plant or so any thing in the soil I scatter chicken manure that has been dried and made into little pellets for easy> I just scatter a light scattering over the soil and then rack in. Great for enhancing the soil.
You can buy this at any garden shop, around ten to fourteen pounds for ten kilo;
Growing:
This is straight forward. I hoe the bed every five days or so and if it is dry, I water.
Pest:
Spinach suffers from all the usually suspects: Cutworms,slugs,aphids, beetles, leaf miners, to name a few.
As well as the pest, you have Downy mildew. If you get this, do not grow for a year.
I had this once and transferred my Spinach growing to a very large pot far away from my growing beds and that worked for I never had trouble again.
As for the pest: I find hoeing and spraying Aloe Vera MPD mixed with water every five days does the trick. You can use other natural liquid soaps, what every takes your fancy.
Harvest
Yields:
You can expect 2-3 pounds of fresh Spinach per plant. Of course, this does depend on time of year and what type of soil the Spinach is grown in.
There is also a difference in yield according to the variety grown.
Half a cup of cooked Spinach is considered one serving.
Storage and Preserving
Your can store your Spinach in the vegetables tray of your fridge for two to three days.
Another way to store your Spinach is to blanch the leaves in boiling water for two minutes and place in a freezer bag and freeze.
Hints:
Not a good idea to cook in aluminum pans because the Spinach will pick up an acid taste and turn grey. Which is not a good look on your dinner plate?
Spinach is good to add to soups and salads, also makes a great topping with poached eggs, fish, chicken breast.
Microwave:
Strangely, you can cook Spinach in a microwave: place in a dish for three minutes.
An Aside:
The artists during the Medieval times took the color green from pigments of Spinach. They used this to make paint or ink. So next time you are in an art gallery, have a lick at the green!
It is a good idea, at this time of year to dig some animal manure into your beds.The reason is that the animal manure contains the three essentials: nitrates, potash, and phosphates.
Pig and cow manures are invaluable on light soil because it conserves moisture.
Horse manure, on the other hand, is indispensable for heavy type soils because it will supply food and assists drainage by breaking up the soil particles.
Chicken and other poultry manure is very valuable when used in a dry state, but do not forget that the material is at least six times stronger than any other type of animal manure.
A good way to measure out manure is one barrowful to the rod. A rod, by the way is a land measurement: a unit of length equal to 5.5 yards, 5.0292 meters.
On heavy land, it is good to try to add decayed vegetable matter, and wood ashes, as these will help to sweeten the soil.
As well as animal manure, it is a good idea to drill some green manures. The best time to do this is August or September.
The purpose of this is to keep the soil covered if you are not growing a crop and to dig the green manure crop into the soil later on in the year to supply humus to your raised bed.
White mustard is a good green manure to use on light soil but you must make sure that you dig it into the soil well before it flowers.
Rape is another very useful green manure to use, but this crop, like mustard should be dug in during November or December.
For digging in the soil during February or March, crimson clover, winter tares or rye are all very useful. Old fashion crops, I know, but they are still the best to my mind.
Far greater use might be made of these green manures, especially in cases where the land is otherwise bare through the winter months.
If you have a small glasshouse or polly that you have been growing tomatoes in for a few seasons, now is the time to move the sol out and change in for some outside soil fro one of your beds.
The reason is that you do not want a build up of any sort of soil disease. I dug down about a foot.
Wash down your glass with a liquid soap.
Now is also a good time to set rat traps, as the beast are moving around and looking for winter shelter. I have caught 8 this month.
Thomas Jefferson, as well as being a great statesman, was also one of the greatest gardeners of the time.
He was a man who wrote everything that he every did, down in note books. If you want to know anything about growing...just look him upon the internet.
He had a 2 acre garden that is 1,000 feet long and 90 feet wide. It is still there and you can go and take a look.
Truly amazing, I have seen it. In this garden he grow 330 varieties of vegetables. He was most famous for his peas, on the subject of which he has written reams.
You do not have to grow that many varieties, just grow what you would eat and now is the time to sit down on a rainy day and do some garden "thinking".
Wasp do not not make good companies when you are working. I had a a nest of them in one of my beds and had to avoid working on it the whole summer long.
However, the good news is that they never use the same site two years running. All of the wasp die off in the Autumn, except the queen wasp.
So I cleaned my shed out and found two queens, which I removed, saying myself a lot of trouble next summer.
The queen is about an inch long, so easy to spot, best take a look in your shed. They like to hide in the corners.
England is in "lock-down" for the next month We know how important simply “getting outdoors” is to all of us – in terms of both our mental and physical health – Even if your are in lockdown for a month, Mr Gove says to make use of your garden and allotment, so get down there and breath some air
What do you do in the garden when you are out there, doing this or that, which leaves your mind free to wonder, so to speak.
I find it does help to have somthing ready to hand to occupy your mind and what better way to spend a few minuets counting your blessings. A sort of Examination of Consciousness, so to speak.
Center yourself in silence and recall your day with an open spirit. Notice the emotions and thoughts that arise within you and review the days events. Let your mind settle on the good ones and count your blessings as you work...it beats dwelling on the events and news. You will leave your garden in a better frame of mind.
