I like Raspberries because they are an excellent crop for the organic grower to grow. They are very easy to establish and will crop very heavily producing up to 1.5kg of fruit per cane for upwards of 10 years. Make sure you choose a good sunny spot and feed well. I only go for late fruiting verities because the birds do not seem to go for them. My favourite is Autumn Bless and right now they are fruiting very well on my plot.

Grow your own lettuce

There is one crop that most of us can grow what ever our circumstance as well as grow it nearly all year round. That crop is lettuce, which can be grown in a big garden or in a bucket as well as everything in-between If you are really organized and you have a greenhouse or polly tunnel, you can grow your own lettuce pretty much all year round. Lettuce is are quite a bit hardier than you might think and you can get special winter varieties to see you through the colder months. In the winter time they slow right down (they can take up to ten weeks) though so you have to be patient and sow well in advance of when you hope to harvest. What you need is to be patient and organised – then you can be sure of having your own lettuce on the table and what a treat it is. Unfortunately the lettuce is prone to all sorts of pest and diseases which means the lettuce that you buy in the local store can be sprayed as much as eight times in its short life. The growers want a fast turnaround and high yields so the plants are grown very close together with lots of extra nitrogen and often under plastic, which makes them prone to fungal diseases. In addition, because it is grown fast commercial lettuce is often rather tasteless. Many of these pests can be over come if you leave space round each plant so that there is plenty of air. In addition, there are many ways to keep slugs away from you crop You might want to try different varieties for taste and seasonal growth. Even an everyday variety like Little Gem has more taste and texture when it is grown slowly. Lettuce seeds will keep for a year or two. One of the secrets to growing lettuce successfully is to sow the seed little and often. It is far better to sow a few plants once a week than a big batch once a month. You are much more likely to get a steady supply of tasty salad rather than a boom or bust glut. It also pays to grow several different varieties. It makes your salads more interesting and because different varieties grow at different speeds, your harvest will be more spread out. You can get packets of lettuce mixed seed now, which are handy, if you have limited space. I have found these to be very handy and use them all the time. What you get is an interesting and well-balanced blend.

Book Review For: Make Your Garden Feed You

Book review for “ Make your garden feed you: This is a very small book, having only just over 100 pages. There are no photos however the book does contain a few helpful drawings. “Make your own garden feed you” was written in 1940 when the world was at war; however, we are still at war only this time it is an economic world war with most counties struggling money wise. So it really is true to say that this little gem of a book is a book for our difficult times when once again people are up against the wall it terms of trying to feed themselves and their families on low budgets. The main message of this book is how to slash your shopping budget by growing your own food. This includes three short chapters on keeping rabbits/hens and bees. Although the advice given is short if you follow it to the letter, you would have enough meat/eggs and honey to sustain your table without spending too much money. I know this because I have in the past keep all three stock and the advise in the book is very sound and good practice. As to the main thrust of the book: it is all about growing vegetables in an organic and practical way using the resources that you have at hand (remember it was written during war time for people who only had what they had to hand). The book contains all the usual stuff like such as digging/preparing soil/composting/seeds/what to grow/how to grow/pest/month by month jobs. In addition, the “ Make your Garden Feed you” also continues sections on flowers as well as fruit. If you have no idea how to grow anything but want to/ or need too then this book is for you. From big gardens to contain growing, you really do not need any thing else to get your going. The book does a very good job if you know what you are doing and just would like to get” back to nature and do it simply”. There is no “fluff” or page filling in the “Make Your Garden Feed You” It says what it does on the tin. One thing that the book does not have: there is nothing or very little about crop storage or how to use you crop. However, unlike the people of 1940 we have the Internet and fridge/freezers, that they did not. I cannot recommend this book too highly, go grab yourself a copy and get growing!

How Long do Seeds Last

You have in your drawer since Candlemas Day,
All the seed packets you dare not throw away,
Seed Catalogue cometh as year it doth end,
However, looking ye drawer before money you spend.

Throw out ye parsnip, it is no good next year,
And Scorzonera if there is any there,
For these have a life that is gone with ye wind
Unlike all ye seeds of ye cabbagy kind

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Sprouts, Cabbage and Kale,
Live long like a farmer who knoweth good ale:
Three years for certain, maybe four, or five,
To sow in their seasons they stay in ye drawer.

Kohl-Rabi last with them and so does Pei-Tsai,
The winter ‘cos-lettuce’ to sow in July,
However, short is the life of ye turnips and Swedes
Sow thinly and often they will never be too strong.

Last years left lettuce sows three summers more,
And Beetroot and Spinach-beet easily four, But ordinary Spinach, both prickly and round,
Hath one summer left before gaps waste your ground.

Leeks sow three Aprils and one has gone,
In addition, this is as long as your carrot will last,
Onion seed keeps till four years have flown by,
However, sets are so easy and dodge onion-fly

Store Marrows and cucumbers, are best when they are old,
Full seven summers sowings a packet can hold.
Six hath ye celery that needs frost to taste,
So hath celeriac before it goes to waste.

Broad beans, French ones, runners, sown in May,
Each hath a sowing left before you throw them away,
In addition, short peas tall peas, fast ones and slow,
Parsley and Salsify have one more spring to sow,

Then fillen ye form that your seeds men has sent,
For novelties plenty, there is money to spend,
Good seed and good horses are worth the expense,
So, pay them your poundies as I paid my pence.

Lawrence D Hills,
1963

Rats and Compost

Rats:

There are many myths about rats. Just to set the record straight: There are no rats as big as cats or such things as super rates and rats do not bite the faces of sleeping children for the fun of it!

Rats are mans enemy: in the 1300s, rats wiped out nearly one third of the European population. However, in many ways it is not the fault of the rat but of humankind. . Rats are tempted by traces of food that is all and we leave food lying about in the form of litter and dirt in our streets, houses and anywhere else that we are. Dropping a crisp bag on the street or leaving rubbish outside will bring rats to you door and into your house.

Just to put the record straight: Rats are a very serious health risk and can carry the following diseases;
0. Weil’s disease
0. Salmonella
0. Tuberculosis
0. Cryptosporidiosis
0. Ecolab
0. Foot and mouth disease
0. Leptospirosis
0. Virus things
0. Parasitic things
0. Rats are a vector for plague.

We are all to blame for the rats that roam our streets and live in our houses. The only way to get rid of them is too go back to bases and up our basic hygiene. Do not leave litter around. Dispose of food waste in a proper manner and do not use it on the compost heap because you are shore to get rats.

I do not put food waste on my compost heap and yet last year 2010 I caught 58 grown rats on my plot. This year to date; I have caught four.

I do not use poison because it is a cruel way to kill any thing and you are never quite sure what you are killing.

I believe and use the good old fashion rattrap. Now many people cannot catch rats with a trap but the secret, if there is one, is to use peanut butter on the trap so that the rat has to lick it off and in so doing will set the trap off and kill it in one clean snap.

Make sure that birds cannot get at the trap. I put mine under things like a paving slap leaning on a wall or in a large piece of pipe.

The increase of the rat population is a very worrying thing and it is about time that we all did something about it!

Jerusalem Articokes

We are now well into March and today it is pouring down with rain. Last Sunday it snowed nearly all day. However, one thing is for sure about this time of year and that is that spring is coming.

Yesterday I managed to get down to my plot and plant my Jerusalem artichokes. I only put in 20 tubers and that gives me enough to make some wonderful soups to get through the winter.

I plant them in my raised bed a foot apart and two-foot in-between the row. Of course, I dig in a good supply of wonderful compost. Jerusalem artichokes are a bit of a growers dream really.
1. You can plant them in the same bed for five years
2. Grow you own seed. I just selected the lest knobbly ones that are about the size of a hens egg and pop them in the ground.
3. There are really no pest or disease to speak of
4. The plant can grow to a height of eight feet and so can make a wonderful wind break.
5. Once they have taken off, there is very little work. I find that a good weed after three weeks of planting is all they need and then they will smother any new weed growth.

Look to your soft fruit this week:

Has spring sprung?
Here in the UK the weather has certainly take a turn for the better in so far as the temperature has gone up but we have not seen the sun for nearly ten days. Just dull clouds

There is nothing moving on my allotment right now but that does not mean that I should not be moving.

If you have not done it yet; Cordon Gooseberries need to be pruned now. This is done by cutting back the side-growths to within two or three buds of their bases, and slightly shortening the leading shoots. On the other hand, bush Gooseberries are better dealt with by cutting out wood crowding the centres of the bushes and retaining promising young growth at full length.

Red and White currants are pruned by cutting back side-shoots to within two or three buds, and then reduce leading shoots so that they remain at one-half their present length. As Black currants on the young wood, the method of pruning is different, merely consisting of cutting out old branches and keep young wood at full length.

If you want to re-arrange the perennial border, no time should be lost now. When you divide the old plants and selecting portions of roots for replanting, do not forget that young outside portions of roots will bear better flowers than the old and exhausted centres. Always replant in well dug and manure land.

If you are going to grow potatoes you should place them in single layers in shallow boxes and put in a cool light, airy but frost proof place, so that they may grow sturdy sprouts in readiness for planting. Sprouted sets start into growth much quicker than supported tuber and they will yield a better croup.

If you have cover like a Polly tunnel or glasshouse now is a good time to get the seeds of the vegetables that you are going to grow going.