Where did the summer go.

Welcome to October. Summer is closing down gradually for us all up here in the northern hemisphere. The autumnal weather starts to settle in once again and, like it or not, the whisperings of Christmas and the holiday season start to creep into our lives. This time of year is about wondering where the summer went.

Test of a good gardener.

I always try to grow  vegetables in the winter. This is the test of a good gardener.  Having food from the garden in the darkest time of the year.

Having an abundance of vegetables either stored or straight out of the ground, this includes the ‘hungrey gap’ from april till june.

Not much grows in winter, but a well-organised plan may nonetheless  fill up your plot. You need to plan carefully, and well ahead (as early as spring) for sowing and planting at specific times through the year. Read this blog to learn the secrets, which will be explained thoughout the coming winter 

Frist frost last night here in Oxford.

Winter veg.

winter is coming.  The weather here in the UK has got colder and we are having the first full day of rain since early March.

It has been very warm and dry down on the allotment and a lot of work has gone into making my veg grow.

However, I am full up on both my allotments with: Kale, cabbage, leeks, chard and spinnage growing nicely in the ground.

My deep freeze is full of soft fruits and I have 48 Kilner jars of strewed apple…..So I reckon that I am all set till late May.

How do you grow winter veg. I hear you cry….it is all a question of timing of seed sowing through out the year.

Leek Pest

 At last the 10th September  has come and gone. This is the date when the moths stop laying/caterpillars stop eating and they pupate for winter.
 I only hope that the caterpillars know this 

How to grow broad beans

The first to appear 

Broad beans are the first to appear in your garden, for in milder parts of the world they can be sown in the Fall.

They are a particularly delicious vegetable when garden fresh. Just cook until tender and serve with butter for a true " taste surprises"

When the bean is no more the three inches long it has very tender pods and can be eaten whole. Older beans will need to be shelled

For most people Broad Beans are a “no goer”. In other words, they will not touch them in any shape or form. I have researched the reason for this by asking as many people as I can why they do not like Broad Beans. 99% of the time the answer comes back: “ I had them at school and hated them”

School beans are not good for many reasons; they are not fresh, they are grossly over cooked and they are covered with some foul smelling sauce. In my case the sauce used, was white and full of bits of green; upon reflection, it must have been some sort of parsley sauce. What ever it was, it put me off broad beans for at least 50 years.

My interest in Broad Beans was rekindled when I got an allotment and saw that the vast majority of my neighbours grew them with great success. I am always one to grow what every body else is growing, practically if they are doing it successfully. It means to me that the soil good for that plant and that the crop suits the local climate.

One of the attractions of growing Bread Beans, to my mind was that you can sow them in late fall and mid winter. I do like winter crops because I think that it is the test of a true gardener as to how many crops you have on offer in the winter. Broads Beans fell right into that category.

So off I set and brought some broad beans in November prepared my land and sowed them with great excitement. True to form, some ten days later on a bright November day, I have the first showing of green shots. What joy, what a disaster for the temperature dropped right down to -17c and stayed well below -10c for the next ten weeks. The broad beans were wiped out.

Since that time I have never again grown winter broad beans. However, what I have done is grown Broad Beans as early as I can in late winter( end of January) and then every two weeks till the end of July and it works a treat. You know what? I love them. They are fresh and I steam them for about a minuet; much better then the school ones.

Almost any soil will do and the only preparation necessary will be forking in composted vegetable refuse. In addition, fish manure should be added at 3 ounces to the square yard. If you do not have enough compost, you could use sedge peat instead.

When I sow, I space the rows 2 feet 6 inches apart with the bean black eye up, 3 inches deep and about 6 inches between each bean. I find that the best way to keep the black fly down is to hoe regularly. I also pinch out the tops when the bottom beans are forming. Doing this encourages early production. I pick regularly, when the pods are about 4 inches long. They are then delicious.

How to Dry Your Herbs.

How to Dry Your Herbs.

One of the best things about growing herbs is that you can grow and dry your herbs for later use. This is quite an easy thing to do, but like every thing else; it must be done right to have a product that can be used.

You should cut your leaf herbs, wash and tie in loose bunches and allow them to drip dry. Once all the moisture has been dried off put the herbs in a large brown paper bag. Make sure that you put a label on it and that the herbs are not touching the sides of the brown paper bag..Tie the mouth of the bag about the stems so that the herbs are hanging free within the bag.

Next, hang the bag with the herbs in it where it will have good air circulation. Drying your herbs this way ensures that none of the oils get absorbed by contact with the paper, as they would if you dried them in a cardboard box.

How to control insects that attack your plants with herbs:

How to control insects that attack your plants with herbs:

It is well know to growers that legumes that are planted in a rotation with wheat and other grain crops will protect those crops from corn root worm.

Goats that suffer from worms can be helped by feeding them carrots and worms in horses can be controlled by feeding them mulberry leaves; however it is to herbs that we can look to give us the greatest protection for our crops:

I do not like list as such because they can take up too much space on the lens however I will list a few of the useful one here:

Use Basil to protect against flies and mosquitoes.

Use Borage to protect your tomato plants against tomato worm.

Use Garlic to protect against Japanese beetle, aphis,weevils,sider mites and many more. In fact if you plant garlic all over your garden you will be amazed how pest free your crops will be.

The herb marigold ( yes it a herb ) is great to protecter against many pest. I grow them in pots and move them about my garden all summer long. Its the smell of them, I think that keeps bugs away.

Peppermint in pots and placed among your cabbage will keep the dreaded white cabbage butterflies away. Once again I grow them in pots and move them about. Indeed, last summer I sat on my plot and watched the white butterflies hoover over my cabbage plants and then fly off to my neighbors plot. The could not stand the smell.