Tag Archives: grow your own vegetables

PERENNIAL VEGATABLES

Jerusalem artichokes -end of season care

One of my winter staples Jerusalem artichokes are so much better fresh out of the ground.Great as a temporary windbreak and with very few problems and because there perennial incredibly cost effective as they will last for years
I made a film showing you how to plant these great vegetables here I show you how to prepare Jerusalem artichokes for the Winter, its simple                                                   one small tip, you can incorporate the herb Winter Savory into your dishes when cooking it as the herb counteracts the affects this great vegetable has on some people

How to grow Jerusalem artichokes

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Bale bed, no-dig gardening

NO DIG STRAW BALE BED UPDATE

One of the quickest ways to make a No-Dig bed and this update shows just how productive it can be with very little input,in fact this bed was left very much to its own devices and wasnt treated like a film set more like an Allotment of a busy gardener.

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Monthly things to do

THINGS TO DO AND WHAT TO SOW IN OCTOBER

October is really a great time to forage for wild damsons,sloes,elderberry and Blackberry’s to name a few all great for making a variety of fruit Vodkas and Gins which will be ready in time for Christmas.Its also the time for harvesting apples and a great way to use bruised apples which wont store is to make cider vinegar its really easy and far superior to shop bought.

Still lots to sow and plant really important to get garlic planted as it needs the cold to split the bulbs,and if you don’t like garlic try elephant garlic much milder,you can still sow salads and lettuce Meraviglia inferno will cope with the coldest weather as will ‘Lunga delle Cascine’ broad beans

 

 

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Fruit growing, How to grow soft fruit

RASPBERRIES – HOW TO TRAIN AND PRUNE

Raspberries are easy to look after if you follow some simple rules for pruning them to make sure you get maximum crop which also helps to reduce there chance of disease as there not as congested.Your Raspberries will be either Summer fruiting called floricane types or Autumn Fruiting called primocane and as i grow then next to each other its easy to see the difference.These Raspberry were all planted earlier in the year and its important to get your stock plants from a reputable nursery
After you have pruned you raspberries its best to either burn or dispose of the trimming but dont add them to your compost heap as you may spread disease spores

I have been as asked which secateurs I use  Okatsune Secateurs
from Niwaki who have a fantastic range of superb pruning tools

The Nursery I use for my fruit is Blackmore fruit

 

 

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Potatoes

CROPPING MAIN CROP POTATOES EXPERIMENT

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I wanted to share with you a film on an experiement I conducted this year to see just how little effort you could put into a potato crop and still get a viable return.  These potatoes were sown directly onto some well rotted manure which had been placed on top of three layers of cardboard on totally uncultivated ground.  They were then covered with 3inches of well rotted manure and left to their own devices.  At its simplest this could be considered a no dig method and whilst I would not recommend this if you have a small space it has cultivated the ground quite deeply and has produced a much more than acceptable crop of the three varieties I choose for this experiment.

 

The 3 variety i used for the experiment were

Pink Fir Apple – very knobbly so can be a pain to clean but very nice taste eaten hot or cold

Vitelotte –  also called Vitelotte noire, Négresse or Truffe de Chine, is a gourmet French variety of blue-violet potato.Great taste doesn’t crop as heavy as some modern variety’s having been bread around 1860 but I always make room for some as its my personal favorite

Harlequin – This was my first time growing Harlequin as I like to try at least one new  variety each season.The crop was fantastic ,double Pink Fir Apple which was one of its parents and I think the taste both hot and cold is equal to it.

Not included in this experiment but which I also grow and would recomend are BF15 – High-yielding first early salad potato, as delicious as its name is unromantic, which I also grow in bags for Christmas and Mayan Gold another with great taste.

Remember if you are storing your potatoes they need to be in Paper or hessian sacks with the light exclude or they will turn green and not be fit for eating

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