This video is about Planting Broad beans and the reasons I grow mine in moduals and why there best grown slowly.
The varieties I am growing are Aquadulce Claudia I also grow The Sutton and Crimson flowered Broad bean
http://learn-how-to-garden.com
In this second film on Christmas Presents for gardeners I focus exclusively on Sneeboer Tools. I make no apology for this as in my opinion they are the best tools currently available. I cover hand tools, hoes, and digging tools and some unusual weeders. Some of these you won’t have seen before as they were originally made for very specialist applications and its only with use that I have come to appreciate the great versatility of them.
I buy tools that I expect to do the job and last a long time and so many nowadays just seen to be made to the cheapest price point and ultimately are are bad investments
Mark Abbott-Compton
Ten Minute Gardener
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FOR GARDENERS
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
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
Without doubt the highest yielding vegetables you can grow in the garden and really invaluable for Winter use dried these Butter beans and Borlotti beans are growing in a tiny No-Dig bed in my mums small urban back garden and the soil preparation is now really paying dividends
The Butterbeans I am growing are FAGIOLO DI SPAGNA which are the only ones I have ever had much success with and the Borlotti are LAMON both from seeds of Italy