The importance of where your Greenhouse is in your garden depends very much on what you want to grow in it and here are my thoughts on growing and how you can place your greenhouse to maximise growth of early crops.

If you want to grow crops all year round then for most of us it involves either a greenhouse or polytunnel and of these a greenhouse is better at keeping warmth in so how would you maximise the available light as this is vitally important with shorter days and far less intensity of available light.

Orientation

It’s best to line up the ridge of the structure to run east-west as this faces the Winter Sun this will maximise light during the winter and it will also help it to heat up more quickly after cold nights. In fact if you orientate some of your vegetable beds this way it can make a marked difference and it was often used to obtain early crops in some walled gardens by Victorian and Edwardian gardeners.

One of the best examples of this is at the National Trust Trengwainton gardens were their walled garden houses some unique growing beds. After its initial construction in around 1820 (built to the dimensions of Noah’s arc incidently) the Walled Garden was divided by sloping beds, angled towards the winter sun which aided plant growth and drainage so the soil warmed up more quickly a technique we now use in raised beds. The beds were constructed using brick although there are no clay deposits in Cornwall and the raw materials had to be shipped from Somerset as they retain heat much better than stone.

If you only intend to grow summer crops, aligning the ridge north-south is preferable as it gives an equal amount of sun to each side and helps to reduce overheating on the hottest days but this would seem a waste of your greenhouse for quite a few months of the year when you could grow cold hardy varieties of many vegetables.

You may also be overshadowed on one side of you garden or perhaps have a high wall or hedge to a neighboring property in this case making an uneven span greenhouse were the maximum area of glass faces maximum light, these can look very attractive and work extremely well as growing spaces.

Sweet Potatoes

Growing sweet potatoes in a hot bed

November 16, 2017 Mark Abbott-Compton

I should start by explaining the term hot bed , this is a specialized growing bed were we try and keep the temperature above 16°C/60°F, this is vitally important as sweet potatoes dont grow below this and prefer 24°C/75°C to as high as 37°C/100°F for over 100 days so soil heat is the important criteria

That said if you can provide warm soil they are generally have few diseases or pests and are drought tolerant

Soil Requirements For Growing Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes do best in well-drained, sandy, and fertile soil with well rotted organic matter incorporated with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5 (slightly acidic) is most favorable. If you can get local ‘Green waste ‘ this normally has perfect PH

How To Build Hot/warm Beds

There are 2 ways that have worked well for me

a raised bed with wooden sides approximately 18inches deep, this was filled with fresh horse manure to the top, walked on to compress it down and the resulting 6inch gap at the top filled with a 50/50 mix of green waste and used grow bags.
The sweet potato slips are planted into this top layer at 18inch spacing
clear plastic top placed onto the the top of the bed this allows light in but traps the heat like a ‘warm’ cold frame or low mini greenhouse

Create a raised bed by double digging incorporating fresh manure into the bottom spit and well rotted compost into the top spit .Rake this level and cover with clear plastic,this is important as the clear plastic allows the sun to heat the bed to the maximum but can incourage weed growth so its best to do this early in the year and then lift the plastic and weed before planting.
Cut slits every 18 inches down the middle of your prepared rows.
Create a 12-inch diameter shallow depression at each slit.
Plant a slip in each slit. Plant the slip so that 2-4 leaves are still visible above ground.
For the first few weeks the slip will establish roots and it will appear that nothing is happening above ground.
Fill the depression around the plant with sand so that the slit is sealed. Rainfall will now be directed to the base of the plant

Curing Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes need to be cured for 1-2 weeks in order to taste their best. During curing, the starches within the tubor will gradually convert to sugar. Once harvested, washed, and dried, the tubers should be placed in a room with a temperature of 85-90°F/29-32°C

The curing process also help heal any nicks or injuries from harvesting, which will help the tubers store better.

Chillies, cilantro, Coriander, Tomatillos

Fresh tomatillo and chilli salsa

November 5, 2017 Mark Abbott-Compton

Cool Autumn days lend themselves to this wonderful fresh salsa with the ngredients picked straight from the cool greenhouse

This salsa verde is all about the tanginess of the tomatillos, and the flavours of the chilli and we’re making the roasted version here, which makes the flavors richer and deeper but you can make it without cooking

Ingredients

12 average sized tomatillos –
2hot or 4 medium chilli jalapeno or cherry bomb
2 large garlic cloves
Juice from 2 small limes
2-3 tablespoons chopped coriander
Salt to taste

Cooking Directions

Heat oven to hot
put some oil into palms and coat tomatillos peppers and garlic
Slice tomatillos across and peppers in half lengthwise and place onto a lightly oiled baking sheet. Add garlic cloves.
Bake about 20 minutes, or until the tomatillo and pepper skins char nicely. Remove from oven
Allow to cool and remove seeds from chillis then add to food proce
Squeeze garlic from their skins and add to food processor.
Add lime juice,coriander and salt. Pulse until fairly smooth.
Taste, adjust for salt
Cover and store a few hours for the flavors to develop, but you can serve it right away.

Uncategorized

Perennial Kales

Video November 5, 2017 Mark Abbott-Compton

When it comes to ease of growing in the vegetable garden one of the things we could all think about planting would be perenial kales .

Perenial Kale as the name suggests are short lived perennials and five years would be average before it starts to grow more slowly but as they are easy to take cuttings from there worth considering as more permanent plantings in our vegetable gardens and potagers

They used to be a lot more perennial kales and brassicas but Edwardian seed merchants selected them for biennial flowering so that they could sell more seeds

The two commonest perennial kales you are most likely to find are Taunton Deane and Daubentons

The smaller of these is Daubenton rarely growing more than 3 feet high with the spread of about the same so looks like a low growing bush , this habit also helps it to propagate itself as roots will form were side shoots come into contact with the soil .

It’s thought to have originated in France and incidentally was named after the great French naturalist Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton

It grew in his home town of Montbard in the Bourgogne region in eastern France and was described by him in his book, “Instruction pour les bergers et pour les proprietaires de troupeaux” (“Advice to shepherds and owners of flocks”

Daubenton is also the same naturalist for whom the Daubentons bat is named, this is the one you have probably seen feeding over a pond as they specalise in catching insects above water

Daubentons kales although smaller will grow for years and years and there are reports of some being decades old.

If you’re growing in a potager or mixed flower/vegetable border there is an even rarer but equally tasty varigated Daubentons kale with a delicate pale edge with can look very effective in a mixed planting, it is suppost to have a better taste than the normal one but I find them very similar

Taunton Deane is an altogether much larger perennial kale can easily grow to 2 m tall and 2 m wide so in mixed plantings needs placed at the back of the border.

It has a darker purply midrib and larger green/blue leaves which are quite architectural in the flower garden and is thought to have originated in the West countries were there are also local varieties like ‘Woburn’ kale (wiltshire) ‘Egloskerry’ kale (Cornwall)

Perenial kale is very hardy both these are extremely nutritious as I can accumulate lots of minerals from the soil because of there extensive root systems

interestingly both kales are said to be far less prone to attack from pests and diseases, but in my experience are still attacked by slug, caterpillars when young plants and Pigeons during the Winter

Taunton Dean needs to be replaced around every five years as after this time it slows down noticeably but it’s quite easy to take cuttings

This ability to produce endless replacements and long harvesting season could be one of the other names you see these plants referred to as cottagers kale as they were a staple of these productive vegetable gardens

Take cuttings any perennial kale simply pinch off one of the sideshoots roughly 4 to5 inches long which will have knobbly ridges these are incipient roots , trim off any stems leaving just the top two small leaves insert this into a pot of gritty compost and keep moist you should notice routing In about four weeks. They seem to take an root better if cuttings are taken from May through to October so it’s quite easy to replace your tiles once you have them in your garden.

Harvesting

Pick leaves from the plant once it is well-established and growing well,they will soon be replaced and can be harvested again.Harvest can often continue through the winter especially when the weather is mild as they will continue to grow

kales can lose quite a lot of its leaves in Autumn so stop harvesting for a while if regrowth seems slower than normal .The flavour of the leaves become sweeter and tenderer as the weather gets colder

Courgette, courgettes, Herbs, Mint

Courgette and Mint Linguine with Pecorino

September 3, 2017 Mark Abbott-Compton

The addition of mint to this dish brings a wonderful freshness to the courgettes and as it takes less than 15mins it a great quick dinner straight from the veg patch, I like to use Pecorino but a aged Manchego is another great sheeps cheese that works well you could use Parmesan if you have that handy

Quantities given are just guidelines as its a recipe which every family will adapt to suit there tastes add more/less garlic/oil/cheese/mint according to taste.

Ingredients
2 large courgettes
1-2 garlic cloves
100-200ml extra virgin olive oil
500g Linguine
100g pecorino or a good Manchego ,grated
Salt and black pepper
A good sprig of fresh mint, leaves torn into little bits

Wash and slice the courgettes into 2-3mm thick rounds. Peel the garlic. For a milder flavour, crush it with the back of a knife so it splits, but remains whole. For a stronger flavour, slice. Bring a large pan of water to the boil in preparation for the spaghetti.

Fry the garlic gently in the olive oil over a medium heat until fragrant, then use a slotted spoon to scoop it out – it will burn otherwise and turn bitter.

Working in batches, fry the courgette discs on both sides until they have become lightly blistered and golden, then use a slotted spoon to lift them on to kitchen towel to blot. Sprinkle lightly with salt and keep the remaining oil in the pan.

Once the water is boiling, add salt, then the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Either drain the spaghetti – keeping some cooking water – or use tongs to lift it directly into the frying pan and toss in the leftover courgette oil it will sizzle

Tip the glistening spaghetti into a warm dish or bowl

add half the cheese, a grind of black pepper and most of the ripped mint and toss.

Arrange the courgettes on top and finish with the rest of the cheese and mint. like lots of wonderfully tasty Italian food this is not the most elegant food but it is fantastically full of flavour

LEARN HOW TO GARDEN

Orientation of your Greenhouse