All posts by Mark Abbott-Compton

Asparagus, PERENNIAL VEGATABLES

Asparagus Autumn Update

2 Comments

At the end of the growing season we need to tidy the perennial  bed in the 10min garden and make sure its ready to produce the best crop for next season,this means removing all the old yellowing foliage from both the Asparagus and Seakale which share this bed.

Remember that you are always best hand weeding these beds as the roots are very shallow and hoeing then can dramatically reduce the vigor of your Asparagus.In the spring I will feed the bed with about 3oz per yard of Fish,Blood and bone to get it of to a flying start

Facebooktwittertumblrmail
Chillies

CHILLIGROW UPDATE SEPT 13

This chilligrow from Greenhouse sensation has been incredibly easy to use and it has grown one of the hottest Chillies  Habanero: 7 Pot Yellow as well as my all time favorite chilli for taste/heat balance Ring of Fire  and this growing system would pay for itself  in its first season and i thoroughly recommend it for growing in a small greenhouse

Facebooktwittertumblrmail
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

 

 

Facebooktwittertumblrmail
Potatoes

CROPPING MAIN CROP POTATOES EXPERIMENT

4 Comments

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

Facebooktwittertumblrmail