Potatoes

Talked about them very briefly before, I am almost ready to harvest this years potatoe crop. Growing potatoes (or spuds) is one of the easist vegtables to grow but like everything you need to ensure you give them some TLC to get the best from them. Where you grow them depends on what space you have. If you have some room spare in yoru garden a small plot might be best. If you have a small graden will minium space then pots will work. Depth is very important when growing spuds, in the ground and whats your soil like, heavy clay and even spuds which are great soil breakers will not be able to penetrate. If pots then can you ensure the pot will be deep enough (1/2 foot deep at min).

As root crops, spuds need depth, too shallow and the spuds won't develop enough and the resulting stems will snap. The best method I have found and a great space saver is to use a purpose made spud grower. These cost around £25.00 and are made from plastic, they are narrow enough to allow you grow them in the smallest of gardens and deep enough to let you achieve a very deep root (4 foot or so). They are also great in that they allow you to build up the soil level in the container as the spuds grow.

Growing spuds is done from seed potatoes, these are potatoes selected as the best of the crop to let you develop the next crop. It's possible to grow spuds from the supermarket spuds but you can't ensure what the crop will turn out like, seed potatoes will at least start your crop off strong. The seed potatoes must be left to 'chit', if you have ever gone on holiday and forgot about the bag of spuds you keep only to return and find them sprouting shoots then you will have seen 'chiting' potatoes. When we grow them you can do this by placing the seed potatoes in egg cartons and leaving them on sunny window sill (not direct light). When the shoots appear you can plant them on.

Plant them deep, 3/4 foot is about right. Make sure the area is weed free and plenty of manure has been dug in. If using a planter then set them on a bed of compost. As the spuds grow 'earth them up', this means keep the developing shoots just above the soil level at all times, if the shoots develop beyond the soil level too much then light can get to the developing tubers and turn them green (not good). When you reach soil level or the top of the planter then let the stems and leaves develop. When fully developed you will see a tall leggy plant with big green leaves.

When you harvest your crop is a cause of confusion if you have never grown them before. In general, let the spuds flower from this point on you can harvest. Its said the longer you leave them in the ground the better the taste. After flowering the stems will start to yellow and die, don'y be alarmed this is natural but I would earth up all spuds at this stage to avoid any attack by a garden nasty and any possible virus or diease starting.

Finally some words on spud types, spuds come in three types, earlies, mids and lates. These refer to when in the year you can plant them and when you harvest them. You can for example get spuds through the year by planting and growing different types, eariles in later winter for spuds in later spring, early summer, mids in mid spring for spuds in later summer and lates in later summer/early autum for spuds in mid to late winter (timed right you will get them for christmas). Refer to your seed potatoe supplier, packing or surf your chosen seed potatoe type.

I am growing king edward (mid sorts) and these are getting ready to flower, by early/mid July these will flower and will begin to die down late july and into august. Looking forward to bbq baked spuds :)

June is a busy month for all

June means plenty of Sun and plenty of rain in the UK, sometimes its lots of one and not a lot of the other. This year has seen record levels of sun for the UK with hot conditions meaning daily watering has been required. This all means that your garden is growing flat out and your faced with a weekly tidy up. By staying ontop of your garden duties your ensuring that your working with the plants as they grow, giving them the right conditions to let you enjoy them at there best.

Some of the jobs I have been faced with has been

Cutting goosberries back 5 to leaves per lateral, at 2 years old this bush is now of the right age for this condition of cut.
Changing the straw on my strawberry bed, now a weekly task to ensure the straw stays fresh and clean (which in turn keeps the strawberries clean).
Picking out my first crop of goosberries (which were used in a great crumble :) and strawberries as they appear. Be sure to keep your eye on strawberries as they ripen, once ripe they become a prime target for birds and slugs so if your not quick enough the garden nasties will beat you to it.
Runners on strawberries will also start growing now so be sure to pot up any runners. I have used a small pot dug into the soil with a garden wire loop to peg it in. Later in the year these will root and can be grown on, a subject for a future post.
The nettle liquid feed is now ready and the remains I fished out into the compost. The resulting liquid smells to high heaven and on a hot day is really bad. Watered down this feed is a great general purpose feed that all my plants have been enjoying.
The tomatoes are now flowering and will begin to fruit next month, remember to remove any side shoots.
Securing the raspberries to there supports and making sure all my fruit bushes have had a potash feed. The raspberries are growing strongly on one cane and weak on the others, I suspect this is just a strong cane and the others are taking more time. By ensuring they are well conditioned I am hopefully going to build there strength.
Daily watering
Weekly weeding, feeding and lawn cutting.
A few jobs coming up include cutting out the tops of my sage and mint plants, these are quite strong plants that will dominate an area, potted with flowers they make a great display but need keeping in check and you will get more from them. The subject of growing herbs and my favoured method of potting them with flowers I will cover in a later post.
Next month may see more goosberries and strawberries, blackberries, brambleberries, and potatoes. I will also hopefully see my lillies flower, they are almost ready to flower and I am looking foward to it.

Growing this month

Growing this month

potatoes neally in flower (2/3 more weeks and they will flower, when this happens I will earth them up).

Gooseberries, some are ready to be picked some are close. You can pick the ripe ones off now but I prefer to wait, let them keep getting riper and pick all at once. You normally need nets to keep birds off but my pet cat charges around the garden so often they don't visit much.

Blackberries, starting to turn. A good month before they will be ready.

Strawberries, growing well. Again a good month before they will be ready.

Garlic, growing quickly in the humid, warm weather at the moment.

Strawberries

Gardening mags are full of articles on growing strawberries at the moment so I won't over repeat anything. Most Garden centres will stock Strawberries at this time of year, how you grow them is up to you, I grow them in the ground and in pots mixed with flowers and herbs. When you plant them mix up some bone/blood feed and water in well, the trick witj strawberries is to keep watering them and to keep them off the ground (to prevent pests and rotting). Easy in pots, on the ground use either permable plastic or if you have it on hand straw (if like me you have a Rabbit then this may be on hand anyway). If you have a lot of damp weather remember to replace the straw as damp straw is just as bad as the ground its self.

Most strawberries are runner plants, that is they grow runner from the main plant that will grow onto a new plant. Peg these runners to the ground they are more likely to grow. If you place the runner into a pot these will be easier to replant. The more runners that you grow the more strawberries you will get, its possible to increase your stock of strawberries in this fashion.

Strawberries enjoy a feed and potash is best for them, dig into the soil around the plant and water in well. I repeat this twice a month over the growing season and if there has been a lot of rain over a week then also give a liquid feed.

High summer, no blogging, more gardening

High summer means more time outdoors and in the UK its a busy time. Everything is now in full season and requires watering in dry peroids and regular dead heading. Keep an eye out for weeds as these will be in full growth, sunny days are best as you can unearth them and let them wilt in the sun. If you have a week or so of rain followed by sun then remember to give your plants a booster feed, the rain will wash a lot of the good stuff away so give your plants a top up. The liquid nettle feed will do just great.

Nettles, gardeners friend

Nettles are by some frowned upon by some gardners. If you have a wild patch in your garden chances are it will quickly be uprooted and put to use. Sadly this patch can serve so many purposes in your garden thats its worth considering leaving it alone. A wild patch can serve as a natural habitat for garden friendly wildlife like bees, hedge hogs and lady birds. The wild plants that grow there can also be of a huge help to your garden which brings me to my topic.

Nettles are one of the most useful plants in the garden. Young nettles can be used as a natural accelerator in your compost and they can be used to rot in water as a liquid feed, see Alans notes on the subject for more of what I mean.

So if you have a wild patch in your garden, leave it be and let it help you.