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Category: Fruit, Vegetables & Herbs

Tips on growing good Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs

Know Your Onions

Know Your Onions

The necks of my Onions have just ‘gone over’ a bit earlier than usual but that could be down to the heavy rain we have had during July. Harvesting is a simple affair as I have pulled the Onions away from the soil to break the roots and left them in the sunshine to dry off. Shortly I will tie them to a string (like the old french onion sellers on the bicycles with hooped Breton shirts and berets) and string them from the garage roof to store (the onions not the French).

In ground that had early peas I am going to sow some August Onions such as Ailsa Criag the mild flavoured favourite or Reliance (I may transplant these seedlings or just thin them this year). Since I did well with over wintering Japanese Onion varieties I will also try find some sets of Express Yellow or Kaizuka or sow them where they will crop. Lastly in September I will plant a row of spring onions.

Shallots can wait until early spring around March time as can the smaller ‘Paris Silver Skin’ pickling onions. In spring I will again plant some main crop sets of both red and white onions as they have all earned there place in the veg garden by cropping well this year.

Tips

  • Onions like firm well prepared soil in the sun. Give the ground chance to settle.
  • For Autumn sowings rake in 3 oz per square yard of general fertilizer before sowing.
  • For spring planting rake in 4oz bonemeal & 2 oz of Sulphate of Potash per square yard in February.
  • Pickling onions do best in light unmanured soil.
Fruit from Cherry Trees

Fruit from Cherry Trees

Sweet Cherry are not often grown in UK fruit gardens. To get a good crop of cherries you need several varieties for pollination, it takes 10 years to get a good crop (then birds eat them) and the trees take up a great deal of space.  I will get lots of comments to the contrary now.

Going  Ahead with Cherries

  • Fan train your cherries against a wall and pinch out the growing shoots in June and again in September.
  • Add lots of Lime and Potash to feed your Cherry
  • Plant Standards 25 feet apart.
  • Opt for a self fertile Morello Cherry or Acid Cherry like Kentish Red or Flemish Red
  • For early Cherries in June try Early Rivers, Frogmore fruits  in July and Emperor Francis in late August.
  • For the above varieties check on the pollination requirements when you buy
  • Be content to grow Cherries for the blossom that can last 3 weeks in spring.
  • Smaller ‘Colt’ rootstock now allow trees to be controlled to 12 feet high.

I was lucky to be walking through this orchard earlier this month in Prague.

RHS

BBC Gardening Plant Finder

Make it a Good Year

Make it a Good Year

lemon-honeysuckle

Some years are better than others for certain plants and crops. This year seems to be an excellent year for Honeysuckle and wherever I go I see and smell the wonderful blossom. Do not assume the same plants will perform the same next year. Apple trees some times crop every other year as though they have expended more energy than they intended (see below).

Unfortunately every year seems to be a good year for weeds and Dandilion Bitter Cress and Water Avens seems to love my garden. That could be down to my husbandry so I have looked at some tips that might help for next year.

A Good Year 2010

  • Work done this year will help create a great year in 2010.
  • Buds and framework stems on fruit trees and shrubs are growing and developing ‘as we speak’ . Treated well most plants will contribute to making next year a success. …

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Vegetables for a Drought

Vegetables for a Drought

Book Cover

When you plan your crops you have no idea what the weather will be in summer when your vegetables need water the most. Herbs, plants from the Mediterranean and grey leaved plants tend to withstand drought conditions better than most. Some vegetables once established can be more tolerant than others and if you expect low rainfall this summer give them a try.

Drought Tolerant Vegetables

  • Leeks need to be ‘puddled in’ when planting in a hole but from then on  they will send down strong roots in search of moisture. Earthing up for blanching by drawing soil around stems helps preserve some moisture.
  • Root vegetables like Parsnip and Carrot can survive dry conditions as long as they get well established
  • Onions  will tolerate low rainfall but I find it encourages sets to run to seed. …

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Purple Cabbage

Purple Cabbage

This ornamental cabbage is grown for winter colour. For a Red Cabbage with heart try Kalibos, Red Drumhead or Red Jewel varieties grown from seed.

Cabbage Tips

  • Red cabbage usually stands well in the ground from summer to early winter.
  • Solid hearts with fewer wasted leaves are also normal with Red cabbage.
  • Pickled or ‘shredded raw’ are two favourite ways of eating these Red cabbages.
  • If you grow 2 rows in your veg garden is it a dual cabbageway?

cabbage

Plum Picks are Victoria and Czar

Plum Picks are Victoria and Czar

My Victoria plums have just been picked and the majority converted into jam. The wasps had not got at the sweetest fruit so I had a treat for dessert. The tree is now 10 foot tall and I will prune it back next May or June when the danger of fungal infection is reduced.

Last years Victoria plum crop was so good I decided to try another variety and a Czar tree was planted last Autumn. Czar is a culinary plum with a distinctive blue skin and a sharper taste. This year there was no fruit but next year I hope to do better. Both varieties are self fertile but if you have difficulty there is a great web site for pollination information.

Tips for Tomatoes in September

Tips for Tomatoes in September

I am picking more and more Cherry Tomatoes as the days get longer. I still have a lot of other vines in the greenhouse with fruit to pick and if they won’t ripen I will try some of these tips. Let me know if you have other methods.

Encourage late ripening

  • If you haven’t taken the greenhouse shading off, do so and clean all the glass.
  • Bunny Guinness suggests you cover plants with horticultural fleece or perforated plastic.
  • Stop pinching out as it is too late and excess water can be transpired through the new leaves to help avoid splitting.
  • Reduce the plants work load by selecting the fruit you want to ripen and take the rest off.
  • If you pick green tomatoes hang vines in a dark dry place to ripen.
  • Wrap a tomato in newspaper and put in a drawer  or cardboard box. Tomatoes ripen best in the dark and sunlight will make the skins get tough.
  • Put a banana in with green tomatoes will speed up the ripening/decay process
  • Pick green tomatoes as they start to change colour. Hard, dark green tomatoes get to a point where they won’t ripen and are only good for Chutney.