Gardeners Tips

Think before you allow poppies to proliferate.
Poppies rob a lot of goodness from your soil.

Poppies and Vegetables

• Poppies grown close to purple sprouting broccoli and other brassicas will inhibit the plants and reduce your potential crop.
• Poppies that are planted close together have the ability to kill off other plants.
• Odd self sown poppies may not have a dramatic effect but better safe than sorry.
• Beans and Peas that ‘fix’ nitrogen back into the soil may not appear to suffer such an effect but take care with green leaf crops.

Poppies as a Weed

• The large quantity of seed produced from a few plants can cause poppies to become weed like infestations.
• If I could convert the latex into a useful crop as they do in Afghanistan it may be another story
• Seed remains viable in your soil for many years. One years seeding = many years of weeding
• Long tap roots make some poppies hard to weed. If you break the root you may get two plants next time.

Uses of Poppies and Seeds

• Seed from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum can be crushed to form seed oil.
• Poppy seeds are used, whole or ground, as an ingredient in many foods such as bread and baked products.
• Different varieties of poppy seed are used as a spice, a condiment, a decorative garnish and a thickener in food.
• Seeds can be used in bird seed mixes
• Poppy is popular in many different international cuisines.
• The crop is grown for the production of opium, morphine, codeine and the alkaloid thebaine

Related try Growing Poppies from Seed

Potato blight, also called late blight, is a destructive fungal disease that is caused by spores of Phytophthora infestans. Potato blight spores are spread on the wind and may also contaminate potato tubers in the soil. It can ruin a crop in 10-14 days and there is little that can be done to save an infected crop. It was the original cause of the Irish Potato Famine.

How to Recognise Blight on Potatoes

• If you want to be a blight buster be aware that it is particularly prevalent during warm humid weather. It can be especially problematic in summer from June onward during wet weather.
• Dark brown blotches appear on the leaves, particularly towards the leaf tips and edges. White fungal spores develop around these lesions on the undersides of the leaves, and further lesions develop on the stems.
• Leaves and stems rapidly blacken and rot causing plant collapse.

Prevention of Potato Blight

• Always plant healthy disease free seed potatoes from a reputable supplier.
• Choose blight resistant potato varieties such as the Hungarian Sarpo range developed specifically for their superb resistance to late blight and other viruses.
• Blight resistant varieties allow the gardener to produce reliable disease free crops without the need for constant spraying.
• Always choose an open planting site with good airflow and leave sufficient space between plants. Better airflow will allow the foliage to dry quickly after rainfalls and therefore slows the spread of blight between plants.
• Crop rotation will help to prevent a build up of disease, and will avoid infected plants springing up undetected from potato tubers that were missed during last year’s harvest.
• Spray potato crops with a protective fungicide such as Dithane 945 before signs of blight become apparent.

Blight Resistant Potatoes

• Maincrop Potato varieties Kifli, Blue Danube, Shona, Verity and Cara a pinkish red-eyed tuber.
• First Early Potato varieties Orla and Lady Balfour
• Potato ‘Sarpo Mira’ – Huge yields of tasty, floury tubers. A real all-rounder for all cooking purposes.
• Potato ‘Sarpo Axona‘ – Sister line to the phenomenally popular Sarpo ‘Mira’. The tubers are more regular in shape and the flesh is slightly more creamy. Superb flavour for all culinary uses.
• Potato Valor an oval white skinned tuber with eelworm and blight resistance.

Cultivation for Blight Buster Potatoes

• If plants become infected they should be removed and destroyed not added to the compost heap.
• Where potato crops have already developed tubers then these can be saved by cutting away the foliage and stems. Leave the soil undisturbed for 2/3 weeks to kill off any lingering spores so that they don’t infect the crop when it is lifted.
• Given that old potato tubers can harbour blight spores over winter, it is important to destroy any unwanted or diseased tubers.
• Spores may also be washed into the ground by heavy rainfall to infect tubers growing there causing a red-brown rot directly beneath the skin which slowly spreads towards the centre of the tuber.
• The spores are released on the wind and quickly spread to infect neighbouring plants.

Credits
Potatoes by Buzz Hoffman CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The pomegranate is a native of Iran and Pakistan. The shrub or small tree bears bright red flowers and juicy, if seedy fruit.
Even if placed in the sunniest, warmest part of the garden they will suffer in the UK but with global warming who knows.

The pomegranate Punica granatum can range from a dwarf shrub of 3′ to a small tree of 20-30′.
Pomegranate are supposed to be a frost-hardy bush with glossy green leaves.
I will stick to hot climate grown pomegranates for the sweetness and freshness.

Pomegranate for Health

Some claim recent research points to Pomegranite juice combating many of the conditions of ageing, Alzheimer’s disease, various forms of cancer, heart disease, stroke and hypertension, arthritis, and in protecting the foetus from brain injury. If only a small part was true what a wonder.

More conservatively pomegranate is ‘Naturally rich in Vitamins A, C, E, and Iron, that is great for your heart, circulation and protecting cells against free radicals. Pomegranate is believed to help support the maintenance of the body’s natural free radical defences and is great for your heart and circulation.

It is believed to be one of the most potent antioxidants available, providing Polyphenols and Elligatannins which may help to support the body against cell damaging free radicals.’

Pomegranate is believed to help support the maintenance of the body’s natural free radical defences and is great for your heart and circulation.

Also sold in seed form as Anardana Seeds

Great Runner Beans need plenty of water retentative and nutrient rich soil. That is why preparation is important but here are some more tips to rescue this years crop.

Preparing Runner Bean Bed

• Help the soil to retain moisture by incorporating manure, well rotted compost and wet newspaper at the bottom of a deep 12″ trench in winter.
• Maintain humus rich soil around and above the trench with more compost.
• Rotate crops to a new patch every year on a three or four year cycle.
• Use a 2-3″ deep mulch that is open enough to take water down to the roots. Bark chippings may suit.

Plant Out Runner Beans

• Start off your beans in pots with a deep root run or in open ground.
• Do not feed with heavy nitrogen fertilisers or you will get leaf and less flower.
• Support each plant with a cane in a wigwam shape.

Growing On

• Flowers pollinate best if the air is humid so mist over during a dry spell. I use a ‘Sprayer’ with clean water. …

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Basil

• Scented basil is a key part of Italian cooking and a perfect companion to tomatoes. Eat your own basil in omelettes or as a pesto sauce.
• Growing from seed on a windowsil in a 3″ pot is easy peasy
• Pick leaves as needed, pinching out the top encourages growth

Parsley

• Curly parsley is best used as a garnish and with cold dishes.
• Flat leaved parsley is used with hot dishes according to Jamie Oliver.
• Grown from seed Parsley will last through winter as it is a short lived perennial

Coriander

• With a strong warming taste and very aromatic Coriander can be added in stir fries, couscous and other dishes just before serving.
• Grow from seed

Mint

• Mint is available in several flavours all with that refreshing minty taste to accompany new potatoes.
• Crushing the mint stems brings out extra flavour but chopped leaves are traditionally used in mint sauce with lamb.
• Mint can be grown from seed but I would buy a plant of your chosen mint type.
• Mint is long lived and can spread rapidly via stolens under ground.

Chives

• See them in flower above. Use the edible flowers to decorate a dish
• A mild onion flavour makes Chives useful in potato salad, cheese sauce and egg dishes.
• Sprinkle on cheese sandwiches or make a herb butter to serve with steak or chops.
• Grow from seed and cut leaves as needed.
• Chive plants will regrow each spring and flower in June.

Buying Herb Seeds

• Thompson Morgan have a good selection available on this link.
• Try the windowsill variety pack as a starter.
• Do not use all the seed at once but resow every few weeks to keep a steady supply of tasty aromatic plants.

Read about Winter herbs or Herbs for Drinks, Pillows and Baths

So potato farmers were on the news complaining about the lack of rain which is a bit rich after such a wet winter.
Planted seed has not broken the soils surface on some farms.
‘Potato crops will be ruined, prices must go up, spuds have had their chips.’
Short of spudding a new well it is up to the gardener to augment the normal efforts.

Lack of Water

• A Potato is 98% water, don’t believe you are eating lots of fiber and starch.
• Chitted potato seed is already beginning to dry out hence the wrinkles.
• Water is the main conveyor of food to any plant and Potatoes are very hungry plants.
• No water means no nutrients to help your potato grow.
• Leafy potatoes transpire lots of water through the leaves.
• The more leaf, the more breeze, the more sun the more the water is taken away from the potato plant. Thus the more care you need to take
• Dry plants will be droopy, prone to blight and poor croppers.

Watering Potatoes

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Why Yorkshire Rhubarb

The best Rhubarb is grown in the ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ in West Riding of Yorkshire. There are low brick buildings visible from the M1 around Wakefield that are used as the forcing sheds. Forced Rhubarb is kept in the dark so the stems are long thin pink and early to crop

It is September and my Rhubarb is now well over and is succumbing to snails and rotting. Having divided the crowns a couple of years ago I have several vigourous plants that provided vegetables for many early summer pies. Rhubarb is easy for beginners to grow.

To force the plants to produce thin, pink, early stalks, Rhubarb needs a bit of frost to break the dormancy followed by a dark covering. In November I am going to try digging up a large root and leave it on top of the soil for a week of frost. Then I will replant it with an old black dustbin on top to draw out some stems. You can buy forcing terracotta pots for the purpose that add an authentic look.

Rhubarb can be cropped from May through July but keep half the leaves to help the crowns build up for the following year. Divide every 5-7 years when they are over grown or stalks become too thin.

Yorkshire excels because the damp climate justifies the old sore ‘water rhubarb even when it is raining.’

My last post alluded to the green shoots of economic recovery, well all I can now say is Rhubarb Rhubarb. This is a clump of my Rhubarb waiting to joins other stalks in a crumble or pie.

Growing Rhubarb to Eat

• The stalks are the only part to be eaten, the leaves are full of poisonous Oxalic acid.
• Rhubarb is a vegetable but despite or because of its tart flavour it is mainly eaten with sugar as a sweet.
• Rhubarb like a bit of winter frost to encourage growth.
• Forcing Rhubarb by covering to make dark warm conditions will produce early, thin, tender stalks. Only force the plant in alternate years to avoid weakening the crown.
• Cropping between April to June when little else is available this is an undemanding and easy to cultivate plant
• The flowers are borne on hollow stalks and a a greyish white. I pull them out to conserve the plants strength.

Links and Credits

Rheums are not just Rhubarb link
Rhubarb Growing Tips
Forced Rhubarb growing in Yorkshire
Buy Rhubarb from Thompson & Morgan
Yorkshire Rhubarb Good Enough to Eat
Planting and growing Rhubarb