My Tiny Plot

After a wonky start due to some cheeky little mice my Peas are doing very well. I have virtually a whole row of them that are about an inch and half tall. That’s means only one thing, it’s time to deploy the Peasticks that I half-inched borrowed from a local estate.

My Peasticks lead a solitary life. Housed for most of the year in my potting shed, they are suddenly called up for duty in mid Spring and dispatched accordingly.

I don’t just use them for Peas you know – oh no. They have a plethora of uses, from holding up floppy Cornflowers, to doubling as Mangetout holders, and they have even been known to come to the rescue of a Sunflower or two. Yes, they’re very useful and in my opinion you can never have too many of them.

There will always be casualties. Like today for instance. I thrust one of them into the soil only to find I’d hit a stone and the whole thing broke in half – unfixable, it was.

This is not the only way to support Peas but I do love the rustic look that they give. And they’re pretty darn good at their job too.

What have you got planned for supporting your Peas? Any novel ideas?

Here is my Masterplan for 2010. I didn’t do one in 2009 so I thought I’d better do one this year.

There are a few things to note. Firstly, my tiny plot is roughly 13.5 metres long by 8 metres wide. Just to give you an idea of scale. I don’t really do crop rotation in the ‘correct’ sense. I try to keep the Brassicas in the same group each year and I also try to put the Carrots, Parsnips, Onions and Shallots together. But other than that I can’t really ‘do’ rotation because not all of my four beds have the luxury of full sun.

If My Tiny Plot was in the openess of a lovely allotment then I probably could but we’re positively hemmed in here. I have an 8-foot wall on the left side and a hedge of a similar height on the other. All of this produces a predictably sunny side and a depressingly shaded area.

Of course I ‘could’ try to rotate everything but when the Tomatoes and Sweetcorn ended up on the shady side then we wouldn’t be eatin’ no Sweetcorn that year, if you catch my drift. So with the delicate sun lovers (Toms, Sweetcorn, Melon, Squash etc) I rotate them between the two beds on the left.

My south-facing wall on the left is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It’s the only reason I’m able to grow Peaches and Grapes. My coldframe is a new addition this year (it was finished as the end of the season last year) so I’m really only getting to make full use of it now. I’ll be using it to bring up seedlings until my Melon plant gets too big and out grows everything else.

I absolutely love Lettuce and I always grow too much. I like to make huge salads full of great mixtures of interesting leaves and I also like to give it away to my friends. So the two measly patches of Lettuce that I’ve indicated on the plan are clearly a lie. What will actually happen is that I will grow more than that but I will shove it in wherever there is space. I’ll have Lettuce seedlings growing in the coldframe and when I harvest one from the main plot, or create space somewhere else I will plant a new Lettuce plant.

The other thing to point out is that all the flowers in the garden are for cutting. They don’t hang around very long and so I like to go for varieties that will self renew, like Cornflower and Calendula and Sweetpeas (they will be in with the Runner Beans). But I also have Tulips and Echinacea that will come up every year too.

As you’ll notice I’ve put far too much effort into what really only needs to be a scribbled plan. What can I say – I’m in love with my garden, and when you love someone…

Click here for a super-duper, okay slightly bigger, version.

I’ve cleared out my seed box, cleaned it out and put everything back sorted into which month they need to be sown in. It feels good to be this organised at the beginning of the seed sowing season.

It’s pretty difficult to put seeds into the months they are sown in because most seeds have a period of a few months where they ‘can’ be sown. If you sow them at the beginning of that period then you’ll get an early crop, if you sow them at the end then you’ll get a late crop. What I decided to do is to put the seeds in the month that they can be sown in first. Then if I want to sow them successionally I will move them to the month after once I have sown them.

This works fine for most things except seeds that need to be sown more often than every month – example Lettuce, Radish and other quick maturing crops. These I put into a separate compartment for seeds that are sown virtually all summer at fortnightly intervals. And I just dip in and out of that one.

It would be brilliant if growing vegetables were more simple than this, but unfortunately it’s not. What to sow when was the one thing that I struggled with for probably the first two or three years of growing. And still the only way I can feel truly in control is to constantly check sowing times and reorganise my seeds yet again!

It’s time to start thinking about buying some seed. I spend weeks researching which vegetables and which varieties I will grow. Most of my decisions are made based on what I’m into eating at the moment. But I always leave room to try out new vegetables that I’ve never grown before.

Because my tiny plot is, well, so tiny. There are tons of fruit and vegetables that I’ve never grown before. Some because I just don’t like to eat them – Celery, Celeriac, Chicory – not really sure why they all begin with C…hmmm.

And some because I’ve not had the right equipment or the space. So with that in mind I’m homing in on some new veg that I’d like to have a go at.

• Seakale (Angers) – ever since I saw it featured on The Victorian Kitchen I’ve always been fascinated by what it would actually taste like.
• Melon (Sivan) – because now I have a huge coldframe I finally have the space to grow one!
• Borlotti Bean (Supremo) – I’ve never grown beans for drying and the red pods will look so good in my garden.
• Tayberry (Buckingham Thornless) – When I saw a Tayberry trained into a fan at Heligan a couple of years ago I’ve always wanted one. Now I just need to find a bit of wall to train it on.

That’s it for now. I’m sure I will think of more before the seed order goes in. I always do.

So I’m all like…

In my opinion there’s nothing better than snuggling up with a seed catalogue when it’s snowing outside! Okay there is one thing better, snuggling up with a seed catalogue and a glass of wine. But it’s only 2pm after all! What’s your favourite thing to do when the ground is too frozen to dig? And… what’s your favourite seed catalogue? Mine is Marshalls – they do do a nice layout.

Yep it’s that time of year again – time to get your Garlic in. Personally, I love the fact that Garlic goes in the ground this early. It’s a great way to get you focusing on next year’s season even while this one hasn’t quite finished.

Sowing Garlic now means that you have to really think about what vegetables are going to go where in next year’s garden. You have to make room and be confident that that little patch of land can stay undisturbed until late Spring next year (when you harvest your Garlic) – it’s a big commitment! Of course if you’re undecided and need the extra thinking time you could always sow it in pots.

This year I’ve decided to try my hand at Elephant Garlic. I’ve seen the cloves on sale many times but never bought any. So when I saw some at the Malvern Show last week I took the plunge. They really are big! Hence you have to give them more room than normal Garlic. Plant them 4 inches deep and 6 inches apart (2 inches deep and 4 inches apart for normal Garlic).

Elephant Garlic is technically a wild Leek which may account for its milder flavour. As with all Garlic its best planted in Autumn as it prefers a stretch of cold weather. And ideally the ph of your soil will be around the 6 mark. Garlic doesn’t like acidic soils. But for me the best thing about Garlic is that the slugs won’t touch it! Of course there is a possibility that the evil white rot might appear again but I’m taking my chances.

I took this photo today. The Cabbages on the left are coming up for ready for harvest. The ones on the right were planted a little later.

This photo I took when the Cabbage seedlings were being planted back at the beginning of April. You can just about see the Peas pushing through the soil on the left hand side too. What a difference.

Better late than never. I finally managed to get some manure dug into the garden this weekend. Ah – that’s better.

I just love the smell of well-rotted manure. It smells so sweet and earthy. The whole garden has been taken over by manure smells, it’s great!

I’m asked on a regular basis what to grow in the shady part of a vegetable plot so I thought it was about time I wrote a post on the topic. So here goes.

Firstly, you’re not alone in wondering what the heck to grow in the shady bit of the garden. Most of the vegetable books talk about giving plants an ‘open site’ ‘in full sun’. Which is totally possible on an allotment but is virtually impossible in your own garden at home. There are usually walls, fences, trees, and buildings to contend with making it inevitable that there will always be a ‘shady bit’

Mtp has a shady bit – or if you’re going to get technical, a ‘north facing wall’. It runs down the right hand side. In the morning it’s in full shade, but in the afternoon the sun has moved around and it gets at least a couple of hours of sunshine before the sun drops behind the house.

This is the type of shady bit that is totally usable in a vegetable garden. The type of area that isn’t usable is an area in full shade. There are very few vegetables that will grow in full shade. If you have an area which is in full shade, your best bet is to plant some shade-loving shrubs or flowers – sorry, I know that’s not much fun but it’s the truth.

Now for the cream – what ‘can’ you grow in partial shade? The answer is, tons of stuff. Yey!

Here’s a list of the vegetables that will tolerate shade

• Leeks
• Kale
• Calvo Nero
• Radicchio
• Chard
• Spinach Beet
• Cress
• Radish
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Bay
• Lettuce (winter varieties)
• Mustard Greens
• Asparagus (although fewer spears will be produced)

And here’s a list of fruit:

• Alpine Strawberries
• Autumn Raspberries
• Plums (Czar etc)
• Pear (Conference, Emile D’Heyst etc)
• Morello Cherry
• Gooseberries
• Redcurrants
• Rhubarb
• Elderflower
• And Quince (apparently, although I have no experience of this)

You could also think about using your shady space to grow plants to use as Christmas decoration. I grow Yew, Holly and Ivy for that very reason. And of course there are countless flowers you could grow in the shade too. I’m no flower expert but I manage to grow Foxglove and Echinacea without too much drama.

There are also crafty ways that you can get around the shade problem. For example you could sow and grow Runner Beans in the sunny part of your garden, then plant them in the shady part once they have grown big enough to cling to a frame. I tried it last year and it worked a treat. The top half of the Runner Bean teepee is in the sun for long enough during each day to produce lots of nice long pods come summertime.

So there you have it; what to grow on the north-facing side of your garden. Most of these vegetables will, of course, produce more robust plants if grown in full sun. However, if your space is limited and you simply ‘have’ to make use of that shady spot then these are the vegetables to do it with. Good luck.

Yey! After a long, long wait it’s time to start chitting Potatoes. The garden centres and seed merchants are selling or delivering seed potatoes as from now so why not get stuck in and start yours off. I headed to the garden centre last weekend to buy mine. I went for Winston (First Earlies or New Potatoes to you and I) because the label said they had good blight resistance. 

I didn’t have any trouble with blight on my Potatoes last year but (as with everyone’s) my Tomatoes were ruined by blight and so I’m taking no chances this year. I’ll be opting for resistant varieties of everything capable of catching even the slightest bit of blight.

I’ve put my seed potatoes under the window in the potting shed – that way they are out of way of frost but have lots of light to enable then to grow nice, short, green sprouts. Make sure to look for the biggest eye and face that one towards the light. What you’re looking for is one healthy, big shoot, the rest can be rubbed off with your finger.

Good luck, chitters!