I thought I’d share my method of leek planting as I do find it fascinating. It is the classic technique that many of the old timers advocate but more modern gardeners seem to shun. I personally think it works a treat and is particularly good for dry conditions. When I was a kid my dad [...]
Make use of Stones
Nothing goes to waste in an organic garden. In my garden the soil, which is thin over rock, is full of stones and as I work our patch of land I take out the stones from soil where I am preparing seeds beds for onions, brassicas and lettuces or to sow crops that don’t like [...]
Spring Transition Undercover
Spring is here and it is time to clear the old crops and make way for the new, sowing starts in the polytunnel, a 50ft double-height plastic tunnel built into a drystone wall on a south facing terrace below the potager. The plant debris and weeds are first cleared and the earth lightly worked to [...]
Onion, Rouge de Florence
Description Rouge de Florence, is also known variously as; Rossa di Firenze, Rossa Lunga Di Firenze, Rossa di Toscana, Long Red Florence, Florence Simiane, Italian Torpedo or Italian Red Torpedo. An outstanding long, red onion that I find a joy to both grow and to eat. I love this onion, the shape the colour and the outstanding [...]
Warming Walls
Stone walls can be used as protection for overwintering and early fowering plants and trees. During the day the stones absorb the heat from the sun and at night the heat radiates back out to keep the less frost hardy plants warm in winter and early spring. Walls can be used as a backdrop for plants that [...]
Winter Lettuces
Winter Lettuces are varieties of lettuces that can be sown late in the season, will tolerate cold and low light levels and still provide leaf pickings for the salad bowl right through winter and into spring. Some of my favourite lettuces are these hardy types because they have robust flavours, crisp leaves and good textures. [...]
Cutting Back Mint
By late summer mint is usually looking decidedly unappetising, long straggly flower stems and burnt out leaves. But mint, given a good haircut, will come back with flush of tasty fresh leaves. It is a very simple job that does not need any finesse. Use a pair of secateurs or even shears and cut the [...]
Seed List 2010
It has taken me some time to find the seeds for the varieties I want to grow this year but I’ve finally done it and this is my selection for 2010. Plenty of old reliable must grow varieties, some new things I am desperate to grow for the kitchen, some varieties that I am growing [...]
Choosing a raised bed system
There are many ways of growing vegetables; in fields, beds, trenches, flooded areas, sunken beds, rows, vertically, square foot beds, grow bags boxes and pots, even in nutrient rich water. In our area people generally rotivate their land each spring and plant the vegetable gardens out in rows like a mini version of field cultivation. [...]
Best Preserving Tomatoes
In 2008 I grew a selection of tomatoes for preserving because I wanted to see if there was anything better than my usual favourite, San Marzano. Now that I am thinking about what varieties to grow this year it’s a good time to review my little trial. Tomatoes make some of the most useful and [...]
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