Green Shoots March 04 - Getting Started with Vegetables
Green Shoots has a new look for the next few months - we are going to suggest different garden projects to try. If you want tips for garden tasks, previous Green Shoots can be found on the Potterne Gardening Club Website (potterne.net/gardening club).
This month's topic is growing vegetables on a small scale: whether you have a couple of pots for tomatoes or a small patch in the garden, spring is an ideal time to start preparing soil and buying seeds. The first step is to decide what you'd like to produce, and where you are going to grow it. So long as you have a tiny patch of ground, or a couple of containers, you should be able to produce your own salads, beans and potatoes.
Prepare soil as soon as you can by digging over, removing weeds and roots, and adding a little fertiliser. For containers, choose as large a container as you can to minimise watering and maximise rootspace - large pots or buckets/ plastic storage boxes with holes drilled into the base are better than growbags.
Tomatoes (cherry types are particularly good) and cucumbers can be bought as young plants from the garden centre in late spring, for planting out once there's no danger of frost (remember to harden them off first by placing outside during the day and bringing in at night for a week or so). Place somewhere light but sheltered, keep well watered and feed with a liquid fertiliser whilst they are fruiting.
Lettuce or mixed salad leaves are easy to grow in small quantities. You can get cut and come again types that are sown onto a patch of soil or open growbag, and then leaves are cut as desired. Alternatively, individual plants can be easily grown by sowing 4 -5 seeds into a pot, germinating them somewhere cool then growing the little plants on a windowsill. Once they have several leaves carefully transplant them to a larger container or the ground to grow on (water well when you do this), at the same time sowing a few more seeds for your next batch.
Runner beans are easy - germinate a few seeds in a pot or on a damp tissue (then transferring to a pot) - grow on until about 1' high, then transfer to a larger pot or the ground (water in). Provide with at least 6' support from canes or trellis, and keep well watered and fed - these are greedy plants. Once they start cropping remember to pick them over regularly to encourage the plants to produce more.
Potatoes need to be "chitted" by standing the parent potatoes somewhere light for a few weeks, so they develop tight little green shoots. It's best to buy special seed potatoes, however you can simply use a few tubers of eating potatoes if you just want to try a small number. Once chitted, plant onto a layer of soil in a large pot or old compost bag - 2 or 3 per container - and cover with a few inches of soil. Once shoots start to appear through the soil, add another few inches and repeat until you get about 15" soil above the potatoes. Keep well watered. Harvest new potatoes once they are in flower, they rest once the flowers are over.
All you will need now is a little Wiltshire ham or cheese and a glass of something cool
Christine Green and Dagmar Junghanns
