Februrary 2011

Happy 2011! After a long break, the keyboard has been dusted down, oiled and sharpened, and is ready for another year’s toil. My back, on the other hand, is not quite so ship-shape: I must stop carrying 18 month-old Bea on the sling so much, as it’s taken its toll and has given me a very sore back. One of the banes of veg growing is that everything’s on the floor (in fact, I regularly picture myself gardening in a Mission Impossible-type sling holding me suspended above the ground, Tom Cruise style).

The allotment has been very quiet over the past months, with only a 15 tonne delivery of compost to entice people over (free, from London Waste – the folk who take your green bins’ contents). 

 

There’s still a fair amount of veg in store and in the ground:

• Potatoes are just coming to an end; the scabby ones did store well after all, and would have lasted us another month or two had I not given so many away
• Parsnips are plentiful and lovely. There’ll stay in the ground for another few months, but mustn’t be eaten once they start growing again (apparently they become poisonous). A few can be left and to flower and seed, giving you free seed the following season
• Very few carrots remain (in the ground). Gaby doesn’t much like them, so I won’t bother this year… do you have any great carrot varieties to try growing?? If so, please recommend some
• Beetroots are still sitting happily in the ground, although few are left
• Leeks will hold their own until March-April; as with all the others, they’ll start growing again in early spring and will became bitter tasting
• Jerusalem artichokes, that muddy, easy-to-grow, windy treat, are still in the ground by the bucketful. They really are terrifically muddy though with their many nooks and crannies, so aren’t the most enticing thing to bring home. We ‘peel’ them by simply cutting them into cuboids, which is wasteful but saves lots of time

 

Over the winter I’ve been busy indoors, mainly insulating and working on the house. I put up cheap and effective secondary glazing, costing £80 online. It’s easy to put up and is very good; and has an enormously quicker payback time than conventional glazing, which takes around 100 years to earn back its cost in savings on one’s heating bill. 

Our house’s walls are solid brick, meaning that around 50% of our heat is lost through them. To reduce this, I’ve been papering with polystyrene paper, which apparently reduces heat loss by 13%, is easy to apply, and has immediate results. At £6 for a 10m square roll, it’s pretty cheap too.

The toilet extension is effectively finished; I’ll paper over my awful plastering soon to tidy up the finish quality. 

All of this means it’s very much onto the next job: an entrance porch for the house. Again, I’m trying to build it fairly greenly and have used/will use mostly recycled or salvaged materials. Unfortunately though, the foundations are extremely un-green; I’ve just learned that the total carbon emissions in a single 25kg bag of cement are an amazing…. 17kg! Six bags of cement are needed, approximately giving the carbon emissions of a flight to Italy. In retrospect, I should have built the porch on brick piers, which would have saved a lot of cement. Next time…

 

Things are going to get quite busy very soon:

 

Early March	How
Broad beans	Don’t sow all at once, but save about half/a third of your seed for a little later on, to avoid a glut. Rows covered with plastic should germinate quicker. These can be sown until the end of May
Jerusalem artichokes	Shop-bought ones are fine. Plant in rough ground and be ready to be stuck with them for a good while – they are hard to get rid of, and grow tall. I have loads for anyone in London who wants to plant them
Peppers	I don’t bother with these, but they need to be sown early (ie now), in the warmth, and nurtured for a good while indoors. They must have a bright windowsill or they’ll get thin and spindly
Carrots (protected)	In a cloche or greenhouse. Must be an early variety such at Early Nantes
Tomatoes (for greenhouse)	In other words, tomatoes which will end up growing in an unheated greenhouse. As with peppers, sow onto a bright, warm windowsill (or heated greenhouse – just heated for now until the weather warms up), and pot on when they become too big for their pot. When you pot on, bury some of the stem as it’ll grow roots under the soil and give you stronger plants.
Parsnip (all month)	Wait till the soil isn’t cold and wet, then sow very thinly. Don’t add muck to the soil. Covering with any type of plastic, preferably clear, greatly speeds up germination.
Mid March
Beetroot (early types)	Soak ‘seed’ overnight before sowing, then sow thinly in decent, preferably light soil (although any will do). No need to go mad with sowing, as you can sow all the way up to the end of June.
Brussels Sprouts	Sow very thinly in a seedbed – these will be moved when they get too big and hopefully other space becomes available.
Carrots	Sow outrageously thinly, as thinning (pulling out unwanted seedlings) should be avoided, since it attracts a nuisance pest
Leeks	Sow very thinly in a seedbed – these will be moved in early June
First early potatoes	Plant in holes or in a trench (my preferred way) 5 in. deep, spaced 12 in. apart with rows 24 in. apart. Unlike most veg, early spuds will give small crops unless they are regularly watered during dry spells – but only once the flowers set
Late March	How
Beetroot (early types)	As above
Carrots	As above
Lettuce	Little and often is the key. Water well in dry weather. As regularly mentioned, I do badly with leafy veg and constantly hint to Gaby to take on the mantle of Charkham/Weigert leafy veg growing
Onions and shallots	From seed – all month. Usual seed sowing instructions apply – sow thinly and keep watered until established. From sets (little bulbs) – around mid-March - I prefer these as they are the lazier option, although more expensive. Plant gently at least a hoe’s width apart, in rows about 6-9 in. apart. Ensure you can get a hoe round them in all directions. Check every so often and pop back in the ones blackbirds have pulled up to search for worms underneath I am using saved shallots from last year, and some I got from Tesco, which may or may not work.
Spinach	Sow thinly, and definitely water well in dry weather. I don’t do well with leaves, but try to sow in a shady place
Tomatoes (for outdoors)	As with greenhouse tomatoes, above

 

Alexei