My Veggie garden

Posted by Joel Richardson on 18 April, 2007

[ Category: ]

Well with Spring now well under way here in Jersey (we have had nearly 2 weeks of quite tropical daytime temperatures) the veggie garden is calling out to be worked in!

We have plenty of sowing and planting to be getting on with such as carrots, spring onion, rocket and a second crop of lettuce.

Already romping away are the cabbage, lettuce (mixed leaves), mangetout beans under the cloche, onions and garlic. Last Saturday I “banked” up my new crop of Jersey Royal new potatoes. Before doing this I put a load of soil improver in between the rows, mixed it into the soil and then used a “banker” (a tool used to bring earth up to the potato stalks) to earth up. I find that the plants are invigorated by this process as if they enjoy a bit of a tickle. Earthing up also cuts down the chances of having “greens” in the crop where the tubers get exposed to sunlight through cracks in the soil.

We have been picking Asparagus for the last 10-12 days, albeit in small quantities, with the promise of plenty to come!

The strawberries, raspberries and Artichokes are really putting some good growth on. The cider orchard is looking like things are stirring and the rest of the fruit trees are blossoming.

The sheep are struggling to keep the grass down so the mower might have to come out of the shed one of these days.

This is one of the best times of the year for us here. Winter is gone, Spring is in full flow and summer is just around the corner! Brilliant.

STOP PRESS – Lynsey, my wife, has just informed me that she and the kids have planted out the dwarf French beans and rocket in the greenhouse today! This way we will get a taster crop nice and early before the main outdoor crops come in later on.

Comments:

Sarah G says:

You certainly have a lot of experience in this field. Really nice to hear about your passion for fresh veg, hoping you will be my inspiration. If you have any advice on ‘planning a vegetable garden’ I would be interested to hear about it on your gardening blog.

All the best,
Sarah

Thursday, 19 April, 2007

Joel Richardson (Author Comment) says:

Sarah,

I guess the best advice that i can give to you is to start small & grow from there. It is very difficult not to sow a whole pack of seeds when you buy them as they are so cheap. But when you get a high percentage germinating it is more often than not the case that you end up planting out far more than you can ever eat.

My veg garden is planted out using a very simple calendar method. I use the sowing dates given by the seed companies as a guide and then divide up a small box into the relevant months. This way I know what to sow & when.

Another reason to start small is weed control. I reckon that my wife & I have spent more time weeding our plot over the last 5 years than we have spent lovingly tending to our precious crops. The circle hoe that is sold on the website is a quite brilliant tool. I can recommend one.

I always try to incorporate lots of organic matter (horse manure, composted green waste) into our soil to improve it’s structure. I do this before planting and also once the crop is well underway i will incorporate some soil improver in between the rows. This way when the crop has been harvested you dig it in and subsequently improve your soil quality.

Even though you can plan ahead you will still find little pockets around the veggie patch in which you can sow some lettuce or something like that.

I will keep posting my thoughts on “happy” veg gardening so watch this space…...

Thursday, 19 April, 2007

Lyns says:

Hello Joel,

I was thinking about growing some butternut squash this year but I don’t have a vegetable patch. Will they grow ok in a container? If so, what do I do?

Lyns

Tuesday, 24 April, 2007

Joel Richardson (Author Comment) says:

Lynsey,

I guess you will need a fairly big container for squash! These plants will cascade down from the container and will crawl away. You will also need to be keeping an eye on the plant from a nutrition and disease point of view. They are quite susceptible to mildew and if grown with little or no feed in the container media they will need liquid feeding (something like a tomorite or similar) once every 10 days.
My best advice would be to leave them ramble in a border, as they will weave their way around your existing plantings. When they are finished the stalks go quite dry and are easy to remove. Doing it this way also gives you some very interesting ground cover foliage.
You really want to look at sowing the seeds for these in late May / early June time.

I wish you luck with the squash. Drop me a line if you want any more info.

Joel

Tuesday, 24 April, 2007

Comment on this article: