Ne'er cast a clout till May be out!

Whether or not this old English proverb refers to the ‘may’ blossom of the hawthorn tree or the actual month of May is neither here nor there. The warning for gardeners is simple: removing your woolly vest early in the growing season is risky. 

Most gardeners learn the hard way.  Spring usually has a sting in the tail, no matter how perky the garden appears or how fast you think the sap is rising.  I lost a row of French beans last year because on just one evening, I was too lazy to put run down the garden and cover them up.  It felt like I had been ‘fleecing up’ for weeks.  I felt sure the danger period had passed and in any case there was something good on the telly.  Of course, the danger of frost had not passed and Doc had that ‘I told you so’ look on his face the next day.  Thankfully, I always grow spare vegetable plants and replacements are also good insurance against slug damage too.

We have had some glorious spring sunshine over the last week and we have been busy on the plot, trying to get ahead.   We felt hot during the afternoons, even in short sleeved tee shirts and the greenhouse reached dizzy temperatures in the daytime, so much so I had to protect the younger plants from the heat and get the watering cans out.  However, the night time temperatures have been a very different story with ground frosts and mornings cold enough for both plants and gardeners to wear thick fleeces.

Here in the Midlands, it’s possible to have frosts until the end of May so I should have the proverb tattooed on my forehead.  But the growing season is shorter here so every year I have to push the boundaries, to give the slower growing veggies enough time to mature before autumn sets in.  I start a lot of tender plants off in late February and right the way through March so this means that plants such as sweetcorn, courgettes, squashes and pumpkin are bursting out of their pots by the end of April, pleading for me to let them out of the cold frame into the garden.  Even if I put them under cloches, they can sit still for a few weeks until the ground gets really warm. 

The sun is shining and I am tempted to plant out the peas and mange tout .  They have done well in the root trainers and since I pinched them out they are starting to bush out nicely. The sooner the hungry gap is bridged, the better.   But then again, rain is forecast and if they get waterlogged and cold, they will suffer a check in growth..........  I could try a few and see how it goes.....  Decisions, decisions.

It’s such a fussy time of year.  I get there in the end but there is many a fraught mercy dash, armed with a roll of fleece, along the way.

It's Show Time!

At last there is a show dedicated to Grow Your Owners.  It was, as they say, a Grand Day Out at the first ever Edible Garden Show, Stoneleigh, Warwickshire (18-20th March).

There was a real buzz about the place and not just because of an interesting introduction to beekeeping.  We met a man who can talk to chickens and there were rare breed pigs to drool over.  I loved the Tamworths and Gloucestershire Old Spots.  The fancy hens were fancier than fancy, with plumes in every imaginable colour, including blue.  The Experts in the theatre were not pretending to be experts and we particularly enjoyed the presentation about caring for chickens.  ( Reassuringly, we are on the right lines although the talk has chivied us into moving our own hens to new 'pasture' after the winter and to get them wormed asap.) 

There was information and guidance about every aspect of growing fruit and veg and it was great to see so many people interested in where their food comes from and how it is grown.  There was real energy and enthusiasm wherever we went.  The organisers chose an ideal time of year for the show, just when the sap is rising and yes, I am talking about the gardeners!  We all start getting over excited in the spring.  There are so many good things to come from our plots - well hopefully!

Of course the credit card took a bashing. There was a plant pot for every occasion (and occasions I hadn't thought of) and all kinds of quirky gardening paraphanalia which was desperately crying out to taken to a garden shed (and probably never used!).  Doc bought some sensible muck boots because they work really well and we couldn't miss the opportunity to pick up 3 bags of organic peat-free vegetable compost for a tenner. We wish we had bought 6 now.

The only downside was that there was a limited choice of places to eat and drink and we couldn't find a place to sit down. However, we managed to keep ourselves going with a good hog roast in a bun, washed down with some local cider. 

It was not a huge event like an RHS show but the admission ticket price reflected this and the parking was free.  We were so surprised at this we actually looked for someone to pay!  With a bit of encouragement I think this Show will grow and grow.....  We are definitely going again next year.

The Panel pose for a 'Red Nose Day' pic



The highlight for us was attending a recording of BBC Radio 4 Gardeners' Question Time.  I wrote out a question for each of us and Doc's was selected.  He had to go and sit at the front with the other questioners and he spoke very confidently into the microphone. 

Doc asked:  "We have asparagus growing under an old apple tree.  Have any of the panel experienced success where according to expert advice, there should have been failure?"  Bob said he once tried growing coffee but everyone said it would fail.  However, he did succeed, the only trouble was that the resultant brew was disgusting!  Anne Swithinbank said she tried sowing parsley seed in an unheated greenhouse in the middle of this last arctic winter - and it germinated .  Pippa Greenwood said she breaks the rules all the time and that you win some, you lose some.  Anyway, it was good see how the programme is put together.  Eric Robson is a great presenter - though he told us all a joke, so good, we have forgotten it already!

When we got home, there were the hens to see to and the seedlings to check, even a spot of watering.  A gardener can't take much time off in the spring but we were glad we had a day out.  Sometimes, you really need to stop working for a while and just celebrate the miracle of growing food and how wonderful it is. 

Chicken on the run

Now and then I give the girls a little treat and when I trotted down the garden path earlier today, dish of chopped grapes in hand, Ginger was missing.  Immediately my brain switched to panic mode.  Think, try and stay calm.  Have I got my glasses on?  (Check, yes.)  I count the hens again.  I checked the coup for a second time, then a third time.  There was absolutely no Ginger.

It felt like I was that young mum of years ago when NOD, aged 3, played hide and seek under the table and for a split second, she was out of my sight.  Once again, my chest heaved with the fear of being branded Evil Mother.  They will put me in prison for this.  How could I be so careless? (Incidentally such is my capacity for guilt that any major or mini crisis in NOD’s life is as a direct result of that particular incident.)

I scanned the garden, beyond the run and across to the orchard and saw a small, russet shape.   Head down, tail up, she was rooting around the old apple tree that supports the swinging bench.  I was ecstatic with relief and called her name, holding up the dish which glistened with her favourite green and red grapes. 

Never to miss ‘an opportunity’ she was quicker than quick and running towards me, as fast as two little legs could carry a living creature.  In fact she was running so fast, she was hovering off the ground with her wings out stretched, like an eagle intent on its prey.   At once I realised my foolishness and a second wave of fear engulfed me.  I AM HOLDING THE GRAPE DISH AND THERE IS NO BARRIER BETWEEN ME AND THIS BIRD.  (Please insert the sound track from Alfred Hitchcock’s, The Birds.)

I needed to act fast so I unhooked the corral fence and nipped in sharpish – for my own protection.  Ginger was in no mood for games.  She flapped her wings harder, hit the turbo boost button and despite having a clipped wing, she flew straight over the fence towards me.  I was so stunned that she could actually do this that I forgot to eject the grapes from the dish.  In an instant she was upon me, like a vulture possessed.  I screeched.  Tweedledum and Tweedledee headed straight into the coop for cover.  There were a few seconds of scuffling, feather ruffling and arm waving.....

...and then Ginger cleaned up all the grapes. 

I recovered my confidence.   I made a grab for Ginger and got hold of her, not on the first attempt but certainly within 10 minutes.  However, learning to be a rugby tackler will I am sure, hold me in good stead for the future.  I picked Ginger up and gave her a very hard stare, one of my Paddington Bear hard stares.

It was indeed a relief she was back safe and sound.  Though I do wish the greengrocer would label his grapes ‘Use with Extreme Caution’ - just to remind me.

Sow! Sow! Sow!

I know there are good vegetable plug plants available but why make life easy when you can make it more difficult and time-consuming? 

This is the time of year when I am sowing seeds like crazy.  My seed box is like the millennium seed bank and I am already struggling to keep up with the pace.  But if I stop for a moment I still marvel at the miracle of it all, that a tiny tomato seed can grow into a substantial plant and in turn produce thousands of new seeds wrapped up in delicious fruits.  Seeds are powerhouses of potential and it’s up to me to release it. Tomatoes, chillies, peppers, cucumbers, leeks, salads, parsley, peas, sweet peas and mangetout – are simply not enough.   I have a long way to go yet.

I do the seed sowing because I’ve got the smallest fingers.  This physical advantage is very useful because the thinner the sowing, the fewer seedlings need to be thinned later on.  And thinning is one of the most frustrating jobs in the greenhouse even using a pair of tweezers.  I put the radio on and if I am distracted by the ‘afternoon play’ I have not so much thinned but scalped the seed trays.  (Never let me loose with your eyebrows.)

In the Midlands, seeds need to be sown early to make the best use of the somewhat shorter growing season.  I do warm up the raised beds up with cloches but it is much more practical to start seeds off in pots and then plant them out later. Planting out small plants also helps to prevent slug damage.  If a pea plant is a few inches tall and can be tied to a cane, there is more chance of it surviving until morning.

Seeds such as parsnips, carrots and a few others are fussy and need to be sown directly into the raised beds.  Since it is March and still cold, the beds are nowhere near warm enough, so I don’t have that joy until later on in the spring.  (I usually do about 3 sowings of snips because they are difficult to germinate and as for carrots, I am in the remedial group for that one – but at least the seed companies make good money out of me.)

I don't use a heated propagator mainly because one would not be enough.  So with practise over the years (and a fair amount of failures) I have perfected my own routine which seems to work, give or take the odd weekend when we are away and come home to shrivelled specimens.  I start the seeds off in trays, pots or modules, in unheated propagators in the warm kitchen and when the seeds are 'up and about', I move them to a sunny, windowsill for a few days.  The knack is to get them into the greenhouse before they become leggy.  More often than not I finish up taking some trays down the ‘garden path’ only to bring them back to sick bay because they are struggling. 

Somehow, each year I manage to get the seeds grown into plants and it is a relief when the special care baby unit turns into a nursery and the plants can fend for themselves a bit.  It is liberating not to have to say to friends “...must go now, I’ve got to check the seedlings......”

I do believe that the effort does pay off in the end, even if the early spring is frantic.  I think seed sown plants are stronger and more disease resistant because they are not reared as intensively as commercially produced plants.  And of course there are so many more varieties to choose from.  This is probably the reason why my seed ‘shoe box’ is bulging.  I cannot just have one or two different tomatoes, I have to sow a wide range of different ones because once calm breaks out on the plot, I really love to compare and contrast them.  In any case, a salad with homegrown tomatoes is delicious but made with a rainbow of tomatoes, it is beautiful.

Time marches on...

As the daylight hours lengthen, there is much to do in Mr McGregor's Garden.  It's still very cold but the bright sunshine and a bowlful of porridge with some of last summer's rasps (only 2 large bags left in the freezer now!) set us up for a day on the plot. 

With all but a few parsnips left to harvest, the raised beds look bare and need re-stocking.  We don't dig so Doc forked over the top few inches of soil and then put on a thick layer of compost.  It is a good vintage, his best yet, all dark brown and crumbly after several months curing.  He says his secret is mixing brown stuff and green stuff, and turning it now and then. 

I had already sorted the crop rotation and so I set up the two beds for the beans and peas.  Deciding on the cane formation is an annual ritual but it doesn't seem to matter how I do it.  There is always a picking blind spot, somewhere for the sneaky runners to hide from us.  I have got two rather attractive rustic wigwams but they are consigned to the shed.  They waste a lot of space on the raised beds and the centres get clogged with weeds and compete for moisture. 

Anyway, it was a good job done and the beds are ready for Sugar Snap (Oregon) and Kniveton Wonder plants in a few weeks time.  I have germinated the first batch of seedlings and I'll start some more off in a couple of weeks, to get a succession of plants going - otherwise we finish up having to harvest the whole crop at once.  As for the runner beans (known as walking beans in our family) and French beans, they will have to wait.  If I start them off too soon, they are ready to plant out before the danger of frosts has passed. 

I looked around the garden and the magnolia is fit to burst.  Even the camelias, which were badly affected by the hard winter, are nicely budded.  The daffs are up and about and we have masses of snowdrops.  Our best clump comes up through the gravel drive.  

Spring is revving up its engine.  It's all systems go and it does the spirit no end of good.  Bring it on.

The last of the leeks

“I beseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek: because, look you, you do not love it, nor your affections and your appetites and your disgestions doo's not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it....if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.”   (William Shakespeare,'King Henry V')
I remember many years ago sitting in the front row at Stratford theatre watching Simon Callow go through his paces by crunching a raw leek in a performance of Henry V. I was sprayed with leek juice but thankfully it didn't put me off and I love leeks to bits.

For me, the vegetable garden is not complete without them. They are easy to grow and hardy. Several varieties are rust tolerant and they will stand happily throughout the winter....which brings me to today because (sob) Doc has just brought in our last trugfull of leeks for the season...

Despite the arctic weather, our leeks have stood proud, like fountains, all winter. We have indulged in creamy leek and potato soup. We love leeks sauteed with bacon and then smothered with rich cheese sauce and you can't beat leek and pea risotto with parmesan cheese. Whenever a recipe demanded an onion, there was a leek or two ready in the fridge to take its place, milder in flavour but definitely able to add depth to casseroles. I shall miss them and since the rows of parsnips are dwindling too and the caterpillars ate all the kale last autumn, the hungry gap is approaching fast. I fear I will need to visit the greengrocers for veg soon.

But the good news is that I sowed my first leek seeds ready for next season. I always plant the variety: Musselburgh but since we love them so much I am also having a go with Autumn Giant. The season is turning and as we empty one raised bed, we are preparing the next one for planting.