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Your last chance to be sure of peas

21/4/2014

When gardening books are written, they generalise their advice for the whole country. And it's very different in, say, Cumbria (let alone Scotland) from down here.

Peas like cool moist conditions - the last couple of summers have been good for them. But the average Kentish ummer is hot and dry, not good for peas. One can usually reckon that after mid June they'll not be much good. That means your last row of peas would usually be going in this week.

The old-fashioned tall varieties cope better with hot summery conditions, so if you have to sow late choose a tall variety like Alderman or the newly-fashionable Purple Podded Pea

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Still time for spuds

19/4/2014

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It has been an unusually early spring, and that has caught gardeners on the hop. However, the weather we're having right now is pretty much normal for April - except we'd like some more of those April showers, please.

In the old cottage gardens, potatoes were traditionally planted on Good Friday. Why, when Easter is in a different place each year, and the weather is to variable? Why - because it was one of the few days the agricultural labourer could rely on having as a day off!!!

Another old way of deciding planting times was to say you could put the potatoes in when you could sit on the ground with your trousers down. Not a technique we'd recommend in the relatively public space of the allotments - although, curiously, not unrelated to the navigational techniques of the Polynesian islanders! However, it is clearly a way of testing soil temperature - much more important for spuds than the air temperature.

You can take a modern approach and buy a cheap soil thermometer. Plant and sow when the soil temperature two inches down (about 5cm) is 5degC or above. Particularly important when sowing parsnips, which hate a cold soil!

Spuds put in now will be a little later but you've still time to get a really good crop. 'Early' varieties aren't especially hardy, they're just quick to mature - so put them in now and you'll be eating the results before you know it.

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Cue the Curcurbits!

9/4/2014

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It's time to sow seeds of courgettes, marrows, cucumbers and squash - the family known as the 'Curcurbits' (from the Latin for Cucumber).

Use little individual pots and put one or two seeds in each. (If both germinate you'll have to sacrifice one by cutting it off). This family doesn't like having its roots disturbed by transplanting.

All the curcurbit family benefit from extra warmth

Put your seeds to germinate in a heated propagator, a warm greenhouse or a sunny windowsill. Keep the compost moist at all times.

Meanwhile, start to get the ground ready - those plants will be quick to germinate and alarmingly fast-growing.

All the curcurbit family like the same conditions; good drainage, rich soil and a cool moist root-run.

The traditional way is still the best - a mound. Dig out a broad, shallot trench about 2ft wide and 6-8 inches deep (that's 60cm wide and 15-20cm deep for the youngsters). As for length - allow about a yard (or a metre) for each plant.

Pile the soil to one side. Fill the trench with home-made compost from your compost heap. It can be as rough as you like, not the perfect fine brown stuff you see on TV but the mixture of half-rotted cabbage stalks and old rubbish that we actually get in the real world - it all goes in. Bring it up level with the soil surface if you have enough compost!

Now cover the compost with the soil which you dug out. Smooth it off to a long mound with a flattened top.

Mark where your plants are going to go. Next to that, sink an old pot (the long kind roses come in are best) into the soil so the top is level with the surface. Later you'll be able to pour water into this so it goes straight down to the roots, instead of running off the top.

Grow your plants on a 'marrow mound' and they'll be healthier and crop better. One courgette plant per person in a household is plenty - for two adults and two kids, three plants is enough.

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Get rid of weeds on the messy corners of your plot the easy way.

7/4/2014

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This is the ideal time of year to tackle the weeds on a neglected corner of your plot; you can use a glyphosate weedkiller now, it's the ideal time. Water it on with a special watering can which you keep only for weedkiller. It will kill everything that has a green leaf showing, but where it falls on soil it will be instantly neutralised. Glyphosate weedkiller will tackle rank, matted couch grass like a miracle. As soon as the weeds turn yellow you can strip them off or dig them in, knowing the roots are killed and the soil ready to plant with no harmful after-effects.

You can fork then over or rotovate the soil and it will be ready to sow runner beans, french beans, late peas, or plant out courgettes or tomatoes. You can just rotovate the dead weeds into the soil - they will rot down harmlessly! No need to sweat and strain, let glyphosate do the hard work for you. A bottle of concentrate which, diluted down, is enough to clear a whole plot, is just £4.95 from the Trading Store!

Click here for more about using weedkiller

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Your last chance to be sure of peas

Still time for spuds

Cue the Curcurbits!

Get rid of weeds on the messy corners of your plot the easy way.

Kent's climate is drier, hotter and has a longer growing season than the average for the UK. Advice in gardening books may not fit Kent. This blog has local tips on what will grow and when to do garden jobs.

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