Digging & Dreaming

Spring Flowers

There are few things that I love at this time of year as much as beautiful spring flowers. I can't get enough of them and my garden is crammed to bursting with tulips, daffodils and cowslips to name but a few. I especially love pots jam packed with tulip bulbs until you can't fit another one in - ridiculously indulgent but so gorgeous when they flower. And isn't a bit of indulgence what you need as you drag yourself out of winter into the abundance of spring? That's what I tell myself anyway...

The Heritage of Hops

I have been growing hops in my garden for a couple of years now. It is a beautiful, vigorous plant that grows well and easily. It is also a plant with a fascinating heritage and history. The modern hop has been developed from a wild plant as ancient as history itself. As far back as the first Century A.D. they were described as a salad plant and are believed to originate from Egypt. It is also a plant surrounded in fascinating facts and legend - here are a few interesting things that we have learned about the plant:

1. Hops are often referred to as the ‘spice of beer’.
2. Hops have been in regular use as a beer-making ingredient for approximately 1,000 years. It gives beer its distinctive flavour and aroma, acts as a natural preservative, and is a key component in foam quality.
3. A climbing vine, Hops, like cannabis (marijuana), comes from the hemp family Cannabaceae but do not offer the same psychoactive effects as cannabis. Interestingly enough, the hop plant has both male and female forms: the cones on the female plant are used in the brewing process, while male hops are used for breeding the plant.
4. Hop cones contain resins including alpha acids, beta acids and essential oils. The acid components (primarily alpha acid) contribute to the bitterness of beer, while the oils contribute to flavour and aroma.
5. Aroma hops are generally lower in alpha acid content, and have essential oils that are associated with great aroma. Bittering hops have high levels of alpha acids in particular. There are also dual-purpose hops that play for both teams.
6. Hop varietals can impart widely different flavours and aromas, depending on where, and the conditions in which it is grown. Randy Mosher, in his book TASTING BEER, says German hops are generally considered to be herbal, English hops spicy, earthy and fruity, and American hops – while widely variable – are generally more citrus, piney and resiny.
7. The so-called noble hops, traditional varieties from Europe, are: Saaz, Hallertauer Mittlefrüh, Tettnanger and Spalt. These can often be found in traditional lager beers.
8. Breweries use hops in a variety of forms, depending on their needs. This can include pelletized, liquid, dried, or wet hops.
9. Hops are added into the brewing process during the boil where the alpha acids are isomerized. Bitterness is enhanced with a longer boil, while aroma is reduced. This governs the timing of the additions of various hops throughout the boil. Other hopping techniques require the addition of hops at later points in the brewing process (i.e. dry hopping).
10. Hops generally impart bitterness ranging from 5-7 International Bittering Units (IBUs or parts per million iso-acids) for  Light Lagers, and up to 100 IBUs for an Imperial IPA. However these days, some experimental brewers are exploring extreme hopping, creating beers with 1,000s of IBUs. This is a largely theoretical exercise, because the human palate can only perceive a maximum bitterness somewhere in the range of 120 IBUs. This maximum is also related to the solubility of iso-alpha acids in beer.

Leaf Geek

I'm a really sucker for punishment when it comes to the structure and form of plants. Take leaves for example - I absolutely love them! In fact, one of my favourite times in my garden is at the beginning of the year when there are no flowers at all but when there as lots and lots of lovely leaves in all different shapes and sizes. It's nice to see the different shapes and sizes of leaves on different plants, but even nicer to see the variety of form that you can find within a single species. Take the tomatoes in my greenhouse as a good example. All members of the same family, but structurally totally different and therefore making a totally unique contribution to the overall structure of the planting in any given space.

From top: Scatalone, Imur, Russian Red, San Marzano, Gardener's Delight, Currant

Growing Food in Small Spaces

As Spring is now just around the corner lots of people's minds turn to the possibility of growing their own food. Drawn to the ever appealing notion of allotments and smallholdings, and fired onwards by the programmes that are now all over the television and radio about growing your own, people dream of getting out there, getting their hands dirty and having the pleasure of eating delicious food that they have grown themselves. The problem for lots of people, a number of whom have contacted me on this blog, is that they don't actually have a great deal of space to grow in. They aren't lucky enough to have an allotment to call their own so may be grappling with the teeniest of spaces within which to grow.

Does this sound familiar to you? Are you an aspiring smallholder but only have access to a miniscule fourth floor window box? Well don't despair because I am a great believer that it is possible to grow a decent amount of food even in a seemingly impossible spaces. So, on that basis, this is the first of my guides to Growing Food in Small Spaces. I'll start by giving you some tips on how to plan your space, no matter how humble, and in the coming weeks will follow with specific tips about crops you may be able to grow successfully and fun planting styles you can use to get the best out of your space.

With regards planning how you want to use your space, this is even more important when you don't have so much to play around with. On a big allotment you may be able to throw in a bad of this or that willy nilly but if you've only got a small back yard to deal with you need to make sure you're making the most productive use of every inch as is possible. Bearing that in mind here are some hints to get you started with making a plan for your own mini-farm.

• Start by thinking of what wants and needs you have from your space. These aspirations and necessities should form the basis of the design that you go on to create. For example, you may want to produce salad crops and also to have an area to sit outdoors and eat, but alongside that you may need an area to store your bike. At this point think big about what you want to achieve - your space may not be able to deliver all of these wishes but it is important to give even the wildest fantasy some consideration in your thought process!
• Next think about the features of the site that you are working with. Which direction does it face, what already exists there, how does it work in relation to your neighbours...? Try and think of every detail that you can at this stage and add it.
• Then take some time to think about all the potential yields from your site. Some of them will be physical things like edible crops, herbs, flowers...etc... But some may also be more abstract ideas such as relaxation, tranquility, privacy...
• It is also worth considereing the potential risks on your site as these could be a hinderance in getting what you want out of it. For example the soil fertility may be low, or noise from a busy road nearby could be audible in your green haven. If you list these things and acknowledge their existence it makes it easier to consider how you may deal with them in your design.
• Finally, make a list of plants that are already in the space that you would like to stay in your new design. Alongside this create a list of the plants that you are intending to grow.

There you have it. You should now have five different lists encompassing - wants / needs, site features, potential yields, potential risks, and plants. The next stage is to draw up a plan of your space using this information as the starting point.  And I'll tell you more about how you can start to do that next time.

Florence Fennel - a Tricky Customer

Florence Fennel is a tricky crop to grow. Although it looks beautiful on any plot and tastes equally special, it isn't ideally suited to growing in the UK and as a consequence will bolt at the drop of a hat as soon as conditions turn against it.

The first thing to consider is that Fennel is very sensitive to shortening days so I tend to plant mine after midsummer to aim for an autumn crop. I start them off two seeds to a pot in the green house sometime around mid / end of June. Once the seedlings come up I let them grow on for a week or two until they are big enough to identify the strongest and thin accordingly. As far as planting out is concerned, slugs love the rich, young seedlings so I wait until they get to a decent size before moving them outside. If they are maybe 8 - 10cm in height they will have the best chance possible of outgrowing the jaws of our slimy friends.

Fennel likes to be planted in well drained, rich soil and they also need to be watered thoroughly as they grow. This is not a crop that can miss a day's watering in hot weather! Mulching around the plants can also help to preserve moisture and is well worth the extra effort. When it gets to about September some people earth up the developing bulb but I normally forget to do this and have never had any problems as a result. By early October you should have a bed full of juicy bulbs ready to be picked. Unless it's an exceptionally hot year we will never get big fat bulbs like the ones grown in hotter climes but you can get a perfectly satisfactory crop that looks and tastes gorgeous.

The plants will not tolerate any frost so all need to be picked before the weather gets too cold. They also don't store brilliantly so are definitely best eaten fresh. And if they do go to seed don't despair - the flowers can be a dramatic and beautiful addition to your plot.

To Water Or Not To Water?

On days like the one pictured above where I was imprisoned in the greenhouse by torrential rain it's hard to imagine that anything ever needs watering at the allotment. Of course, this isn't true and it only takes a day or two of sunshine for plants to need a drink. I have to say that on the whole I take a tough love approach on our plot and only water when absolutely necessary in the the belief that most plants do better if they're allowed to find water for themselves. And if your soil is high in organic matter and you mulch whenever you can you'll be amazed how much moisture the soil will retain even in the hottest weather.

Despite this there are some things that definitely need an extra drink from time to time. For example, all the plants in the greenhouse need watering at least once a day. Twice on a really hot day. In addition to this all seedlings need to be well watered when they're planted out until they're well established. Don't be tempted to leave them to fend for themselves too early as any weakness at that stage in their development will leave them more vulnerable to attack from slugs and other pests. You may also find that if the weather is particularly dry potato, onion and garlic plants won't reach their full potential so it's worth giving them a good drink if this situation arises. If you do need to water any crop outdoors you're always better to give them a really good soaking once or twice a week rather than a cursory dribble of water everyday.

One thing that can cause some degree of controversy on our plot is what time to water. I'm of the argument that on the whole you're better to water in the morning so that the water warms up as the morning sun warms the plant. I also always try to use harvested rainwater as it will have warmed up where it has been stored and be much kinder to the plants. My partner in gardening crime however is of the opinion that watering in the evening is the better bet as the plants will have the chance to absorb more of the water before it is evaporated by the strong morning sun. What we both agree on is not to water at the warmest part of the day and to always water the roots, trying to avoid wetting the leaves if possible.

So there you go... My simple, or not so simple, guide to the practice and politics of allotment watering! To water or not to water? Morning, evening or not at all? I guess that is the question...

Tools Of The Trade

I've not got too many tools on my allotment, preferring to keep it to minimum and have a small selection of tools that really work for me rather than loads that are hung in the shed and never see the light of day. My tools are nothing expensive of luxurious but they all work for me and there isn't anything particular that I'd like to add to my portfolio. Apart, maybe, from one thing...

Brian who used to have the allotment next to us had the most amazing, five prong cultivator. It was an old school tool that looked something like this and seemed to effortlessly break up the soil before planting. A couple of times when we were working on our plot Brian lent it to us and it was such a pleasure to work with that I wished that we could have one of our own. However, despite searching all over, I was never able to find one to buy to add to our own tool collection. So imagine how surprised and happy I was when my partner in growing crime bumped into Brian on the street to be told that, since he'd given up his allotment he'd decided that he wanted to donate his precious cultivator to us.

I feel absolutely privileged that Brian has been so kind as to pass this useful tool onto us but his kind gift also got me thinking about the heritage and story that all the different tools we use have got. Take the fork you can see in the picture for example, it's a bog standard example from a well known supermarket but my mum bought it for me when I had my first garden and it's been with me ever since so it's a really precious piece of equipment to me. It's actually a little border fork so not so good for bigger jobs on the allotment but it still remains the perfect tool that I always reach for when I need to turn over the compost. Then there's the beautiful hoe that my friend gave to us after her grandfather passed away, of the gloriously crafted fork that my sister bought me for my birthday. All these tools tell a different story and play an essential part in the history of our experience as growers and gardeners. They also illustrate that it doesn't always figure that the most expensive tool you can buy will necessarily be the best. Sometimes the most wonderful tools are the ones that have been cherished, looked after and used by other gardeners for years and years before they come into your hands. And, if this post has given you a taste to get your hands on some vintage tools of your own why don't you have a browse on Ebay ?- you may be pleasantly surprised by the pre-loved garden bargains that you will find.

Now It All Makes Perfect Sense

It was Bette Midler who said:

"My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap."

As I was taking wonderful, fresh compost out of my compost bin in the garden this afternoon I have to admit that very similar thoughts crossed my own mind. Compost rocks! That's an indisputable fact and one of the things that I'm proudest of in our garden, and on the allotment, is the quality of the compost that we make. Of course, anyone can make half decent compost if they leave waste green materials long enough (and I'm not going to go into the mechanics of compost making here because there are already plenty of excellent places to find that information on the web)... But I'm pretty proud of the fact that our composting system is now so well honed on the allotment that we're able to turn garden waste into precious, dark, delicious compost in around 3 months! Impressive huh?

So what is it that makes me so crazy about compost? There are actually a couple of different motivations that I'd like to share with you here...

• Home made compost is pretty much the best thing going to feed plants and add condition and structure to your soil. It's actually so rich in nutrients that it needs to be diluted down with other soil if you want to use it as a potting compost for seeds and seedlings! That's pretty potent stuff made all the more amazing by the fact that if you leave garden waste to its own devices it will kind of make it itself.
• A compost bin is a great way of getting rid of food waste at home (as well as plant waste in the garden or on the allotment). 40% of food that people put into the rubbish could go straight into a compost bin and what's not to love about using leftovers and scraps to create nutritious , free food for you to use in the garden?
• Finally, without wishing to sound like I'm straying too far into hippy / good life territory, Bette isn't far wrong with her evaluation of the experience of making compost. I wouldn't say I'm quite so hardcore as to compare it to some kind of religious epiphany but the process of composting does highlight the maginficence of the processes that are occuring all the time in nature. I mean, how amazing is it to think of the cycle of plant matter that's no longer needed being composted to create a substance to feed plants that, when they grow, will in turn die back and become plant matter that's no longer needed that will be composted to create a substance to feed plants that, when they grow...? You can see what I'm getting at here can't you? And the best thing is that if we are able to appreciate and understand these processes, and our own part within them as growers and gardeners, we're able to create gardens and allotments that are as abundant and self supporting as nature itself.

And that, my friends, is why compost rocks!

A Splash of Colour

Although vegetable plots and allotments are essentially functional spaces I am a great believer that they should also look beautiful. Of course, beautiful can, in turn, also be functional but I'll come to that later...In my search for the perfect horticultural aesthetic I've developed a few different strategies over the years to try and make my plot as gorgeous to look at as the produce is to eat!

The first thing I do is try to plant in a way that is as relaxed and informal as possible. In practice this means mixing different crops together in a patchwork of colour and texture and avoiding planting large blocks of one crop on its own. For example, I love planting things of different heights together to give a real interest in levels, meaning you'll frequently see lettuces growing at the bottom on bean poles on our plot. On a practical level this way of planting also helps protect crops against pests and diseases as plants that are not planted in large, mono-cultivar beds seem to be much less prone to attack. If you want to know more about tried and tested planting combinations that will help keep your plants happy and healthy I suggest you take a look at Bob Flowerdew's Complete Book of Companion Gardening which is an absolute mine of information on this subject.

My pursuit of all things beautiful also means that you're always going to find lots of flowers growing all over the plot. Some of these are purely for show like the tulips that are in full bloom at the moment, a number of which may also end up as cut flowers in the house. Others are also great companion plants that play an essential role in attracting beneficial insects to the plot and having a key part in protecting our crops from attack - again Bob gives bags of advice on what to plant where and when.

Some of these companion flowers are perennial plants that come back year after year, but the vast majority are annuals that need to be planted each season. If you haven't planted any already, now's a perfect time to do it. And here's a selection of some of my personal favourites.

Cosmos is an absolute beauty that will flower for weeks on end, with large flowers that bees love.They vary in colour from pure white to bright pink and their loose, relaxed flowers look wonderful as a cut flower.

French Marigolds are one of the easiest flowers to grow. Their leaves have a delicious, distinctive smell. They are known to repel soil nematodes and whitefly from tomatoes.

Nigella Love in a Mist has both flowers and seed heads that make excellent cut flowers. Sowing them near or in carrot seeds is believed to keep the crop free of carrot fly.

Pot Marigolds are the queens of companion planting. They attract bees, butterflies and hoverflies. If you let them go to seed each year they are also happy to spread themselves all over, popping up as the weather warms up in Spring.

So, there's a couple of my favourites. Any I've missed out that are absolute essentials on your plot?

 

Out In The Cold

On our allotment most of our plants begin their lives in the greenhouse because we've found this the best way to have any chance of winning the battle against slugs. As with any plants that have been started off inside there needs to be some degree of consideration to how their transfer is made into the big, wide world outside.

Surprisingly when plants first go outside it can be wind that poses the greatest threat to them rather than cold. So protecting them from wind in the first couple of days is one of the best things you can do to ensure they continue to grow on as strong and sturdy as they can. We're lucky enough to have a cold frame alongside our greenhouse which is the perfect holding area for plants before they are finally planted in their final home in the beds on the allotment. The frame is suitably sheltered but also gets weathered enough to acclimatise the plants to the outside world.

The broad beans you can see in the picture will spend a couple of days like this in the cold frame with no extra protection from the elements. After this I will lift them onto the path in their pots for a couple of days to get them used to the wind, though still putting them back in the frame at night. It is only after this that they will finally be planted out onto the plot.This may all sound like a lot of effort for a crop of broad beans but it's really worth investing the time as you are much more likely to have a strong and healthy plant, which will crop better, if it is properly introduced to its new surroundings.

What if you haven't got a cold frame? Well, any sheltered corner will do as an alternative - though you may need to bring the plants back inside for the first couple of nights if you don't have the option to cover them up like you do with a coldframe.

And just in case this post has inspired you to make your own coldframe... here's a suggestion of how to do it courtesy of Permaculture Magazine.