An early start on veg production
After three years of waiting I’ve finally been offered a plot at my local allotment site, just a 10 minute walk from home.
It couldn’t have come at a better time – I’d already decided this winter to convert my garden veg patch into a cut flower growing area at the expense of home-grown produce (except for greenhouse crops).
So just when I thought I’d be saying goodbye to fresh broccoli, beans, carrots and the like, the offer of an allotment will actually allow me to up my game in terms of veg production.
I won’t be getting on site until the tail-end of Feb, and there is plenty of ground work to be done before planting can begin, taking me well into March. But in preparation I’ll be starting off some early crops in the coming weeks so that I’ll have lots of young plants to set out as soon as the soil is dug over and levelled.
I made a start this week by sowing broad bean ‘Masterpiece Long Pod’ (Unwins), individually, in grow tubes filled with Westland Organic Vegetable Growing Compost. The 15cm deep grow tubes will allow for deep root development before planting out, to get the seedlings off to the best of starts. I’ll keep them in the warmth of the house until germination and then quickly move them out to the greenhouse or cold frame to avoid them stretching in the heat. In two weeks time I’ll sow another larger batch, to stagger and extend their harvest period.
It may be a little early to coincide with getting the allotment ready for planting, but I’ve also set out a few Sharpe’s Express first early potatoes (Unwins) for chitting. I’ll leave it another week or two before setting out the rest of my potatoes. To do this I use egg boxes to stand them straight (eyes up) and prevent them touching each other. A tip I’m trying for the first time this year is the addition of perlite to the egg box, this absorbs any moisture around them, preventing chance of the tubers rotting before planting.
About Kris Collins
Kris Collins started out in gardening as an estates worker at Richmond Park, west London, before training as a Royal Parks apprentice at Greenwich Park (south east london). After a stint as greenkeeper at The London Golf Club, Kent, he made a move towards journalism as a reporter for Horticulture Week. He now writes for Amateur Gardening magazine, Britain's best selling weekly gardening magazine, and tends his own garden in a leafy part of Hampshire.
