This time last year I was in the process of writing ‘Grow Your Own Vegetables’. I have grown my own vegetables for many years, but I have never been what you would call a dedicated vegetable gardener. I never allow enough space for what I am trying to grow, and I never have enough time at those crucial moments when you need to thin, transplant, tie up, water or harvest.

Unwins Grow Your Own Vegetables, Sow, Grow, Gather, Enjoy
by Andrew McIndoe
Published by Westland Horticulture
Price: £9.99
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The early part of the year is fine, everything goes swimmingly, then the grass starts growing, Chelsea comes along and it’s the survivors that produce the crops.

We are used to gluts in our household; I never mind that. We simply do not touch courgettes in winter, having had months of them in summer. I would certainly never freeze a runner bean; life is too short, and it means we really look forward to them when they happen. This might sound like a rather cavalier approach, particularly if you are going to write a book on the subject. However what I have found from writing books is how much you learn about a subject once you start putting things down on paper.

Vegetable growing was no exception – I learned loads and thought I would share with you a few of my successes and failures of the season.

Getting Started

Getting StartedI decided to take things more seriously last year. I dug over my plot in midwinter. Although we are on sand, the ground was heavier and wetter than usual. I found digging with a border spade much easier than with a digging spade. You do not lift as much soil as you turn it over, so it is much lighter and easier on the back. I then added plenty of my own home made compost, (my wife rather disparagingly refers to this as weed spreading) and quite a few bags of stable manure compost. I then left things alone for the worms and the frost to do their work. We are on slightly acid soil, not ideal for most vegetables. I should have limed the ground generously to raise the pH and rectified that last autumn.

Potatoes

One thing I have learned over the years is not to plant too many. Spuds take up a lot of space, so you always need less than you think. I had great success with Charlotte. She produced wonderful waxy new potatoes that tasted like new potatoes should. I also grew Epicure which did not perform as well on my soil. My big success was growing in potato bags and large tubs. I did this mainly for photography for the book, but this will be the only way that I will grow potatoes this year. They cropped well. It was easy to monitor when the potatoes were ready and best of all, they were clean! Even my wife was enthusiastic about them. She’s never been a great fan of a load of muddy potatoes dumped in the sink on a Sunday evening.

A keen vegetable grower showed me how she grows early potatoes in grow bags in her polytunnel. The crop was fantastic, early, easy to harvest, and enables her to grow a number of different varieties in a small space. That’s the advantage of those small taster packs which contain only a few tubers.

Carrots, Beetroot and Radishes

I have had success with growing carrots in supermarket boxes filled with multi-purpose compost. The cropping bags from Haxnicks make this method easier, and look better in the garden.

However last year I also grew quite a few in the open ground and this is where my fleece tunnel cloche was a godsend. The larger size fleece and mesh tunnel cloches, also from Haxnicks, enable you to get an earlier start by providing that bit of warmth and protection that seeds need to germinate, and seedlings need to grow. Although they allow rainfall to pass through, they do keep the ground drier. I sowed my carrots and radishes as pinches of seed sprinkled over a 10cm round patch of ground, this enables you to harvest them young, as bunches of tasty roots. Germination and development was quick and I had good crops and I will certainly use the tunnel cloches again this year.

The fleece tunnel cloches also prevent carrot fly from ruining the crop. They were also the ideal place to grow rocket and flat leaved parsley. The rocket is clean, because you do not get the same problems with soil splash that sticks to the slightly hairy leaves of the plant. The leaves are not peppered with holes made by flea beetles so they actually look appetizing in a salad. Flat leaved parsley was my most valuable crop: succulent flavoursome leaves to add to salads, vegetables, pasta and soups. It kept going from June to November.

Courgettes and Squashes

I did produce my usual bumper crops of cucurbits. I always grow both from seed so that I know what variety I am getting. I sowed the seed in late April; do not start too early. It is better to sow late and grow them quickly, and you must start them indoors.

For courgettes I grew Courgette ‘Defender F1’ – a great variety that produces prolific dark green fruits. For squash I grew ‘Hunter F1’. It was excellent and cropped well, although the poor weather at the end of the summer meant that it did not store for long.

Squash are rampant growers. I plant mine on the top of the compost heaps. They love the rich, organic compost and help to break it down further, ensuring first class compost to use on the beds and borders in autumn.

Slugs and Snails

Well those pesky molluscs certainly loved the wet weather didn’t they? I must say I found the Growing Success environmentally friendly slug and snail killer very effective and now I would never use anything else.