16-PAGE GROWING GUIDE FILL YOUR HOME WITH FLOWERS
WWW.KITCHENGARDEN.CO.UK | DECEMBER 2016
DOWN-TO-EARTH ADVICE FOR GROWING FRUIT & VEG
FEAST
on
FRUIT
Fun & festive ways with apples & citrus
PARSNIP SEEDS & GREENHOUSE VEGETABLE COLLECTION* worth over
£12
SOW ANNUAL HERBS & PLANT RHUBARB
Extreme eats TIPPING THE SCALES WITH GIANT VEG
Me eet the man behind the gardening legend
Christmas gift ideas for gardeners
GROW YOUR OWN BAMBOO CANES HOT TRICKS FOR EARLY CROPS MAKE A TOOL RACK FOR KIDS
CONTENTS
EXPERT ADVICE TO HELP YOU GROW GREAT FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
6
34
✪ ON THE COVER
YOU
@GrowWithKG
YOUR PLOT
6 ON THE VEG PATCH
KitchenGardenUK KitchenGardenMag /kitchengardenmagazine FOR OUR CONTACT DETAILS TURN TO PAGE 17
Tend to brassicas, sow broad beans, harvest carrots and winter veg, spread compost or manure, start winter pruning, force strawberries
10 IN THE GREENHOUSE
Harvest late chillies, plant early potatoes and young plug plants, tend to Swiss chard and Florence fennel, sow Romanesco
12 WHAT’S NEW ✪
40
The latest news, comment and advice from the world of kitchen gardening
16 YOUR LETTERS AND TIPS
Learn what other KG readers have been up to and pick up some great first-hand advice
NEVER MISS AN ISSUE...
20 QUESTION TIME
£20
ON PAGE 24 HAVING TROUBLE FINDING A COPY OF THIS MAGAZINE? Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month
4 | DECEMBER 2016
94 LAST S WORD O WITH ALAN TITCHMARSH ✪
26 BRITAIN’S MOST PASSIONATE PLOTTERS
One of Britain’s best-loved gardening personalities gives us an exclusive interview and reveals his gardening passions
98 NEXT MONTH
94
Regular Gardeners’ Question Time panellists Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithinbank answer your fruit and veg growing conundrums
We bring you the results of our competition to find Britain’s keenest fruit and veg gardeners
Some highlights to be found in your January issue plus details of great free gifts
DECEMBER 2016
90 RECIPES
Scan this, and we’ll tell you!
Looking for some inspirational new ways to use your seasonal pickings this month? KG chef Anna Pettigrew has the answers
Pg 90
26 58
30 GET GROWING 22 ON THE PLOT WITH THE THREE MUDKETEERS
Learn what the KG team have been up to this month and pick up some great top tips
30 BEGINNERS’ GUIDE TO PARSNIPS
Rob Smith explains how to get the best from this essential winter veg
34 HARD TIMES NO MORE
54 HAVE YOU TRIED HOTBED GROWING? ✪
Allotmenteer and professional gardener Lucy Halliday extols the virtues of an old technique for starting early crops
58 FRUIT AT A GLANCE – CITRUS ✪
KG editor Steve Ott brings you growing advice and festive ways with citrus to add a touch of the Mediterranean to your Christmas celebrations
62 LINDENGATE: A PLACE OF HEALING
Gardening writer and broadcaster Martin Fish visits a restored Victorian kitchen garden and gets an insight into life as it was in its heyday
Gardening writer Susie Kearley visits a gardening project in Buckinghamshire which is having a positive impact on people with mental health needs
40 VEG AT A GLANCE – RHUBARB ✪
66 MAKE IT! A CHILDREN’S TOOL RACK ✪
Staff writer and rhubarb fan Tony Flanagan offers his top tips for growing great sticks
44 SPICE UP THE KITCHEN WITH ANNUAL HERBS ✪
Why buy those supermarket pots when you can grow your own, says Charles Dowding
49 BARTER WITH BAMBOO ✪
Organic gardener Julie Moore encourages us all to grow our own plant supports www.kitchengarden.co.uk
This month Joyce Russell brings you a weekend project for a fun gift for the little gardeners in your life
71 NEW VARIETIES ON TEST… TOMATO MONTELLO
Tony Flanagan puts a new tomato variety through its paces in his Lincolnshire garden
74 FRUITY TO THE CORE
The KG team put a range of popular eating apples through their paces in time for tree-planting season
WHAT TO BUY 70 FIND THE SNOWMEN AND WIN
Find out how you can win more than £100 worth of prizes including a 12-month subscription to our digital editions
78 READER OFFERS
Claim your greenhouse veg seed collection worth £10.95 plus save on tomato seeds, club root resistant brassicas, AGM and exhibition varieties
80 TRIED AND TESTED ✪
The KG team have been chatting to Santa in their search for great gardening gifts. See which they would like to find in their Christmas stockings this year
84 GIVEAWAYS WORTH OVER £1805
This month you could win top-of-the-range battery-powered gardening tools, bird feeding packages, seed vouchers and pruning equipment
86 GARDEN STORE ✪
News of the best new products and services to reach the KG offices this month
89 KG INSTANT SAVERS
Save up to 15% on a range of great gardening products with our exclusive deals DECEMBER 2016 | 5
■ Try planting some early potatoes, but protect from frost with horticultural fleece or a layer of straw ■ Cut back the tops of bolting rows of salad leaves: you can get another flush of growth ■ Get any small plants left from earlier sowings into the ground ■ Consider planting fruit bushes in a large greenhouse
INTHE GREENHOUSE REST, REGROUP & REMEMBER REPAIRS Many gardeners like to ignore the greenhouse and take a rest for a few weeks. There is no harm in this if everything is in good order. Little will suffer if the structure is sound and the contents are established. Growth is slow at low temperatures or halted altogether; plants need little watering when the moisture level is high in surrounding soil; and there is no real rush to get sowing and planting. We all need a break sometimes and maybe we will have more enthusiasm in the spring if there has been some respite from the constant round of gardening duties.
10 | DECEMBER 2016
It is a good idea to keep harvesting, of course, and to give yourself a pat on the back for all the vegetables that you have grown. It’s also a good idea to deal swiftly with any repairs and to plan, or make a start on, any changes to layout. Do you want to install raised beds, change from one path to two, or add paving? Do you need to move a potting bench, install shelves, or buy new timber to replace warped and rotten edging? If so, this is a good time to do it. Try to put plans into action while other demands are less pressing.
WITH JOYCE RUSSELL Pictures by Ben Russell
CHILLI PEPPERS Plants can ripen fruit in a mild December but sub-zero temperatures can kill plants. Pick any chillies to dry, freeze, or to use in your favourite pickles and sauces. Red peppers are usually hotter than green ones. Always treat chilli peppers with respect and determine how hot they are: heat can vary enormously in peppers from the same plant.
SWISS CHARD Enjoy the vibrant colours of Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’. Red, yellow and pink varieties grow a little slower and are usually slimmer than the white-stemmed ones but they provide some visual relief from the range of green vegetables on offer right now. If plants are weak and need a boost, try watering a liquid feed over dampened soil. www.kitchengarden.co.uk
Illustrations: Let’s Face It
To remove marker r pen writing on your plastic pla ant labels just soak them for r a day or two i a bowl in b l of water mixed with h some bleach. T They will be t totally clear a and ready fo or the new sea ason!
“All for onions and onions for all”
The KG team offer chat, tips and gardening gossip
3 Mudketeers THERE’S NO SUCCESS LIKE FAILURE… So the famous songwriter, Bob Dylan, once wrote: “Maybe it means when we fail at something we learn something from it – which is a success of sorts.” So my failures this year were mostly down to bad planning. Cucumbers? Grew too many. Lesson learned: have faith that at least some of your plants will come to fruition. Courgettes? Why, when you know one plant is enough, do you always grow four. You don’t even like courgettes that much! Lesson learned? Don’t do it again!
Successes? weet peppers Sw have been great, especially the small snack ones I like to gro ow such as ‘Lunch hbox’ and ‘Mini Bell Improved Mixed’. Chillis too have just been wonderful, particularly ‘Pot Black’, ‘Loco’ and ‘Prairie Fire’, offering plenty of heat in the kitchen but beautiful as ornamentals too! And I even managed a ‘Carolina Reaper’ or two, the hottest chilli in the world (see inset), though I haven’t quite plucked up the courage yet to try one out!
IT’S CHRISTMAS! It feels like Christmas every day for the Kitchen Garden Mudketeers when they’re working on the plot, but this year they decided to celebrate the festive season in style. Steve looks rather fetching, don’t you think, in his Father Christmas hat and newly acquired white beard; Emma too with her reindeer antlers, and lastly Tony with his rather large elfin ears – amazing what a rub of fresh horse manure can do. And presents too! Perfect! As well as singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas at the top of their voices (much to the distress of the local wildlife population) and drinking a little too much sherry (much to the distress of their delicate constitutions), a good day was had by all! Happy Christmas everyone and happy gardening, from the Three Mudketeers.
22 | DECEMBER 2016
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GET GROWING
HARDTIMES NO MORE The Workhouse Museum Garden in Ripon has a fascinating history and at the same time it maintains a thriving kitchen garden, as Martin Fish discovered 34 | DECEMBER 2016
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KITCHENGARDEN
GROWINGGUIDE
CITRUS Oranges are not naturally orange! Our familiar orange fruit are a hybrid and we have come to expect to see their bright sunny colour in the shops. However, the colour of natural species such as tangerines tends to vary from green to orange depending on how much sun and heat they receive. In very hot climates they tend to remain green thanks to the chlorophyll in their skin.
I
f you have ever taken a holiday in warmer climes, you’ll have seen (and envied) the ease with which citrus of all types grow in orchards, gardens and as street trees, but it is perfectly possible to grow them here too. They just need a little more TLC.
GROW YOUR OWN G&T
The secret to good citrus is to keep them growing (as far as possible) all year round. The fruit take a long time to mature in our climate and this improves your chances of success no end. Plants ideally require a minimum temperature of 10C (50F), although they will generally
58 | DECEMBER 2016
Growing your own oranges, lemons, kumquats and limes, even grapefruits, is perfectly possible if you have a frost-free place to keep them through the winter months. Steve Ott offers some top tips and fun festive facts to encourage you to grow these exotic fruits
survive 7C (45F) for short periods before suffering damage. From June onwards (July in northern districts), plants benefit from being moved outdoors where flowers (which may appear all year round) can be pollinated and the plants will enjoy the rainfall. Regular feeding is essential and some specialists sell a summer (high nitrogen) and a winter (low nitrogen) feed especially for these plants. Your plants should thrive, however, if just given monthly feeds from April to September with the summer fertilisers or a good high-nitrogen houseplant food.
Avoid growing your plants in centrally heated rooms since the atmosphere is generally too dry, causing leaf scorch and encouraging red spider mite. Misting the leaves regularly with a fine spray and occasionally incorporating some foliar feed will help keep the plants happy and healthy. Water regularly during the growing season using rainwater or tap water which has stood for a few days, keeping the compost just moist. In winter allow the surface to dry out between waterings. Repot each spring using a loam-based compost such as John Innes no 2 or 3. Once plants are in as large a container as you can accommodate (or move) simply scrape off the www.kitchengarden.co.uk
FRUITY CORE GET GROWING
The best way to choose a new apple variety for your garden is to taste one and with that in mind the KG team took on the onerous task of taste-testing some delicious varieties
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nless you know your apples and We were lucky enough to be given a number have a favourite already in mind, it of varieties to try by one of the country’s top can be hard to decide which variety fruit growers, R V Roger Ltd which is based to choose when it comes to finding in Pickering, North Yorkshire. They gave us a one for your garden. mixture of varieties old and modern and Of course there are other things most of our selection were picked to apart from flavour that might be perfect for eating straight from “Unless you influence your choice; you the tree from mid-September, so know your apples early to mid-season, rather than might want a cooker or an eater, a late or early being great for storing as is the and have a maturing type, or one case with many late varieties. favourite already that will store well into We took them along to in mind, it can the winter. However, of the famous National Trust all those things flavour be hard to decide property of Clumber Park has to be key and for that near Worksop in North which variety reason we always recommend Nottinghamshire, itself rightly to choose” popping along to one of the famous for its collection of local many apple tasting days that apple varieties, to give them a try with take place around the country in the the help of Chris Margrave, Clumber’s autumn to try some for yourself. head gardener. Here is our verdict.
WORCESTER PEARMAIN This is a red-flushed eater from the 1870s which is best eaten straight from the tree. It is very easy to grow and partly self-fertile but will crop best if planted alongside other varieties which flower at the same time, or with crab apples or other apple trees nearby. It is flowering group 3 and the blossom is said to have good frost resistance. It is a tip bearer, which means that care is needed when pruning not to remove the fruiting spurs at the ends of the branches. For this reason it is not the best for a trained tree such as a cordon, but better grown as a bush tree with only a proportion of the oldest branches cut back to a healthy bud in winter each year. The fruit tends to be on the smaller size, but many prefer this. ACIDITY SWEETNESS TEXTURE (1SOFT/5CRUNCHY)
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YULETIDE YULET With the festive season firmly in her sights Anna Pettigrew serves up some sumptuous Christmas crackers, featuring mixed herbs, parsnip and beetroot
Smother in herb butter!
YOUR VIEWS
LAST WORD
For nearly 20 years Alan Titchmarsh has been one of Britain’s most cherished gardening experts. The Yorkshire-born horticulturalist has also made his mark on the world of novel writing and broadcasting but his love of nature will always come first
W
hen Ground Force first brought the televised garden makeover to the waiting masses back in 1997, its widespread appeal firmly cemented Alan Titchmarsh as the UK’s most recognisable horticulturalist. Due in part to his kindly charm and affable style, he continues to be one of TV’s most trusted green-fingered authorities. Now 67 years old and a bona fide national treasure, Titchmarsh remains suitably evergreen. With 10 novels and the equivalent number of non-fiction books on everything horticultural to his name, the Yorkshire native has carved out a career spanning journalism, novel-writing and broadcasting – but he feels most at home in the great outdoors. “I started when I was about nine or 10 in the back garden, where I made a little greenhouse,” he reminisces. “I just always liked all parts of nature – it’s always been part of me.” Titchmarsh continues:“The garden is the nearest bit of natural history to use, so I sowed seeds and they came up, and when you have a bit of success in something, it emboldened me to take cuttings and get roots on them and things like that. I always felt comfortable in a garden, and I still do.” Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to imagine Titchmarsh doing anything other than rising from behind a rhododendron bush with soil-flecked palms and a cheery grin, but his many other pursuits allude to a creative force that he expresses through any possible medium. “I am a creative sort of person. In the garden I like beautifying the landscape and making things look nice, whereas with a novel I’m quite keen to have good structure, good rhythm,” he explains. “I’ve written fiction and nonfiction. It’s always good to have a different tack and to try a different mindset – I enjoy them both immensely.”
Alan likes the way nature offers something different each season, including autumn raspberries
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GROW FLOWERS ON YOUR PLOT TO IMPROVE YOUR CROPS
Guide to cultivating blooms on your veg plot
Top 10 annuals & 10 perennials to try
Easy guides to growing FREE ONLY WITH
Make your cut flowers last longer
DAHLIAS ✿ COSMOS ✿ SUNFLOWERS ✿ GARDEN PINKS ✿ NIGELLA ✿ SWEET PEAS & SO MANY MORE...
1 Dahlia These are the perfect cut flower for squeezing on to your veg plot or allotment. They come in a massive choice of colours and shapes so there are bound to be one or two that appeal. If very large blooms are not your thing you can choose the smaller daisy types or pompom ones. They are easy to grow but ideally the tubers need lifting after the first frost of autumn and storing in almost dry compost somewhere frost free and then planting out again the following spring once they start to produce shoots. At planting time provide three to four stakes around each plant and wrap string round these to support the growing stems. (Many suppliers including Woolmans: www.woolmans.com, tel 0333 003 1671)
2 Gypsophila This forms lovely frothy sprays of tiny white flowers which are often used in bridal bouquets. This is a real staple for the cut flower garden as it makes a wonderful foil for all the other cut flowers you grow. The classic one to grow is Gypsophila paniculata ‘Bristol Fairy’. It can grow to 1.2m (4ft) and is smothered in the tiny double white flowers in summer. Annual versions can also be grown, including pink and deep rose colours. Gypsophila likes a deep, light soil that is well drained. It won’t do well in a heavy soil that gets very wet in winter. It would be better grown in a large pot if you garden on heavy clay soil.
Here we have a few of our favourite perennial flowers which will keep coming up year after year, giving you lots of flowers to cut for the house. As a bonus many will also encourage beneficial insects to your plot. They could be grown in rows among your veg or in blocks at the end of a veg plot or allotment.
3 Gladiolus
These have fallen out of favour a bit in recent times but it is a shame because these blousy, bright-coloured blooms are so striking. There are lots to choose from including a fabulous mix of purple, white and blues called ‘Midnight Mix’ from Dobies of Devon. Gladiolus ‘Green Star’ is lime green and a very fashionable colour. Place in a vase with some deep purple dahlias or gladioli and some frothy dill heads and you have a very modern striking arrangement (see www.sarahraven.com). If you prefer more diminutive gladioli then go for the smaller Gladiolus nanus. These are a bit shorter with more delicate blooms. They come in a range of colours especially pink, some with flecks of deeper pink or white. Plant the corms in spring about 10cm (4in) apart and consider some form of support for the taller flowers especially on exposed sites and if growing in rows. Some people lift the corms in the autumn but it is worth experimenting to see if they can be hardy and left out on your plot over the winter. When harvesting the flowers, cut just when the lowest two or three florets are beginning to open. Leave as much of the foliage on the plant as possible as this feeds the bulb for the following year. (www.dobies.co.uk, www.sarahraven.com)
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