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READY, STEADY, GROW
by Dales Life
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New to growing your own veg? Autumn is the perfect time to get started, says Adam Appleyard
ith prices in the shops rising, and supplies sometimes patchy, growing your own fresh vegetables is an undeniably appealing option. But if you’re new to vegetable gardening, how and when should you take the plunge?
The mistake most novice gardeners make is to think that the gardening year starts in spring. Yes, that’s when garden centres are busiest, but you’ll be missing a trick if you let your borders or containers stand empty until winter has come and gone. For bumper crops in the coming year, right now is the time to get busy. And here’s what to plant.
BROAD BEANS
Fresh broad beans are one of my favourite vegetables, and the harvesting season is always over far too quickly for my liking. Fortunately, though, you can extend next year’s cropping season by sowing a few rows of beans this October, and then sowing further rows the following spring.
The trick to success with autumn sowings is choosing the right variety, and for my money you can’t beat ‘Aquadulce Claudia’.
Sow your beans in a sunny spot, 5cm deep and 10–15cm apart, in double rows. Each pair of rows should be 30cm apart and separated from the next pair of rows by an access path of 60cm, otherwise you won’t be able to squeeze into the thicket to pick your bean pods!
Your beans will germinate in a week or two and will happily survive an average winter, although during exceptionally severe cold it would be advisable to protect young plants with horticultural fleece.
WINTER ONIONS
Most gardeners plant onion sets (baby onions) in spring, but providing your soil isn’t prone to winter waterlogging you can plant hardy varieties up until the end of October. Suitable and readily available cultivars include ‘Senshyu’, ‘Radar’ and ‘Electric’.
Autumn-sown onions will crop a month earlier than spring-sown ones but they don’t keep well, so only sow as many as you can use before your springsown onions mature.
Plant onion sets in a sunny spot with the pointed end uppermost and the tip just visible above the soil. Space sets 15cm apart, with 30cm between rows. Onions hate competition, so keep your onion patch scrupulously weed-free. Apart from an initial drench you’re unlikely to need to water them again until spring.
SPRING CABBAGE
Spring cabbage is a sweet, loose-leaved cabbage that will overwinter well and can be eaten as early as March.
Ideally you should sow spring cabbage in August, but for the price of a packet of seeds it’s worth taking a bet on a mild autumn and sowing a row or two in September. Alternatively look for plug plants at your local nursery or garden centre.
Sow seed – or plant plug plants – 30cm apart in firm, rich, fertile soil in a sunny spot. Water well twice a week if the weather is dry.
In spring, start by harvesting alternate plants in each row, leaving the remaining cabbages extra space and light to grow even bigger.
OPENING PAGES: LEFT Harvesting Broad Bean ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ RIGHT Basket of Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Lollo Rossa’ THIS PAGE: TOP Allium ‘Billy Lamb’ – onions growing with support LEFT Spring cabbage
GARLIC
Whereas planting broad beans or onions in autumn is optional, planting garlic before Christmas is a must! Unless newly planted garlic cloves experience a decent spell of cold weather they won’t bulk up and yields will be disappointing.
Plant individual garlic cloves in decently fertile soil in a sunny spot, placing them pointy ends upwards 2–3cm below the surface of the soil. Space them 15cm apart, in rows that are 30cm apart. If birds start pulling them up you might want to cover them with wire cloches or horticultural fleece until they are well rooted.
‘Solent Wight’ is a good, hardy variety that stores well, as is ‘Germidour’. ‘Elephant garlic’ (Allium ampeloprasum) is, strictly speaking, a type of leek, but it produces massive cloves that are distinctly milder in flavour than traditional garlic.
SPINACH
Spinach is another nutritious leafy green vegetable that you can grow all year round, providing you choose varieties appropriate to the season. ‘Giant Winter’, ‘Perpetual’ and ‘Atlanta’ are good options for sowing any time from now until the end of October.
Pick a sunny spot on well-drained, fertile soil. Sow your seeds by using your trowel to make a drill (a long groove in the soil) 2cm deep. Sow your seeds thinly along the drill, then cover over with soil, firm down and water well. When seedlings appear, thin them to 15cm apart.
Once your plants are established they won’t mind wintry conditions, although they will become dormant in December and January unless the weather is exceptionally mild. Late winter is a good time to give them a boost with nitrogen-rich liquid fertiliser.
LETTUCE
Lettuce seeds can be sown from now until midNovember. ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Winter Density’ are good choices for autumn plantings. As per spinach, sow your seeds in 2cm drills in well-drained, fertile soil, and thin seedlings to 15–20cm apart. If you have a cold frame or plastic cloches you can protect your crop against cold snaps and hungry wildlife. Lettuce is also perfect for growing in containers. You can even grow lettuce in pots inside on a sunny windowsill. ‘Tom Thumb’, ‘Lollo Rossa’ and ‘Baby Oakleaf’ are good choices for growing indoors.
When it comes to harvesting, you can either cut off individual leaves or the whole head. Provided you leave the roots and a couple of centimetres of stem behind, the lettuce varieties mentioned here will almost certainly sprout new leaves, usually remarkably promptly. Following your second harvest you are best off replacing your plants. But by then, hopefully, the days will have lengthened and summer will be looming on the horizon!
THIS PAGE: TOP Raised bed with salads, cabbage and onions BELOW Spinacia oleracea ‘Matador’
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