Grow Your Own Vegetables

Winter tasks

2008-11-24T13:37:00.003Z

This time of the year allows us to do all those things we didn't have time to do during the growing season.

Clean all your tools and put them in the shed. Tools easily rust if not cared for and their lifespan greatly reduced. Today I cleaned my scythe, gave the blade one last sharpen for the year and then put oil on the blade to keep the moisture off.

Outside in the garden, I tidied up anything that could become a haven for slugs and snails. My neighbour's pear tree had lost most of its leaves in our garden. Instead of disposing of the leaves I raked them into the soil so the worms can have a good feed.

I didn't have half enough containers to grow in this year and so I shall advertise on Freecycle and see if anyone has large tubs to give away.

Soon it will be December and I can put some of this year's potato crop on the windowsill to chit. By February there will be plenty of green shoots on the potatoes and they can then be buried in tubs to grow as next year's potato crop.

Urban farming

2008-11-02T10:41:00.005Z

You will be surprised how much food there is in an urban area that goes unnoticed by the public. With the credit crunch and looming recession I have noticed many people this year, harvesting food from the roadsides.

There are many patches of rough land in urban areas, ideal for blackberries to grow upon. I saw many people this year picking blackberries for the first time. In other areas there were Elder trees straining with masses of elderberries.

I myself found three cherry trees. In the same park there were crab apples, which although not desert apples make good apple pies and can be mixed with blackberries for jam. Nettles are overlooked and have much potential as a green in soups or for colouring and flavouring past in place of spinach or for making nettle beer.

Recently published is a new book by Andy and Dave Hamilton called The Self Sufficient-ish Bible. The book is full of excellent ideas on foraging for food, growing your own food in small areas and other excellent money saving tips.

Buy the book from Amazon - The Self Sufficient-ish Bible

Time to mulch

2008-10-18T13:41:00.004+01:00

After cropping, your vegetable patch is probably looking a little forlorn. All there is to see is brown earth. Weeds are probably starting to grow but they are to be expected because nature doesn't like to see bare earth.

Soil needs to be fed so nature wants weeds to grow to produce dead matter, in the future, to litter the surface of the soil. Now, you could weed the soil but the worms below will get rather hungry. There is nothing a worm prefers to do more than convert waste vegetable matter into humus.

I often see people with urban flower gardens constantly tidying up the soil. Anything dead is immediately cut or removed from the soil and thrown away. These same people will then buy compost or expensive liquid fertiliser to feed their barren soil.

A far better thing to do is to compost dead matter yourself so you don't have to buy compost. Also you should adopt nature's way of composting, which is to mulch. Mulching is the laying down of dead matter upon the surface of the soil, whereupon it rots and is dragged below the surface by worms. Mulch covers the soil with a protective layer, which reduces the amount of weeds that grow. This layer is also a valuable feed for worms to convert into humus.

Now, you could go out and buy mulch but we don't do that. Do we? At this time of year you will find mulch lying everywhere. Take a walk to a local park or anywhere where there are trees. You will see plenty of mulch in autumn, in the form of leaves. Grab a few bin bags and fill them with leaves. Cover the bare earth, in your garden, with free mulch.

If you are lucky enough to live by the sea then bring home as much seaweed as you can. Remember to wash the seaweed through, by washing it with rainwater away from the soil.

Do you have access to wood? A shredding machine can make wood chips to mulch your soil with too. Wood takes longer to break down so remember not to overdo mulching with wood. Mix it in with other matter too.

You can also mulch with cardboard boxes, the brown kind that come from supermarkets. Cover your bare soil with cardboard and then early next year dump the contents of your compost heap on top of the cardboard. The cardboard will have kept the weeds down and then rot away under the compost.

It's that time of the year again

2008-10-09T13:23:00.005+01:00

That time of the year when your head is buried in a seed catalogue, deciding what to grow next year.

I still have no idea where I am going to be living next year so I will be container growing again. This limits me but I will still be growing potatoes. I have kept about 30 small potatoes from this year's crop, as seeds for next year. That will save me having to buy any more seed potatoes.

I eat a lot of onions and shallots so they'll be on the list. Onions will have to be planted within the next couple of weeks, if I am to get big bulbs next autumn. As long as I travel to my new destination afore spring then I can keep the onion seedlings in seed trays until then. Shallots can be sown next year.

My salad greens can be grown from spring onwards, as they are relatively fast growers and don't need to be grown until I have moved.

Other than that, I won't be growing anything that takes up a lot of space or has deep roots and can't be container grown. I need mobile vegetables that can be moved around in a trailer when it is time to move.

A nice haul of potatoes

2008-09-15T17:30:00.006+01:00

This year I grew Desiree potatoes. Halfway between waxy and floury, Desiree are an all round potato, which can be boiled, roasted or chipped.

The pinkish skins are more than edible so they can be left on and boiled. Yesterday, I made a nice Spanish dish with chorizo, fried onions, carrots, potatoes, tomato sauce and half a teaspoon of pimenton dulce to thicken and flavour the sauce.

I grew most of the potatoes in two large tubs, with a few others grown in the soil. The total crop was about twice what you see in the photograph. I like these potatoes more than the Cara potatoes I used to grow so I will keep many of the smaller potatoes as seeds for next year's crop.

Nowhere to grow?

2008-08-10T20:30:00.002+01:00

Even if you don't have much of a garden or backyard you can still grow food in containers. You'll be surprised as to how much can be grown in a pot. A couple of pots can produce all the salad greens you can eat during the summer.

For those who are more ambitious, and want to grow all of their vegetables, but still don't have the space you will have to look further afield. You may be lucky to find a friend or neighbour who is willing to lend you the use of their garden. In return you can split your crop with them.

Another alternative is an allotment. These are plots of land rented out by your local council. They are getting and more popular so you may well have to go on a waiting list. Travel around your town and you will see plots of land set aside for vegetable growing. They will have a sign on the front gate with a phone number with which to enquire about getting a plot.

Take a look at the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners for more information.

NSALG - National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners

Humanure

2008-07-07T16:20:00.003+01:00

Many growers will have made their own compost. Some will also have added horse manure to their soil. However, there is a manure that is plentiful but, more often than not, goes to waste. Human manure, or humanure as it is often called, is simply a manure made from human waste.

The use of humanure is an emotive subject as many will be turned off by the mere thought of putting human waste to such good use. Many buy vegetables grown in horse, cow and pig manure so what is the problem with composting your own waste?

On my compost heaps I have always added my own urine. Not only does it enrich the compost but it saves on flushing toilets. Think of using a toilet like this. You fill a bowl with fresh drinking water, add your own poisonous waste, and then throw the water away. Madness? Of course it is.

Using urine in your garden is very simple. You can either pour it over your compost heap and let nature take its course or you can dilute it 10 to 1 and use it as a liquid fertiliser on the soil. If you are going to use it as a liquid fertiliser then it is best added to the soil and not sprayed directly onto a plant. Also, never use urine form a person on medication that may taint food with drugs.

Human waste solids are a slightly different prospect. They need about two years to break down before they can be added to the soil. To that end I recommend the building of a composting toilet.

For more information on Humanure I recommend The Humanure Handbook, which is available online. It can be viewed at http://www.weblife.org/humanure/.

If you want to buy the original book then it can purchased at Amazon.com in the US or Amazon.co.uk in the UK.

Nipping potatoes in the bud

2008-06-27T13:51:00.004+01:00

Everybody knows that potatoes are propagated with "seed potatoes". However, seed potatoes are not actually seeds and yet the potato plant does actually produce seed. That is why potato plants grow flowers.

If you left your potato plants in the ground long enough then the flowers would give way to seeds. However, we grow potato plants for their tasty tubers, which can also be used to grow next years potato plants.

Every year, when I crop my potatoes, I keep an eye out for suitable seed potatoes. Usually, potatoes that are smaller than the the size of an egg are kept to one side. These potatoes are stored in a cool dark place, just like the potatoes that will be eaten. Unlike the potatoes that will be eaten, these small potatoes are kept and chitted in December for planting during the following year.

So what of the flowers, the potato plants produce? Well, they are a waste of energy for the potato plant. It is far better to redirect that energy to tuber production. Whenever I see a flower bud on a potato plant, I nip it off.

Making cities fend for themselves

2008-06-24T11:53:00.002+01:00

London is actually 60% green space and Londoners could do a lot more to provide for themselves.

The current fuel and food crisis may not be as short lived as some may wish. Day and night, trucks and trains restock London's supermarkets. If London's food and fuel suppliers found higher bidders for their scarce food or fuel then what good is a highly paid job in a city that can't fend for itself in an emergency?

With so much green space going unused it is about time cities started growing more of their own food. The individual can start by growing in their gardens rather than leaving it to grow over with weeds. Flat roofs can be used for container growing and bee keeping.

You can grow a lot of food in a small space, even in a small yard or the balcony of a block of flats. If a city became deserted over night then within months it would be overgrown. Nature knows that things will grow in the most unlikely places. It's about time that humans knew this too.

BBC - Sowing the seeds of urban farming

Some thinking out loud about slug bashing

2008-06-21T22:55:00.005+01:00

The best way to avoid slugs from eating your choicest vegetables is to grow them in containers, off the ground and to ring fence the containers with slug pellets or salt.

At its simplest you could have a plank of wood resting on two bricks. The containers rest on the plank with a liberal sprinkling of pellets on the plank too. The two bricks provide the only way for the slugs to get on to the plank. If the containers were on the ground then slugs could descend upon the containers from any direction.

Another way would be to suspend your plank with rope from a wooden frame. I defy a slug to waste the night climbing up a frame and down a piece of rope. Come the morning a bird will have snapped up an easy meal before the slug gets anywhere near your plants.

Suspend and ring fence is the most effective method for fending off slugs. Anything planted in the ground will just have to be protected by a random sprinkling of pellets and damp nights spent on guard duty.

Make your own plant pots from paper

2008-06-18T13:03:00.002+01:00

A key aspect of growing your own vegetables is self-reliance. Too often people throw money at their "new hobby". They will get fresh vegetables but will have spent more money on them than buying the same vegetables from a supermarket.

The self-reliant vegetable grower will make do and mend at all costs. Making compost in a handmade compost bin rather buying chemical fertilisers or buying a compost bin. Growing vegetables in waste plastic containers that would otherwise be thrown away. A water butt made from a barrel rather than bought in a shop. All these add up to fresh and cheap vegetables at a time when food prices have more than doubled in the last few years.

More often than not, I grow my vegetables in plastic containers that I pick out of waste bins. There are those who would prefer not to use plastics in any way. For them there is the option of making pots out of paper. I did so myself when I was propagating willow. Here is how I made paper pots.

In the photo you can see a piece of 4-inch plastic pipe around which two sheets of newspaper are wrapped. A few inches of overlap at the end of the pipe allows paper to be tucked into the pipe to form the bottom of the pot.

The top of the paper pot is held together with a small piece of masking tape so that the pot does not unravel itself. The pots are filled with a 50/50 mix of riddled soil and compost. Cuttings or seeds are then put into the pots. Pots are placed in drums (as shown) so that they don't fall over.

In this photo I was planting willow cuttings but you can grow anything in paper pots. They are only good for one season. The beauty of paper pots is that they are bio-degradable, which was ideal for my willow cuttings. When the willow trees were able to fend for themselves I only had to dig a hole and place the paper pot in the ground. Nature would ensure that it was gone within a short time.

Tackling squeamishness

2008-06-16T11:42:00.003+01:00

In my previous post, and subsequent comments, I remarked that there is too much squeamishness with regards to insects on your vegetables.

Imagine buying vegetables in a supermarket. The insects that were on them and the chemicals that were sprayed on them to get rid of the insects. The grubby hands of the pickers, sorters and packers that handled the vegetables. The plastic the vegetables were encased in. The air miles travelled and that have left the vegetables less than fresh. The filthy hands of other shoppers picking up and throwing back the vegetables you just bought. And you have no qualms about eating those vegetables?

I know exactly what my vegetables grow in, the pests they suffer from and the cleanliness of the person that picks them. Flicking off a few insects with my finger and putting my vegetables straight into my mouth should not create a feeling of squeamishness. If it does then you have been full reprogrammed by the industrial food growers.

Over here, in the UK, there is a wilderness survival expert called Ray Mears. Watch a few of his television programmes. See how he eats wild food AND insects and is the healthiest person you will ever meet.

Greenfly

2008-06-11T10:34:00.004+01:00

Now that summer is here, greenfly and other such aphids start to be a problem. I picked a few leaves of lettuce yesterday and quite a few leaves had a mass of greenfly on them.

Found on the underside of leaves, where it is sheltered from the sun, greenfly are an asexual species that do not need to mate with another of their species. If you have ever watched on television, a greenfly reproduce then it would have filled you with horror. A single female, depositing eggs that are genetic copies of herself, one after another, on your valuable greens.

There are a variety of ways of killing them. For those who only grow flowers then the spray and forget method is often used. However, being an organic grower of vegetables I intend eating, spraying is not an option. Even using sprays which purport to do no harm to humans will require that you do not spray a day or two before cropping and then cleaning your vegetables thoroughly before consumption. As I enjoy doing a little grazing in the garden, I don't always clean my vegetables before eating them.

Greenfly are a harmless species. After all, they only eat your vegetables and so are full only of what you are growing. If you are a little squeamish about eating greenfly then spend an afternoon rubbing your finger along the underside of leaves to remove or squash the greenfly and eggs. Wash your crop if needs be.

The only thing to worry about with greenfly is when they start chomping through your hard work. Eating greenfly will not cause you harm so it is up to you as to how you address the problem. Rub then off or give them a taste of their own medicine.

The crispest lettuce I ever ate

2008-06-08T20:59:00.002+01:00

Well, after a lot of rain in May, and now a sunny spell at the beginning of June, my lettuces have grown quickly.

I fancied a ham and cheese sandwich so I went into the garden and plucked a few leaves to add to the sandwich. Biting into the sandwich my teeth crunched into lettuce that tasted better than anything I have eaten before.

Even the lettuce I grew in Ireland wasn't as good this. Over there I was running around growing so much that sometimes vegetables were left too long before eating them. Planning is all important when running a vegetable garden.

I look forward to eating a lot more home-grown lettuce. The food miles are good too, about 10 paces.

Time to commend a supermarket

2008-06-05T17:50:00.003+01:00

Much as I hate to do it but my local supermarket now stocks various herbs and lettuces still in their little bit of soil. You can buy any of the popular herbs like coriander, parsley, basil and chive, or three different lettuces all in the same bunch, take them home and put them in a pot to grow in. This keeps them fresh for far longer than buying loose herbs and lettuces and they continue to grow for a while longer whilst you use them up. Too often you buy vegetables, you don't use them all and the rest go off.

My local supermarket happens to be an ASDA. I know others that do herbs in pots but I have never seen lettuce sold in this way before. Ideal for those who are unable to start off from seed. It will save a little money for you.

Floods cover 40% of Jersey potato crop

2008-06-04T13:30:00.002+01:00

Flooding on the island of Jersey has left 40% of its Royal Jersey potato crop underwater and unreachable by farmers. Climate change could cause all kinds of problems in the future. Global warming could see farmers unable to grow potatoes in the south of England.

Telegraph - Jersey Royal potato wash out after floods

Manure

2008-06-03T09:42:00.003+01:00

Get it wherever you can, make it if you can't. Using manure is an excellent way to feed your vegetable garden. Manure is nature's way of recycling waste and feeding the flora.

If there is a horse owner near you then there is a good chance they are desperate to find people to take their manure from them. Given a choice, go for manure produced on a bed of wood chips. I find manure produced on straw takes a lot longer to break down. The long strands of straw make the manure difficult to handle too. Use a special manure fork for moving manure. A garden fork will make the job laborious and tiresome.

When I get a batch of horse manure I mix a load with my compost heap. There will be plenty of worms in the manure and they will get to work on your heap as well as the manure. Your finished compost will be very rich with the addition of manure.

I also use manure as a soil conditioner. In winter time I put a thin layer of manure on the soil and rake it in. By the time I get round to planting the worms have incorporated the manure into the soil.

When growing potatoes I use a 50/50 mix of compost and fresh manure to earth up the potatoes as they will grow in just about anything. After the potatoes have been lifted the soil will be very rich for the following season's carrot, onion and leek crop.

Another way to make manure, and reduce your water usage at the same time, is to make it yourself with a composting toilet. You will find many designs on the Internet for a composting toilet. You cover your doings with a thin layer of sawdust and empty out once a week into a drum outside. Two years later you have the very best of composts and a much reduced water bill.

Wild food in the garden

2008-06-03T09:23:00.003+01:00

It is surprising to see that nature provides even in a garden. The dandelion is regarded as a weed but it has many uses. Young leaves can be used as salad greens and taste like mustard greens. Unopened buds can be used in salads too. Older leaves need to be cooked rather like spinach. Dandelion flowers can be made into a wine and the root into a diuretic.

Many trees will provide a tasty snack. Look out for sweet chestnut trees, beech trees provide nuts, as do pine trees. The sap from a birch tree can be made into a wine.

Stinging nettles can be eaten too and are a good substitute for greens. Young leaves can be added to soups. A sprig of nettles can be heated over a fire to boil off the stinging chemicals.

Get to know all the wild plants and trees in your area and look them up in the literature. You may be surprised how much out there is edible. Not only will you be able to cultivate your garden but a trip to the countryside will increase the amount of food you can crop.

No-dig gardening and the tools required

2008-06-03T09:05:00.001+01:00

The tools you will require for vegetable gardening depend on what you intend growing and the condition of your soil. My most valuable tools are my hands so I take care of them. Because I am a no-dig gardener I don't need many tools.

Turning soil is bad for the soil and the ecosystem it supports. It's fine to break up a new patch that has not been cultivated for many years. The soil maybe hard or the weeds too thick. However, once you start cultivating a piece of ground there is no need to start turning the soil. No-dig gardening is the natural and best way of gardening.

The only tools I have are a garden fork for when necessity forces me to turn soil, a spade for moving compost from heap to garden, a manure fork for turning the compost heap and a rake for levelling the top of the soil and removing stones. Other than that, I am on my knees with my trusty hands. Weed pulling is best done with your hands. A hand is delicate and respectful of plants.

If I am not growing in no-dig deep beds then I am container growing, which makes things a lot simpler. You only need a pair of hands for container growing. You grab some compost, put it into the container and pop in your seeds. After harvesting from the container and there is enough time in the year remaining I might put a seed from a different plant type into the container.

If there is not time then I leave the container to one side and make a note of what was in it so that I can rotate the compost next year. Rotation is as important to container compost as it is to soil in your deep beds.

Large machines never see any plot of land I garden. I would never use a rotavator as it is far too invasive. Even for breaking up a new patch, I would prefer to use a fork, or pick axe if desperate. Machines are for industrial farming and the food that comes from industrial farming has more energy pumped into it than you will ever get from eating it.

Lettuce

2008-06-03T08:34:00.000+01:00

I eat lettuce nearly everyday during season as it is an excellent source of vitamins. In a sandwich, a salad or as a bed for pasta, lettuce is an excellent accompaniment to many meals. Lettuce comes in many varieties of colour, taste and texture. The ideal salad is a mixture of these qualities.

April is the best time to start sowing lettuce seed, after the frosts have abated. Don't sow all your seed at once, just a few of each variety. Lettuce grows quickly and then goes to seed whereupon it is less desirable.

Ideally, you want to stagger lettuce growth throughout the season so that you have a regular harvest. I never dig up a whole lettuce, I just cut off individual leaves as they reach maturity. With seed sowing staggered by the week I ensure that the garden is full of lettuce everyday.

Your choice of lettuce seed depends on your taste. By a wide variety of seed and experiment during the year. Maybe some lettuce varieties are not to your taste. Remember that a salad is a blend of tastes so don't eat a single lettuce, try a mixture of them.

In any case, lettuce is best sown thinly in rows and then thinned out as they grow to allow space for the lettuces to mature. The seed packet will give instructions for your particular variety. Lettuces can be grown in well drained containers too. Even window boxes can provide plenty of lettuce through the season.

Polytunnels

2008-06-01T14:53:00.000+01:00

Some people love them because they can extend their growing season or grow things they could never do in the open. However, some hate them because they might look like an unsightly plastic blot on a natural landscape.

If you have the space and accepting neighbours then a polytunnel can be a cheaper and more hardy alternative to a greenhouse. Essentially, a polytunnel is a galvanised steel frame over which a hard wearing sheet of polythene is placed.

From bitter experience make sure that your steel frame is anchored in concrete otherwise the wind will gradually work it loose in and it will fall down. If you suffer from very high winds in the winter then it is probably advisable to make the plastic covering a temporary one. Hold the plastic in place with clips and/or weights and put away the plastic during the winter.

Ensure the tunnel is not in the shade and has a southerly aspect. I had problems with birds, rodents and caterpillars so I had a door and netting at the entrance to keep them out.

Eventually, my tunnel was destroyed by 5 weeks of constant high wind speeds so make sure you either have wind breaks or better take the plastic down during the winter. My tunnel is now stored away until I find more suitable land to erect it upon.

Carrot

2008-06-01T14:20:00.000+01:00

Nothing could be easier than growing carrots. Pop a seed into the ground, remember never to transplant the carrot because they don't like that, keep the slugs off and six months later you have a tasty addition to a stew or roast.

I tend to grow my carrots in long strips interspersed with lines of onions. The theory goes that carrot fly doesn't like onions and onion fly doesn't like carrots. I've never had carrot or onion fly. Either I'm lucky or the theory is true.

Carrot seed is too small and fiddly to sow individually so try and so as finely as possible. You can then thin them out as they grow bigger and eat some baby carrots before the main crop in September.

Slugs love carrots so I don't winter them in the ground. I harvest all my carrots, cut off the green tops and put the tops into the compost heap. I give the rest of the carrot a good wash, slice them and boil them just long enough to cook the outsides. The slices are then arranged into a single layer on a plate and put into the freezer. As soon as they are frozen I bag the carrot slices until they are needed.

The reason for boiling them before freezing is that ice crystals form in the outside of a raw carrot. The carrots are still edible but not such good eating.

Container growing

2008-06-01T14:02:00.000+01:00

Never sure if your plastics are actually recycled? Do you have limited space for growing? Is soil and compost at a premium in your garden. Try container growing.

After a week of consuming milk, yoghurt, drinks etc. you are left with a pile of very useful plastic containers. Instead of giving them to others to recycle why not convert them into growing containers? In that way you will save money spent on buying flower pots and can use it for buying seed instead.

The bottoms of large milk containers can be cut out and used for pots. A deep one can grow two carrots, an onion or some salad greens. An old pallet can be broken up and a tray made to hold a number of them. If space is scarce you can put the racks of containers on top of garden sheds or garages. You will be surprised how much can be grown in a small place.

I use yoghurt pots for starting off seedlings. Drink bottles as mini propagators. Milk containers for large pots. If I see a discarded paint tub or plastic lubrication oil drum then I will pop it into my car and take it home. Large blue barrels that you see in industrial areas or stranded on beaches have many uses. They can be converted into compost bins or cut in half to create two potato growing tubs.

With container growing no compost goes to waste. You have the exact amount of compost for growing a plant and no more. At the end of the season, because you know what was growing in the container, you can rotate the compost (with a little new compost added) for another plant type the following year.

Growing your five a day

2008-06-01T13:30:00.000+01:00

We are all told to eat five a day of fruit and vegetables. Some diets ask you to minimise your meat intake and pile on the vegetables. With the price of oil affecting the price of all foodstuffs we have to be more choosy.

There is not much you can do about meat when you live in a town house other than to cut down on meat intake. Growing vegetables is easily done in a kitchen garden.

Since changing my diet to a more continental one, I eat a lot of olives, olive oil, some bread, a minimal amount of cured meat and as much salad greens as my plate can take. The supermarket will charge me £1 per day for the pleasure of heaping salad greens on my plate. That s a lot of money over the course of year.

And yet, salad greens are very easy to grow. They grow quickly too. Buy a variety of seeds to give a balanced salad. I like a mix of lettuce, rocket, chicory and radicchio. The seed costs me about £6 and I get a season of healthy eating.

Loose leaves I cut and eat. I prefer to leave the plant in the ground as long as I can before it bolts and goes to seed. When I take a lettuce from the ground it starts to go off and I find I am rushed into eating it. Pleasant eating is something that should never be rushed.

Make your own mini propagators

2008-06-01T12:50:00.000+01:00

Even though I gave up drinking cola the bottles make great propagators. Just cut out the middle section. The top, with the bottle lid, sits on top of the bottom, which has a few drainage holes cut into it. The middle section isn't wasted. I use them to ring fence small seedlings in my deep beds from too much but not all slug attacks.

Weeds

2008-06-01T12:47:00.001+01:00

The bane of all gardeners, weeds will take over any soil that is left bare. Nature doesn't like to see it's soil bare so it covers itself up with a green mat as soon as it can.

In a way we should be grateful of nature's modesty for without cover wind will blow the soil away and the rain wash it away. At least the weeds' roots keep the soil intact.

However, when you are trying to grow food in your vegetable garden then weeds are a nuisance. They compete with your vegetables for water and nutrients. Their roots constrain the roots of your vegetables.

There are two main methods of dealing with weeds. The old fashioned way is to dig them up or poison them. Even Tom and Barbara Good in the TV comedy self-sufficiency show The Good Life had a rotavator (which they also used for their urban transport!) but some of us might think that antiquated now.

Poisoning vegetables is to be avoided if possible. I have a large gravel track leading from the road to the house and it's just too much to weed. I have no choice but to use weed killer. But only there and nowhere else.

Today, through the art of permaculture, many of us take a cue from nature. Mulching and no-dig gardening is more natural, a lot less hard work than rotavating and better for the soil.

I still do a little work with the hoe but it's just too much back breaking work. And, if nature doesn't do it then why should I? Also, when you start poking around in the soil you are disturbing an ecosystem that is helping to feed the roots of your vegetables.

Weeds like any other plants need light to photosynthesise so if you don't want them to thrive then cut out their light source. Cover the soil around your vegetables. You can buy plastic sheeting for the job but a roll of black bin liners (American - trash can liners) is cheaper. Old fertiliser bags are good too.

Some gardeners even start the growing season with black plastic over their growing beds weighed down with stones top stop the plastic being blown away in the wind. They then poke holes through the plastic to plant seedlings. It's a matter of personal choice. Whichever style you prefer remember to put slug pellets underneath as plastic sheets make great slug motels.

I recently cut down some ghastly Leylandi trees that the previous owner had planted. I don't like non-indigenous trees so they had to go. One thing I will say though is that sap is very soft on the hands. Something for moisturising? The resin is as good as glue. The green evergreen bows are great mulch covers and I have them on patches of soil in the polytunnel to inhibit weed growth.

Wood chips are used for mulching too. I don't like to waste any part of a tree so small sticks are put through a shredding machine. But, as I am experimenting with wood gasification, my wood chips are for another use. Anyway, I find that weed seeds can find their way into the soil and germinate through wood chip mulch. A barrier of plastic, cardboard or something similar is better.

For cultivating a new patch of earth as quickly as possible you can't beat the no-dig approach. I have detailed that elsewhere. See Dig the no-dig

Permaculture

2008-05-30T13:24:00.000+01:00

Permanent agriculture (permaculture) is agriculture that can be sustained in the same place indefinitely. It is about giving back to the land as much as taking from it. Looking after the soil, protecting it from erosion, providing it with nutrients. So long as you work in a balanced way then there is no reason why you shouldn't cultivate the same land year after year.

Contrast that with the use of chemicals, over production and profit chasing. I highlighted one example in Spain recently in a right way and a wrong way. I myself live on a single acre of land. It might not sound much compared with farmers with many thousands of acres. However, I don't regard their work any differently to the work I used to do in the city. They are as trapped in the rat race as I was in London. Commercial farmers have to use chemicals to get unnatural yields from their land. The land can't handle it unless it is doused in chemicals, which isn't good for the land in the long term, for the food it creates or the people that eat it.

Of my acre of land, only a small part of it is set aside for vegetable growing. Another small area for six apple trees. I live in a valley that once had mile high glaciers flowing through it. You can still see boulders perched in odd places. My land is consequently very poor. Mostly rock. Any soil is very poor as it is just ground up boulders with very little humus. Consequently I have to make my own soil through composting. Vegetable scraps, tea bags, egg shells, seaweed, weeds, grass and wood chips all go into my compost bins and a few months later I have humus with which to improve my soil with.

There is no point digging through the back breaking rock so I just pile my home-made soil on top using the no-dig method. I also use containers and tyres fro growing in too. I have a large supply of big blue barrels. They are about the same size as 55-gallon drums and are always breaking free from the mussel farms where they hold ropes, upon which the mussels grow, anchored to the sea bed. Tyres are great for growing potatoes.

Not digging up the soil is the best thing for the soil. Every time you put your spade into the ground you are destroying tunnels created by earthworms and dislodging fungus and bacteria that break down dead organic matter into nutrients for plant roots. It's best off leaving it be and letting nature handle things itself. It was doing fine before man came along.

Remember that although man makes compost nature doesn't. It mulches. Dead things fall on the ground and nature breaks it down into nutrients. To that end always heed the saying, "Feed the soil and the plants will feed themselves." Earthworms will drag down what you place on top of the soil and nature will take care of it from there. It's also a lot less hard work!

Won't a compost heap smell and attract rats?

2008-05-22T17:18:00.001+01:00

Well, one thing leads to another. If you build a bad compost heap then it could well smell and attract rats, desperate to get inside.

When I ran a large compost heap in the countryside it meant that rodent visitations were to be expected. The walls of my compost heap were made from old pallets so if a wandering rodent discovered the pile then it was easy for the visitor to get inside. In fact I once found a rat living inside my compost heap. All to be expected when one lives in the countryside.

In an urban area a fully enclosed compost heap is a must. I made an urban compost heap for a friend a few months ago. We were talking about possible waste disposal charges and I explained to my friend that a bin was not necessary at all. After recycling and composting there should be little left that can't be popped into a bag and left in a public bin once a week.

I pointed out to my friend that his plastic bin was probably better off as a compost bin and so I was offered some tools. Before long the bin had become a composter. I drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the bottom of the bin to allow worms in and excess moisture out. To keep rats and mice out the bottom 6 inches of bin was buried in the soil. A brick was placed on the lid in case it fell off during the night and attracted rodents.

To avoid smells it is merely a case of carefully managing how you put waste into the composter. Layering of greens and browns is important. Don't just dump a load of fresh grass cuttings in the binas they will rot and create a pungent smell. Put a layer of grass in the composter and then some brown cardboard or dried weeds and grass left thinly spread on the lawn for a few days. Keep alternating the layers of brown and green matter. Ensure that the top layer is always brown.

When adding kitchen waste ensure there is no meat, skin or bones. These should be dried and burnt. The charred remains can then be composted. Always cover the kitchen waste in the composter with a top layer of brown material. Stove ash and urine can be added whenever it is available. Try not to put too much ash in but no amount of urine is too much.

My friend now has three converted dustbins and has not been visited by the bin men since I built his first composter. Give it a try. The UK government wants to charge everyone for throwing out waste so we could all be composting in the near future.

Storing potatoes

2008-05-01T16:57:00.000+01:00

I received a good comment from 'Silver Satori' at The Perpetual Blog. He asks,

"...how long can potatoes be kept before they lose any taste and nutrition?? .... I've had some in a sack in a cool and dark cupboard for nearly a month now, there starting to feel a tad soft, are they still alright to eat?"

I have a few soft potatoes myself and they are fine to eat. So long as they are not green then they are edible. Potatoes are a member of the Deadly Nightshade family and green means poison. To that end potatoes need to be stored in darkness to prevent them from turning green.

You might also find your potatoes growing eyes. This is because they are starting to grow a new potato plant in the sane fashion as a seed potato. Eyes can simply be rubbed off and the potato treated as normal for the purpose of cooking.

White powdery mould might be seen on the skins. Peeling will solve that problem. So long as the mould is not coming from within then the potato can be eaten.

The best way to store potatoes is in a hessian (aka burlap) sack. Such a sack will allow the potatoes to breath and prevent them from going mouldy. The sacks are then placed in a dark store room that is open to the winter cold but is dry and free of rodents. Ideally potatoes like a cold humid place.

Others use potato clamps (a ground store made of hay and earth) to store their potatoes or just leave them in the ground. I have rats where I live. They often dig out bad potatoes or potato skins from my compost heap so I know that a clamp would not last long. If I leave potatoes in the ground for too long then slugs might happen upon them too.

My own potatoes were dug up in September and kept in sacks until required for the table. In February I had eaten them down to the last two sacks. Most of the potatoes at the top of the sacks had developed 3-inch eyes so these were rubbed off and those potatoes put in the kitchen for eating that week.

The rest of the potatoes were put into the fridge. I have heard others say that the fridge promotes the conversion of starch into sugar so the potatoes taste a little sweet. I must say that I have not noticed this. Besides I only use the fridge for storing potatoes that will be eaten within the next few weeks so I don't think it matters.

Needless to say, supermarket potatoes are not grown to last. You won't buy a bag of supermarket potatoes and still be eating them 6 months later. Grow your own. You get the precise potato you want to eat and we are all fussy about which potatoes we like.

Everything onion

2008-04-30T19:50:00.000+01:00

Onions are my number one crop. In contrast, I don't eat potatoes everyday. My starch intake is split between rice, pasta and potato. Of course, I don't produce my own rice or pasta so maybe the future will see increased potato consumption.

A day rarely passes when I don't eat an onion. Be it stews, curries, pastas, Mexican or Spanish dishes there is always the ubiquitous onion, which adds greatly to the flavour.

Planting

I grow onions (Ailsa Craig variety) from seed and start planting the previous year in September. Planting about 40 seed at a time, once a fortnight and I continue doing so until about March. That spreads the cropping over the summer and autumn months so that I am not inundated with onions at any one time. They have to last right through to the following year.

Ailsa Craig produces delicious and often large onions. Some are the size of grapefruit and can be cut in halves, one half for today and the other for tomorrow. When the bulbs are young and small they can be harvested for spring onions too.

I've never used onions sets (small onion bulbs grown the year before, dug up and stored for replanting the following year) simply because I have no problems growing from seed. Seed is much cheaper anyway. A euro would buy a hundred onion sets but many hundreds of seeds.

Another reason for not using sets is that a percentage go to seed immediately on replanting without growing to a large bulb thus increasing the cost of producing the finished article. Why bother growing onions, digging them up at young age and then start growing them again the following year? Seems like a way for lazy people to buy and grow onions without the trouble of seed trays and transplanting. Sets are not for me.

I have heard that you can cut the bottom half inch off an onion and replant it and its roots back into the soil for a fresh crop the following year. I did try it but without success. Maybe Ailsa Craig is not a variety that permits that. There are onion types such as shallots and potato onions that can divide and self-propagate perennially. Something to look into but for now I love my Ailsa Craigs.

Harvesting

When the bulb is fully formed the top will collapse and all the greenery will lie on the soil. The onions can still be left in the ground, as with our potatoes the best way to preserve some vegetables is to leave them where they are until needed. Onions should not be left in the ground over the winter like leeks as they will begin next year's growth and the flesh won't make good cooking.

At some point you will have to lift the crop to cure and store them. Onions that will be required over the next few months can just be cleaned and left in the fridge. I haven't tried freezing any yet as I do with say my carrot crop but it is something I will look into.

Usually onions are cured and stored. Remove the roots, clean off the soil, and leave in the sun to dry. This will produce a dried brown outer layer of skin that will help preserve the onion and prevent new leaf growth. Personally, I don't create onion braids (a la French onion sellers on bicycles) as I don't have the time and storing them singly suits me fine.

Sales of vegetable seed increase

2008-04-22T12:27:00.000+01:00

Environmental and health concerns, increasing food prices and the credit crunch mean that more people are growing their own vegetables.

It costs £1 for a bag of salad greens that will last me a day but the same £1 can provide me with seed to grow enough greens for a year. The maths is simple £1 or £365.

The UK saw a 32% drop in the purchase of flower seed but a 31% increase in the sale of vegetable seed.

Many people are tired of eating industrial food from the supermarket. Allotments (plots of land rented from the local council for growing your own veg) are seeing a resurgence with many allotments having five year waiting lists.

The difference in taste is obvious to all who grow their own vegetables. Not only that but you grow those varieties that you enjoy eating the most. I know what I like and only through growing my own do I get exactly what I want.

Guardian - Digging in: Britain's green revolution on the home front

Why grow your own vegetables?

2008-01-12T18:18:00.002Z

There are many reasons why you should grow your own vegetables.

Health

You will be growing organic food with no artificial fertilisers or pesticides. The food you eat will be natural and unadulterated. You will also get a lot of exercise from running a vegetable garden.

Taste

Nothing beats the taste of the exact variety of vegetables you like to eat, freshly picked from your own garden.

Cost

Buying a bag of salad greens from your local supermarket will last one day. For the same price you can buy enough seed to grow all the salad greens you will eat for a year.

Local Food

With increasing oil prices, the price of food distribution will be a large component of your shopping bill. By sourcing your food from local producers you decrease the size of your food bill. By growing as much of your own food as you can you reduce your food bill to the minimum.

Food when you need it

Vegetables can be stored, preserved or just left in the ground (depending on the vegetable) until you need it.

Building a compost heap

2008-01-07T23:55:00.000Z

Nature mulches but humans compost. When vegetation dies or an animal defecates then the waste matter falls on top of the soil in the form of mulch. Earthworms drag the matter underground and digest it. Also beneath the soil is bacteria which digest this rotting material too. These processes turn waste into humus that enrich the soil with nutrients and allows the soil to retain water.

We achieve a similar effect with composting. This is done by piling stuff such as vegetation, kitchen waste, ash, and seaweed on to a compost heap. In so doing we are creating manure without having to pass it through an animal.

Building a Compost Bin

First you must decide where to put your compost bins. The best place is to have it as close to where the compost is going to be used. Mine are right next to my deep beds and polytunnel. They sit on the soil so there is good drainage and doesn't get water logged in heavy rainfall. There is some cover from direct sunlight from the trees nearby. You neither want the heap to be too wet nor too dry.

For my needs four bins is about right. For a small urban setup then one or two bins would be sufficient. Usually, I have two active bins. One is full and is rotting down whilst a new one is being filled. Eventually, the two bins are merged as the material rots down further. The two outer bins contain finished compost.

The photo above shows my four bins made from discarded pallets held together with bailing twine. The outer bins have compost in them, the second from the left is being turned into the bin second from the right with the pallet door in front of it.

My open bins are fine in a rural environment. For people in urban areas open bins might attract scavenging animals and result in infestations that will annoy your neighbours. There are many plastic composting bins on the market with lids to keep vermin away. For my needs a commercially made bin is too small so make sure you get the right size for the amount of material you intend composting.

I have also seen compost bins made from car tyres stacked on top of each other. Again, a little small for my needs but a cheaper alternative to manufactured compost bins for people in urban areas.

A close up of my third bin shows breathing tubes made from four-inch wide plastic water tubes drilled with three-quarter-inch holes. If a compost heap can be thought of as a cow's stomach then the tubes are its mouth and rear, allowing fresh air in and bad air out. These tubes allow the aerobic bacteria inside the heap to breath.

Almost anything organic can go into a compost bin. I have even put old fish heads in after a day's fishing at sea. It's not to be recommended though as it can attract rats. I live in the countryside so rats are everywhere but I always bury kitchen waste deep inside a heap so as not to attract vermin. A compost heap in an urban environment is a different matter so it's better not to risk attracting rats.

There is a lot written about mixing the right amount of brown and green material. It is not an exact science but generally 4 to 1 of brown to green matter is usual. This gives you the right mix of carbon and nitrogen.

For browns I use brown cardboard boxes. No matter how small the shopping list it always goes into a cardboard box from the supermarket. I am never without cardboard to go into the compost heap or to start a fire in the stove for that matter. Also, for brown material I leave some of my grass to grow and die.

My greens come from freshly cut grass, weeds and seaweed. Try and lift weeds and cut grass before they go to seed otherwise come spring you will have a nice lawn on top of your compost heap. It's happened to me in the past and I am now careful not to seed the heap.

When taking seaweed from the beach make sure that it is green. Many people wait until the storms in autumn because it rips seaweed from rocks and conveniently dumps it on the beach. By that time of year the seaweed is brown and has lost a lot of nutrients. It's far better to find a rocky beach and pluck fresh green seaweed. Your vegetable garden will love you for it. It won't love the salt though so leave it out in the rain for a few days or wash it in a rainwater bath provided by your water butt.

During the winter months your wood stove will be producing lots of ash. That too can go into the compost heap. If you have a garden shredder then shredded wood can be composted as your brown component. From the kitchen, any vegetable off-cuts, egg shells and tea bags can go on the heap.

Another ingredient I use is the famous "Number 1 Compost Initiator". It is also called Uric Acid. I'm not taking the piss, I'm giving it back with interest! Needless to say, I am the only provider. Rosie won't have anything to do with it. Besides her aim isn't so good.

Urine is good for a compost heap as it contains nitrogen, which is good for the soil. It also means fewer flushes of the toilet and less going into the septic tank. However, do not put faeces into a compost heap as they take much longer to breakdown than is usual for this kind of composting. A composting toilet is something I would like for the future and this would compost human waste over many years before it could be used on the soil.

Things I wouldn't recommend for the heap would be meat, pastry and bread. I leave it out for the birds during the morning before the rats get it at night. Nor would I put used vegetable oil in the heap. It could clog things up and it would be better used in a diesel engine converted to run on used vegetable oil.

The composting cycle

In a composting heap we attract the red worm species of earthworms. These like to live in and feed upon loose surface litter. That is why you need to turn your compost often so that it is loose enough for the red worms to perform their duties. Turning the compost also aerates the compost for aerobic bacteria.

I normally make a heap three feet high and then start filling another bin. After a number of days you will see the height of the compost heap fall. This is due to decaying matter inside the heap and the activities of the earthworms. If you push your hand a few inches into the heap you will be surprised to feel how hot it is inside there. This is the heat given off by the bacteria as they consume the organic matter.

During composting the heap will start to become compacted, which is not good for the kind of worms that inhabit your heap. They prefer lose material so it's time to turn the heap into another bin.

For turning a heap I prefer a proper manure fork. It's much easier to lift material than with an ordinary garden fork. In the photo below we can see a manure fork on the left. It has longer and thinner tines than the garden fork on the right. The manure fork has a longer handle too, which is good for the back, and can turn a compost heap in a fraction of the time it takes with a garden fork. Well worth the investment.

After a few months you are left with dark brown material such as in the photo below. Not as fine as potting compost with plenty of twigs, eggs shells and unrotted dry grass still visible but good enough for mucking and earthing up potatoes. It can also be placed on the soil for earthworms in the deep beds to drag under and feed upon. With a bit of riddling a decent enough potting compost can be created or added to fine riddled soil to create any texture of compost you require.

When you put compost on your soil it is best just to place it on the surface rather than digging it in. Many people break up their soil by hand or with a machine in the belief that turning the soil does it some good. Actually, it does not. Earthworms living in the soil create burrows in which they live. There is also bacteria and fungi beneath the soil, digesting matter and giving nutrients to plant roots. When you disturb the soil you are destroying an entire subterranean ecosystem.

One aspect of permaculture is the no-dig concept. Rather than turning the soil you simply cover weeds and grass with cardboard and place compost on top of it. The valuable soil ecosystem below is left unharmed and it's a lot kinder on an aching back too.

Rabbit proof deep beds

2007-04-07T12:31:00.000+01:00

So far this year, I have only seen hares in the garden. That probably means there won't be any rabbits this year. Thankfully, hares show no interest in my vegetables but to be on the safe side I have rabbit proofed my onion and carrot bed.

I built a frame using bamboo sticks that were cut from a nearby wood. This part of south west Ireland is bathed in the Gulf Stream so many exotic plants grow here. That means I don't have to buy bamboo sticks!

The sticks were lashed together with bailer twine to form the frame. A net was suspended from the frame using those plastic pipe cleaners (do they have a special name?) that hold power cables together in packing cases.

For planting and weeding it is just a matter of lifting the net and working away. The onion sets I produced last year have sprouted and so too have the carrot seed. I still have to lay down slug pellets though. Nothing is going to keep them out.

Growing potatoes in tyres

2007-03-24T10:15:00.000Z

Last year I experimented with growing potatoes in tyres. In the following photo we see a piece of cleared earth with cardboard placed on top to keep the weeds down.

Next, the tyre is fully filled with compost. Make sure that the inside of the tyre rim is filled too so that there is plenty of compost for the tubers to grow in. Press a seed potato into the compost to a depth of four inches or so. Cover the seed with compost and then water.

When the plant has grown to about 6 inches (15 cms) tall place a second tyre over the first and earth up, again making sure that the rim is filled too.

Three or four tyres will be needed for the plant to fully develop and yield a good crop of potatoes. At harvest time just kick over the tyres and separate them to reveal the crop. Make sure all the compost (including any stuck in the rims) is removed to where it can be used to grow a different crop the following season. Use new compost to grow next year's potatoes.

Seed potatoes in

2007-03-14T11:35:00.000Z

I planted 50 seed potatoes (Cara variety) in a deep bed today. The deep bed was created using the no-dig method. A ten feet by 4 feet area of grass was mown, covered with cardboard to keep the weeds down. The cardboard was then covered with a 50/50 mix of horse manure and compost.

The seed potatoes were spaced at 6 inches between each seed and 1 foot in from the side of the bed. A covering of 4 inches of soil was put over the seeds. Around the edge of the bed I have placed strips of chicken wire. I have a lot of problems with blackbirds throwing out soil whilst looking for worms.

The plants should be poking through the soil in a few weeks and then I shall start earthing up with semi-rotted compost. Potatoes are not fussy and will grown in anything. Indeed, potato plants are spouting up all over my compost heap from discarded potatoes and peelings from last year.

I noticed that a new plant can sprout from quite a small piece of potato peeling. There really is no need to waste a whole seed potato to grow just a single plant. I normally halve my seeds but after seeing plants grow from peelings I might try quartered seeds.

A blight free season to you all!

Vegetable growing - What not to do #6926

2007-03-03T12:40:00.000Z

As usual I make a mess of seed sowing. Seed for big onions needs to be planted in September of the previous year. Did I remember that? No.

I have seedlings popping up now but they won't produce the big bulbs I'm used to. I'll have to sow hundreds of seeds and hope the small bulbs provide all the onion I need.

I eat a lot of onions. Curries, pastas, chile con carne and stews are staple meals. An onion a day keeps... well, just about anyone away with onion breath.

In future I will keep my seeds in an old address card box, in order and with precise instructions as to when they should be sown.

Seed saving

2007-02-23T13:56:00.000Z

Seed saving is important for the self-reliant. Buying seed is a waste of money. It is natural for a vegetable to go to seed and provide you with all the seed you could want.

A lot of people worry about disease and genetic inbreeding. That is why building a seed bank amongst your neighbours is a good way of ensuring you have a bank of disease free and genetically diverse seed from which you can borrow. If you have a bad crop one year and can't produce enough seed for next year's crop then you just get some from other growers in your locality.

All vegetables produce seed and it is just a matter of allowing a few vegetables to grow beyond the point at which you would normally harvest them. There are some exceptions though. Onions live for two years before producing seed so you have to leave them in the ground over winter so you can collect the seed the following autumn.

Potatoes produce seed but it is more usual to grow future potatoes from the tubers themselves. I usually set aside potatoes that are egg sized as candidates for next year's crop. They can then be chitted on a window sill during January and February before planting in March.

Being a member of a seed saver group allows you to try a few seeds rather than buying a full packet. If you like what you have grown then you can get more seed the next time.

I was in the village a few weeks ago meeting other organic growers and talking about seed swapping. It is good to meet and talk about our different techniques. We also discussed the possibility of setting up a stall for selling our excess vegetables.

Dig the no-dig

2006-08-27T13:40:00.000+01:00

A hot day today so I thought I would go outside, get bitten by midges and horseflies and build a no-dig deep bed. Why do horseflies have to bite such a big hole in your legs? I am quite happy to blood let myself and leave a saucer outside for them.

Anyway, as you can see I cut the grass short (that should keep the prudish neighbours happy), covered the area of the bed with brown cardboard and surrounded the bed with old timber. I am in the process of filling it with year-old compost to a depth of six inches.

The timber surround will be removed after a year when sufficient root systems are holding the soil together, as can be seen with the bed to the left. The resulting deep bed means that you don't have to break your back turning soil. In any case, turning soil destroys the habitats of valuable soil enhancing creatures beneath the soil. Don't turn it! No-dig it!

Mulch, free and fresh from the sea

2006-08-21T13:18:00.000+01:00

I went for a walk this evening, down to the sea to find out how much seaweed there was. Seaweed has many uses on our land. The most common seaweed round here is bladderack, which is best harvested whilst green or dark green. When brown and black it has lost most of its goodness.

Some seaweed goes into the compost heap as the minerals from the seaweed boost the compost. Before going into the compost heap I leave the seaweed on the field to get a few days of washing from the rain. Too much sea salt is not good for a compost heap. Worms hate salt and will leave your compost heap if you put salty seaweed into it.

I also put seaweed directly on to the growing beds and mix it in as a soil conditioner during the winter months before any growing starts. When creating new no-dig growing beds I also use seaweed. First, cardboard goes onto the grass, seaweed on top of that and then compost on top of that.

Elsewhere, I use it to surround the trunks of trees as a mulch. I want to keep the weeds down as much as possible so as to give the saplings a good start. Also, I will put seaweed on the walkway inside the polytunnel. It dries out and becomes impenetrable to weeds. I don't clean the salt off that seaweed as the salt will help to dissuade slugs.

I really need to get the old trailer fixed because I can see myself bringing many tonnes of seaweed back over the next few months.

Ticks

2006-07-23T14:48:00.000+01:00

Unless you are rigorous in inspecting every nook, cranny and crevice on your body then the only way you'll know you have a tick is when you see its blood filled body hanging off your skin.

Ticks are parasites from the arachnid family (includes spiders) that live through hematophagy, the blood of other animals. If you walk through long grass then you are at risk of brushing off some grass that has a tick on it. The tick then transfers to your body and looks for somewhere warm and moist to settle down for a meal. I prefer to have pasture on my land as it attracts nature but as ticks are as much a part of nature as anything else then this is a hazard I must expect.

Often a dog or cat visiting my land will have a few ticks on it. They spend most of their day rolling around in the grass so it is to be expected. If humans are working outside in long grass then there is a good chase of having a tick attach itself to you.

Ticks have a harpoon like mouth, which allows them to firmly attach whilst feeding on your blood. Some also carry Lyme disease, which gives symptoms of fever and fatigue leading to a host of other complications that are too numerous to mention.

So far, this year, I've removed three of the chaps crawling around my body and one that had attached to my stomach but had not yet started to feed. Last year it was one attached and one that had burrowed into my body for some reason. Two years ago I found one behind my knee but it was too late as it was full of my blood.

Some people say that covering the feeding tick with Vaseline cuts off its oxygen supply and it falls off. I tried this but after ten minutes I saw no change and just scraped it off in the usual way. Prevention is always better than cure so I give my self a good inspection when I return from the field. Being fully covered in clothes does not guarantee that you won't get a tick. Some will brush off onto your clothes and be brought into the house where it can attach later. Especially, if it falls onto a bed and can wait for night fall.

Biting flies

2006-06-30T14:45:00.000+01:00

You can always tell locals from tourists. The tourists wear shorts in the summer and then complain about being eaten alive by the resident diptera. I made the mistake once of dressing in a white shirt with white trousers. I looked like Our Man in Havana but to a few thousand flies I was a two-legged sheep and afternoon tea.

When working outside in blazing sunshine I prefer to take my chances rather than sweating a litre of water with every exertion. I wear t-shirt, knee length shorts and a pair of Wellington boots. Most of my legs are covered apart from the knee and the joint behind. A tasty target that is, for the most part of summer, a rash of insect bites.

The worst offenders are the gnats, midges and horse flies. A tingle on the arm, leg or neck and you know there is a gnat drinking a meal of blood. They are always too preoccupied to notice your finger blending them into your skin. Midges at sunset are a pain when I'm outside tidying up. A little buzz in the ear or worse a nibble on the eyelid. They often swarm and you just have to give up and go inside.

During the day a larger biting insect prowls the air. The horse fly. About the size of a house fly but brown in colour with wings slightly more swept. You know you have been targeted when you hear a dull buzz behind you or the crash of wings when it hits the hair on your head. No matter which way you turn the horse fly has millions of years of evolutionary teaching to help it always remain behind you.

Usually the horse fly will land on your arm or behind the knee. You won't know it has landed on you until it is too late and it has given you an almighty bite. Unlike gnats and midges they don't have skin piercing apparatus but have mouths that slice open the skin to let the blood flow out. The painful sore is very irritating for days after.

I prefer to open all insect bites with a good scratch and let them bleed. It's far preferable to the tickling irritation. Fly repellent sprays are a waste of time. I've tried them all and none of them work.

Gnats and midges are best avoided when swarming by walking elsewhere. The odd one landing on you is just squashed when you get the tingle. Horse flies I allow to land on me and then quickly slap them with my hand before they bite. Make sure you step on them when they hit the ground because the slap just stuns them.

Potato growing comparisons

2006-06-10T12:45:00.000+01:00

All our seed potatoes are now planted (about sixty plants in total), including those from last year's crop that weren't dug up. Hopefully, we shall get double the crop we got last year.

Here are some photos of the plants, showing comparisons between various growing methods.

Here we see potato plants thriving in the polytunnel. Already about four feet high, gobbling earthing-up material as new shoots sprout up everywhere. Compare it with the next picture of potato plants growing outside.

These potato plants were planted at a similar time to the ones in the polytunnel. They are barely a foot off the ground.

The problem with growing potatoes in a polytunnel is that they are uncontrollable. They grow quickly and plant stems bend over under their own weight and start laying down new tubers, everywhere.

To get round this problem we want to grow potatoes in containers so the plants can grow in a more controlled fashion. Last year's potatoes grew all over the place and many potatoes were missed during harvest. This season we are experimenting with growing potatoes in tubs and tyres.

In the photo above we see a potato plant growing in three old car tyres. The seed potato started inside the bottom tyre and as the plant grew tyres were piled on top of the bottom one and additional compost was added.

The problem with this method is that the tyres are small. The potato plant is overly constrained. It is hard to "earth up" the plant as compost is not easily squeezed into the rim of the tyre. Also, it is easy to damage the plant when putting on another tyre and earthing up.

Here we see a potato plant growing in a tub. There is plenty of room in the tub to earth up whilst at the same time constraining plant growth. The growth is vigorous, being inside the polytunnel, but all potatoes will be found inside the tub at harvest time.

Future seasons will see all potatoes being grown inside tubs in the polytunnel. This will give a high yield of potatoes. Earth used in the earthing up process can be used for other crops in the following season thus permitting crop rotation. The vigorous growth can be constrained so that all potatoes are recovered.

Slugs

2006-05-08T14:29:00.000+01:00

Here in the west of Ireland we have been having some early monsoon-like weather. It'as been very wet for the past two weeks with lots of heavy rain showers. The wet weather has brought out those least liked inhabitants of the vegetable garden, slugs.

You probably know of many slug busting tips, most of them useless. I don't know of anyone who has successfully used copper strips. My guess is that the wet helps to oxidise the copper. I suppose slugs don't mind crossing verdigris.

Beer traps I've used, only to find that it attracts slugs from miles around. Some slugs seem to enjoy a quick sip before going on a drunken rampage through my vegetables. That's another tip crossed off the list.

Salt is another trick, probably invented by salt manufacturers. Yes, it does kill slugs but if you have to look for slugs to pour salt on then you may as well squish them under your wellington boots.

The only good method is good old fashioned slug pellets. They are weather resistant so you can sprinkle them around your vegetables and they will last for a few weeks of rain showers. Make sure you get ones containing Bitrex or similar. This is a bitter tasting additive in case you don't clean your vegetables adequately enough and bite into a pellet at meal time.

Slug pellets give you the added pleasure of easily spotting the sight of slug carnage. It looks rather like a snotty nosed child has run their nose over the soil. An excellent punishment that would make for an errant child!

The only other thing I can recommend is garden hygiene. Slugs love hiding under things during the day so they don't dry out. If you create the right habitat for slug colonies then they will move in. Anything that doesn't need to be lying around should be put away so as not to become a five star slug hotel where slugs can rest before hitting the restaurants by night.

I have lots of onion seedlings planted in my deep beds so I've sprinkled plenty of pellets on the beds. The polytunnel too has had a good sprinkling. Especially, the polytunnel entrance gets a good sprinkling. At night the slugs regard my tunnel as the Waldorf Polystoria with free buffet service. Well, my slimy friends, the Waldorf salad is off the menu for the foreseeable future.

Sweet pimentos

2005-09-15T12:55:00.000+01:00

There are still plenty more peppers on my forty or so bushes. These peppers are not hot but quite sweet and are called pimentos dulces (sweet pimentos). In Spain they are often dried and crushed into a powder.

I got the seeds from a friend who was giving away his excess crop last year. I will try over-wintering them and see if they will grow another crop next year. To be on the safe side I am sowing seed from this year's crop too.

Here are the peppers after being de-seeded. They are now in the freezer and will be used in pastas and other dishes. The seeds will be planted later this evening.

Keep them old car tyres

2005-08-04T12:59:00.000+01:00

Permaculture is a method for sustainably farming your land. Whatever you take out of the land you must make sure to put back in. All that nutritious food has to be put back into the soil in the form of more nutrients. Looking after your soil is very important if a gardener wishes to be productive.

Whenever I'm out in the boat fishing I keep an eye out for driftwood, blue barrels and tyres (tires for American readers). Tyres are useful for propping up the boat when it's on the land so slugs and earwigs are less inclined to make a new home for themselves. Reading up on permaculture has now given me another use for the many tyres that people dump (shame on them!) into the sea. They are very good for growing potatoes.

Following on from yesterday's no-dig vegetable growing link you can also grow potatoes in a no-dig manner using tyres. Just place a tyre on the ground with some cardboard underneath it to stop grass and weeds poking through. Fill the tyre with soil and poke your seed potato into it. When the shoots have grown about 20cm above the surface of the soil put another tyre on top of the first and fill with soil to "earth up". Another one or two tyres will be needed to complete the earthing up procedure as the plant grows.

It's a double no-dig because you don't break the soil to plant the seed and you don't need to dig out the potatoes when you need them. Just pull the tyres apart and all the potatoes will reveal themselves to you. As it is best not to grow potatoes in the same soil for 3 or more years you can easily use the soil elsewhere.