Saturday 15 March 2014

Dig for Victory ...The garden rant

So today the big plan is to venture into the back garden and start sizing up for veg production . We have always grown veg where we have the space . This house has space , small grandson and the football of doom have the big grass front garden . Mr Bah Humbug has his scrapyard  (sorry his recreation and hobby area ) to the rear and beyond that its all mine .
Last year it was a total washout most of the garden was under water and we wont even mention the half built greenhouse .
The truth of the matter is that you dont need huge amounts of space to grow a lot of food , I have a huge strawberry bed , raspberries, rhubarb and dwarf rootstock apples pears and plums dotted around .
the big descision is not to grow potatoes , if the rain does the usual they just rot . so apart from half a dozen Orkney blues just because i love them. I just wont bother .
Its the cabbages, i love all manner of strange ones if i can get them, kale, red and savoy . Beans is the biggest crop ,starting with broad then on to all the others .
I do like the heritage varieties best dreadnought broad beans that are taller than me . alderman peas that grow at least 6 feet , so much easier to pick . all the ground hugging varieties were bred for mechanical harvesting . Tomato plants i generally buy for pennies from the car boot along with a couple of courgette plants.
You really cant fault Lidl for cheap seeds , salad types are great and so cheap , Poundland does good mixes of bean seed , you dont have to have acres of land to put a bit of variety into your diet . Or tons of money , even a few herbs in pots are good .
dont forget rainbow chard either , kids will munch it just for the colour and you just pick and it comes again right through the winter with a bit of shelter

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