Vegetables & Herbs Ideas, Tips & Guides

Early Spring Rhubarb breaking Through

The curly herb Parsley crispum is naturally slow to germinate. If the soil dries out it may never germinate.

The oldest anthology of Japanese poetry refers to ‘seven plants showing green through the cold earth as harbingers of spring’.

The Umbels family are far from humble when grown well. When grown badly like Hemlock (conium maculatum) they are poisonous, even fatal but many species such as carrots, parsnips and fennel are edible or even medicinal. The Greeks and Romans knew a thing or too (until Hemlock killed Socrates)

The last of my root vegetables and Leeks are now consumed and a distant gastronomic memory. New baby salad leaves have been available but I do not take enough care to be able to binge on them until later in the season. Rhubarb once again is prolific and abundant so that I and the neighbours are enjoying the fruit of my labours literally.

Homegrown  vegetables are definitely worth the time and effort and organics are even better. Growing vegetables will reward you with a fresh and tasty supply of your favourite vegetables. You can also have the reassurance of knowing how they were grown without the unnecessary spraying of countless chemicals.

Great Runner Beans need plenty of water retentative and nutrient rich soil. That is why preparation is important but here are some more tips to rescue this years crop.

More exotics can be grown in the UK as we get hotter summers and temperate winters. Why not try a Pomegranate or Punica granatum a large shrub or small tree.

I am growing my early potatoes in various containers but these canvas sacks look to me to be a great idea.

Courgettes

Strawberry plants are cheap and easy to grow. Strawberries can be picked from spring to autumn if you choose the right varieties.

Get it right and you can grow bumper crops on straw bales.  It is clean, cheap and environmentally friendly. The principle is that decaying straw generates heat to form a ‘hot bed’encouraging healthy roots.

You don’t need to have muscles like Popeye to grow spinach. It is a simple leafy vegetable that is undemanding if given the right conditions.

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Suttons and Dobies

When storing potatoes you need to exclude light and moisture but retaining an even temperature. Do not wash spuds before storing. Do not allow them to be stored too cold or the starch will turn to sugar and start to go black. A fridge is too cold.

Red food stuff is a popular trend at the moment. Good leafy crops add vibrancy to a salad and you are probably eating well if you grow them yourself.

Herbs to make a bouquet garni can be grown at home and used later for cooking. All these herbs you can grow in the garden or on a suitable windowsill. The ingredients for our basic Bouquet Garni are the herbs Parsley, Thyme, Bay and a clove of Garlic. Tie them together with undyed string. Then add other herbs that are specific to the dish you want to cook.

True nuts include Pecan, Sweet Chestnuts, Beechnuts, Acorns, Hazel nuts and Hornbeams. True nuts are a simple dry fruit with one seed in which the seed case becomes very hard on maturity. True nuts do not split apart like Brazil nuts or horse chestnuts but the seed and the fruit are one and the same.

Related

Think before you allow poppies to proliferate. Poppies rob a lot of goodness from your soil.

Plants of the thistle family and close relatives are particularly good for wildlife. When in flower they attract Bees and Insects and the fine seeds provide bird food particularly for Goldfinches. In many cases the Thistles can and have provided food and medicine for human consumption.

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Kiwi fruit known as the Chinese goodeberry grow on the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and its hybrids. The vines should be grown on sturdy support structures as it crops more than the rather weak vines can support.This plant has a cold greenhouse for protection but they can be grown outdoors in a sheltered spot.

This is one of the many books in my collection but the only one to focus on growing big, bigger and biggest vegetables. If you want to grow giant vegetable for exhibition or to get large crops then there are many pointers in ‘How to Grow Giant Vegetables’ by Bernard Lavery and below.

If you want to help your  Rhubarb water it even when it is raining!

For gardening purposes Brassicas are a group of vegetables in the mustard family that includes Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Calabrese Sprouts and Kale.

From the Ribes currant family I prefer the Red currant for making pies. However I also grow Black currants R nigrum for the intense flavour.

I hope my carrots will taste better than the pottery gnome variety. Gonsenheimer have not been grown in my garden before but as they are promoted as crack resistant I thought I would give them a go. The blurb says ‘a bunching variety producing heavy crops of smooth skinned, good flavoures bright orange roots.’  Just about what you need from a packet of Carrot seed. Sown now they can be harvested from end July until December.

Gourds are grown for the decorative fruit which come in weird and wonderful shapes.They are part of the curcurbit family along with cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins and marrows.

Thyme has over 350 varieties and can make an interesting collection. Thymus is claimed to have volatile oils that have anti-ageing properties and good anti-oxidants to aid health. It retains its flavour after drying and can be stored successfully.

Late blossom arrivals in 2015 looked like being a good year for apple blossom and thus fruit in the North of England. And iut was with some great crops in my Yorkshire garden.

The Brown Turkey fig, Ficus carica, produces large, sweet, juicy figs even in British conditions.

Mesclun is a name for a traditional melange of salad leaves. The name mesclun doesn’t feature in any of my gardening reference books before 1980 so old gardeners may not recognise the term.

Encourage a better fruit crop by feeding your edible and ornamental fruit trees. Fruit trees are heavy feeders and need extra food to crop well.