Growing Vegetables
Alliaceae
This is the Onion family name and it includes Garlic, Leeks, Onions, Shallots and Chives. It can have pride of place in its own pl...
Garlic, Leek, Onion, Shallot, Chive | Allotment
An area of ground where people hire land and grow fruit, veg and flowers. If you don’t have one youcan still have a nose around th...
| Apiaceae
The family of Carrot, Parsnip, Celeriac, Celery, Fennel, Parsley. They prefer an open, sandy, free draining soil - not heavily man...
Carrots, Parsnips, Celeriac, Celery, Fennel, Parsley |
Compost
Can be made in your
compost bin, or bought. It is a mix of
organic matter than feeds nutrients back into the
soil.
If you made it then you know there are no chemicals in it, and can feel secure using it on your fruit and veg. There is an art to making your own
compost. Basically you need to have a mix of “soft” plant growth (ie. kitchen scraps, and plants,(but not weeds) grass mowings, and paper) and “hard” plant growth (ie.woodier cuttings (the smaller the better)).
These need to go together into a large container with a cover. Keep the pile damp and nature will break down everything into nice brown
compost. Worms will naturally enter the pile, as will slugs, and the heat from outside and the bacterial activity will do the rest. In perfect conditions this can take as little as a few months, or as long as a few years.
A
compost bin should be somewhere sunny if possible. You can buy activators to speed things up, but in a sunny spot, well insulated, and with the right mix of ingredients (roughly 4 soft to one hard) the pile will steam away on its own.
Green Manure
(sheet composting)These plants are grown to nourish and protect the
soil rather than in their own right. Once grown they are dug back into the
soil, or put on the
compost heap. Think of them as a natural blanket/nutrient cover for your
soil. In addition to stopping nutrients washing away, and weeds getting a foothold, some fix nitrogen and others have deep
roots which break up the
soil and bring up nutrients which will be fed back in to the surface when you cut the crop down.
Some fall into various
crop rotation groups, so try to make sure you don’t mess up this cycle. For instance, mustard grows really quickly, so can cover an area for a short or long time, but it is susceptible to club root, so treat it as a
brassica.
This means you should use it after your main
brassica crop, so if there’s a problem the green
manure will show it up. (See more detail under specific fruit and veg type pages).
Mulch
(compost, straw, wood chip, grass cuttings.)A layer of
compost, or straw, or wood chip, or grass cuttings placed around a plant or tree to retain the moisture in the
soil below, and block out light and so killing weeds.
You should
mulch after rain or watering, because mulching can keep dry
soil dry.
For small plants just put a small layer of
mulch around, grass mowings are great, and repeat every couple of weeks. Never use mowings that have been treated with a herbicide.