The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

the times Saturday April 30 2022

17

‘We followed a bridleway

through Wadbury Valley, past

hollows and great stone walls’

Christopher Somerville’s good walk

apart if picking young as baby spinach or

12.5cm apart if leaving to mature. Constant

moisture is vital, feed every two weeks and

place in partial shade to stop them bolting.

Mature in about eight weeks.

Spring onion Sow outdoors in final pots

now. Sprinkle seed thinly about 1-2cm

apart and sieve 1cm of compost over the

top. Water well. Feed occasionally. Pull the

odd one to leave spacing of about 3cm for

mature plants at about eight weeks. Pull

when you need them.

Radish Sow outdoors directly in final pots

now. Any pot will do as long as it is 15cm

minimum depth. Sow 1cm deep and 2cm

apart. Water and watch. Thin to about 5cm

apart once germinated. Don’t overwater.

You can feed but it is not necessary, espe-

cially if you use new compost.

Tomatoes I’d look for plants ready to plant

out. Ideally each plant needs at least a

30cm pot, or space them 35-45cm apart in

a larger pot or grow bag. Tumbling varie-

ties work well in hanging baskets. Water

frequently and evenly (common problems

from irregular watering) and feed every

two weeks minimum.

Courgettes Sow indoors in small pots now.

One seed on its edge per small (approx

7cm) pot about 1cm deep. Place on a sunny

windowsill. In about three weeks you’ll

have a nice plant ready to go into a larger

pot. Put one plant per large container out-

doors and maximum two per grow bag.

They are hungry and thirsty plants, so

water and feed every ten days and, once

they start producing, start cropping. One

or two plants will feed a family!

Page

19

NICOLA STOCKEN, GARY SMITH/GAP PHOTOS; ALAMY

Despite the wishing, you

never quite know at this

time of year whether

the last frost is past. If

you have put out pots

of shooting agapanthus,

cannas and other tender

plants, and if there’s a

clear cold night that

might freeze, be ready

with a roll of fleece to

throw over them just

to keep off that odd

degree of cold.

Hanging baskets should

be safe outside now, but

regardless of night-time

cold they still need

hardening off after a

sheltered life in a

polytunnel. When you

get them home (or the

bedding plants bought to

pot up your own baskets)

set them outdoors, but

out of the sun and wind,

for a couple of days to

acclimatise before

hanging them in the sun.

When potting up baskets

remember to leave the

surface of the compost

generously dished so

you can water without

it sluicing over the sides.

If you are seriously into

baskets there are lances

to put on the end of a

hosepipe that have a

U-shaped end, allowing

you to put water

conveniently into the

basket without reaching

or splashing.

The sweetly scented

small-leaved evergreen

Osmanthus delavayi

(2m) has just finished

flowering and, if you

choose to, its twigs can

be trimmed back to a

semi-formal shape,

before letting them

grow on to produce next

year’s flowering shoots.

The larger, coarser

Osmanthus x burkwoodii

(2.5 to 3m) will make a

large flowering hedge.

Trim winter heathers

(Erica carnea and Erica x

darleyensis) after the

last of the flowers have

faded. It helps to keep

them dense.

It’s easy to forget to feed

your house plants,

because somehow they

always survive. Do them

a favour: buy a bottle of

liquid feed and put a bit

in their water now and

then. No big deal. SA

Weeder’s

digest

There are golf-ball-shaped tasty

varieties that can be grown in

shallower containers.

Dwarf French beans (bush

varieties, not climbing) Buy

small plants or sow one bean

to a depth of 2.5cm per pot

and keep moist. Place on a

sunny windowsill. They’ll

come up in a week or two.

Pop into larger pots in the

garden. Keep moist

and feed every two

weeks. Once the

beans are about

4cm long start

picking, which

will encourage

the plant to

produce more.

Salad leaves

(like Mediterra-

nean or oriental

spicy mixes) Sow

outdoors now and

keep sowing every

couple of weeks for good

succession. Use pots more than

25cm wide/diameter and 15cm deep.

Water compost first and sprinkle seed onto

compost thinly, looking to fill the pot.

Sieve approx 1cm of compost over the top

using a kitchen sieve. Harvest in as little as

five weeks when leaves reach about

7.5-10cm. Crop with kitchen scissors and

they’ll regrow a few times.

Spinach Sow outdoors now. Pots should

be shallow to medium depth and a mini-

mum of 25cm diameter. Sow about 7.5cm

feed such as

seaweed or toma-

to feed. Have some

fleece handy to

cover any pots if a

frost is forecast.

Succession

sowing

With some crops (especially fast-growing

ones such as salad leaves, radishes, rocket,

dwarf beans etc), sow little and often to

avoid gluts while maintaining a continual

supply to harvest.

Joe’s top easy vegetables

to grow

Carrots Sow outdoors in their final pots.

They generally like deep and wide pots

and free-draining soil (add sharp sand).

onions and radish can be planted out
or even sown direct. Large vegeta-
bles such as most brassicas (cab-
bages, broccoli etc), main-crop
potatoes, leeks and runner
beans are probably best avoided
as they take up a lot of space for
a long time. Instead go for
smaller, tasty, fast-growing edi-
bles and a good selection of
herbs that can be picked or har-
vested on a regular basis.

Sow seed or buy plug

plants?

Many garden centres will be stocking plug
plants or small pots that can be planted
straight out, so in effect they’ve done the
tricky bit and you’re growing them on. It’s
a little late in the day to grow some edibles
from seed to ensure good crops this year
(such as tomatoes and chillies, though it
may be worth a go), but there are some, like
cut-and-come-again salad leaves, rocket,
radish, spinach etc, that grow quickly, will
start cropping in a few weeks and, when
spent, can be sown again. A packet of seeds
is cheap, though, and buying these kinds
of plants in small pots or plugs is similar
in cost to buying the produce itself and
defeats the objective of being frugal!

Watering, feeding and

protecting

Pots and containers will dry out far quicker
than plants grown in the ground, so need
regular watering (ideally in the morning)
but not drowning. Once in positive growth
(beyond any seedling size), feed most
edibles every two weeks with a weak liquid

feed such as

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It’s cheaper to grow salad leaves from seed

Young radish plants

Carrots generally prefer

deep and wide pots