In my productive area I have four large rectangular raised beds, 3 square raised beds and 2 small rectangular raised beds. Alongside these I have various pots containing fruit bushes and small trees. For the first time this year I will also be growing potatoes in bags.
Greenhouse
In my greenhouse this year I will be growing tomatoes, chillies, sweet peppers and melons. All of these are via plug plants.
The tomato varieties are gardeners delight, indigo apple. indigo cherry drops, indigo ruby, sweet success and yellow mimi. Indigo apple is an early maturing variety, indigo cherry drops is rich purple in colour with a red base when ripe and indigo ruby has dark red cherry fruits. Yellow mimi has a yellow cherry tomato
The chillies are vampire, machu pichu and longhorn, all of which are medium heat. Vampire produces long, dark purple fruits that turn scarlet as they ripen. Machu pichu is a brown pepper, smoky in flavour. Longhorn has bring red fruits.
The sweet pepper is big ben and two melon varieties of outdoor wonder and alvaro. Outdoor wonder is a Galia type melon roughly the size of a tennis ball which is powdery mildew resistant. Alvaro is a Cantaloupe variety that produces green-striped yellow fruits.
The four large rectangular beds consists of a permanent bed with autumn fruiting raspberries, one bed of salad crops with the other two beds on a crop rotation system of onion / garlic followed by brassicas followed by beans and peas. The principle of crop rotation is to grow specific groups of vegetables on a different part of the plot each year to reduce a build-up of crop specific pest and disease problems. The order that I use is due to the timing of the harvest of each crop – onions and garlic are harvested in July / August, brassicas are then planted to provide a harvest over the winter months, with beans and peas being planted in March / April and harvested over the summer ready for the onions and garlic to be planted in October.
Raspberry bed
I decided to grow autumn fruiting (known as primocanes) varieties as they are generally easier to look after. They produce their fruit on the current season’s stems and so are very easy to prune – in February simply cut back all the old stems to ground level and new ones start growing in spring. In early summer, thin out any very overcrowded clumps by removing the weaker stems.
Onion and garlic bed
I have chosen to grow Red winter variety of onion and the following varieties of garlic: Elephant, Carcassonne and Provence. These were planted last October. Onion red winter has rosy-red skins and a flushed-pink flesh and it is a reliable variety that is good for storage. Elephant garlic can grow to around 15cm in diameter and each clove is bigger than a regular garlic bulb and it has a really mild flavour. Carcassonne is a hardneck variety which has pink cloves and Provence is a softneck variety. Hardneck varieties produce bulbs with fewer, larger cloves which have a stronger flavour, but they only store well until mid-winter. The softneck varieties produce smaller, more tightly packed cloves and can store for longer.
Beans and Peas bed
I always start off my beans and peas in pots in the greenhouse to ensure that the slugs don’t eat the new growth before they have a chance to get established. I have dug in Dalefoot wool compost for vegetables and added Vitax Q4, a high potassium general fertiliser before planting out.
Broad beans
This year I am growing Masterpiece green long-pod and Red epicure. Masterpiece green long-pod are a reliable high-yielding variety with up to 7 beans per pod and Red epicures are chestnut crimson skinned beans that retain their colour if gently steamed. My first sowing was on 17 February, and the second sowing on 23 March. Both of these were in pots and kept in the greenhouse, unless the weather forecast was for temperatures to drop below zero, in which case I transferred them to the conservatory.
Peas
My varieties for this year are Hurst green shaft and Kelvedon wonder. Hurst green shaft is a main crop variety and Kelvedon wonder is an early variety and both are known for being reliable and heavy yielding. Both varieties have been awarded an RHS award of garden merit. My first sowing was on 23 March in pots.
Dwarf French beans
This year’s varieties are Castandel and Amethyst. Castandel produces high yields of long slender pods, and Amethyst has mauve flowers and amethyst-coloured pods. My first sowing of these will be in April. Dwarf beans are quick to grow, but only crop for a few weeks, so I’ll need to make repeat sowings for a summer-long supply.
Salad bed
I will be trying various salad crops using seed tape which has the seeds spaced appropriately along it. I have Little gem lettuce, Provencale mix salad leaves, Baby leaf mix salad leaves, White lisbon spring onion and French breakfast radish. I haven’t grown crops using seed tape before – in theory the tape eliminates over sowing and avoids overcrowded seedlings thus resulting in healthier stronger crops. It sounds very straightforward as you just need to make a groove in the soil of approximately 1cm deep, roll out a single width of tape and fill the groove with fine soil to cover the tape. I also have seeds of Breakfast mix of radish and I made my first sowing of these in pots on 23 March. I have purchased various plug plants of lettuce to produce an early crop whilst the seeds are starting to germinate – the varieties are Little gem, Romaine, Iceberg antartica, Butterhead and Red little gem. I have seeds of Early xtra sweet F1 sweetcorn and I have Swift sweetcorn plug plants on order.
The three square raised beds consists of a permanent asparagus bed, an unsuccessful asparagus bed that will be the climbing beans bed going forward and the old climbing bean bed that will be a trial bed this year.
Climbing beans bed
I have four stringless varieties for this season – Cobra, Monte Gusto, Monte Cristo and Carminat. Cobra produces heavy crops of green pods about 18cm long, Monte Gusto produces bright yellow pods up to 25 cm long, Monte Cristo produces green pods with white seeds and Carminat has deep purple pods. My sowing of these will be in April.
Trial bed
I am going to be growing turnips and swede for the first time. I have chosen the swede variety of Tweed F1 and two varieties of turnip – Sweet Bell and Purple Top Milan. I made my first sowing of the turnips in pots on 23 March. I have also purchased plug plants of Swede Marian and Turnip Snowball.
Patio Fruit trees
The two smaller rectangular beds contain three patio fruit trees each of apples (Jonagold, Cox and Apple red sensation), pears (Conference), plums (Victoria) and cherry (Van). They are underplanted with tarragon and thyme.
I have four blueberry bushes in pots and four patio fruit trees in pots – a Conference pear, a cherry and two Victoria plums. The two plum trees are new additions for this year. I also have three citrus plants in pots which overwinter in the greenhouse.
