perennial vegetables – Not a Horticulturist

Wild garlic

26th Feb 20218 Comments

Short version:

A lovely perennial allium that is a forager’s dream. It’s safer to grow it as there is a particular dangerous lookalike and the freshly picked leaves do wilt rather quickly. It will happily populate a shady corner of the garden and provide you with fresh garlicky (oniony when cooked) greens through the hungry gap and beautiful white flowers that pack a punch in a salad.

I have childhood memories of woods that smelt strongly of garlic. I found it strange that something wild could smell so strongly of food, having clearly not understood that all our cultivated plants come from wild species that we have ‘domesticated’.

Then in Easter 2017 on a family get-together in Wales we came across a wood stuffed full of wild garlic. Despite the protests of my fellow holiday goers, including my then 1 year-old child, I felt the need to forage, cook and serve a bag full of wild garlic for dinner. It was met with general approval. Just as an aside, it was very carefully sorted, and every leaf sniffed to ensure it was definitely wild garlic. Foraging for wild garlic does often come with a warning. The leaves of the wild garlic look very similar to lily of the valley, which also grows similarly well in woodlands. When not in flower I don’t think I’d be able to tell them apart. The garlic smell is the giveaway, but if you are collecting large amounts (it wilts down quite a bit upon cooking) the smell of garlic on your hands may stop you from being able to tell if you pick up an errant lily of the valley leaf. This is very important as ingesting the leaves, flowers or roots of lily of the valley is dangerous and may even be fatal. Anyone else thinking of Breaking Bad?

My little niece looking at swathes of it in Wales

Later that year, when we moved house to a place with a real garden, I knew I would want to find a spot for my own patch – where I could be sure that there was nothing dangerous growing.

The scientific name is Allium ursinum, also called ramsons and bear garlic and unlike most alliums it has very broad lanceolate leaves that curl outwards as they grow. Their white flowers are fairly typical for alliums, but they don’t form balls the way most allium flowers do. They look very similar to the flowers of Chinese (also called garlic) chives.

How to grow

Wild garlic is fabulous because it grows really well in a deep shade. It doesn’t grow much more than a foot tall and it’s great planted under other perennials that prosper later in the year. The places I’ve seen them thrive the most is in rather shady woodland. You’ll see shoots coming up as early as the beginning of February. They send up the lovely clusters of star shaped white flowers in late May. They tend to die back in the summer when it gets too warm for them. At which point there is absolutely no evidence of there having been any wild garlic until February when it starts to appear again. If you can keep it in decent shade you may find that the leaves can persist till July. They are perennial so reappear again from the bulb the next year or happily spring up from seed.

Small hosta shoots in April will take over come June when the wild garlic dies back.

Growing from Bulbs

I started my bed, which is still establishing, just over 3 years ago (winter 2017) using 25 bulbs bought from https://www.naturescape.co.uk/. There are other suppliers on ebay. Just so you know it is legal in the UK to forage foliage, flowers and fruit – but it is illegal to dig up roots without the landowner’s permission. You can however take seeds. If you get bulbs it is a good idea to put them into the ground as soon as possible, or at least into a pot of compost until you’re ready to put them into their permanent home.

The bulbs I purchased were a little expensive (which is why I only got 25 of them) but they were reliable. I planted them, as instructed, in the winter, in a hole that was twice as deep as the bulb was long. All 25 bulbs came up. We managed to at least taste a few of the leaves that spring. The year after we still ate sparingly but last year, we were able to make a few meals without feeling like we would annihilate the plants.

You can also order the bulbs ‘in the green’ in March (bulbs that have sprouted). They follow the same principle, but you need to be a little more careful with the roots and shoots. It does mean that you can see where they were planted immediately.

Growing from seed

Seed is much cheaper, but you will be waiting a long time before you’ll have anything to eat. General advice is that they are best sown in summer. To me this makes sense as the seeds are produced naturally in the summer. I have read a few things like wild garlic seed only works if very fresh though and will only grow after stratification (exposure to a cold season). These ideas may be considered contradictory. If the seeds are produced in the summer, by winter when they can be subjected to cold will they still be considered fresh?

I have seen evidence in my own garden of seed setting and germinating. There have been a few seedlings appearing in between paving cracks. This means that it does self-seed rather well, much to my delight. (Edibles that grow in paving cracks just feel like bonus food.)

The seedlings from seed are rather tiny so they are best left alone in their first year of growth to allow the roots to strengthen. Even in the second year you may not be getting much to eat.

Here patience is a virtue, unless you can afford to spend lots of money on hundreds of bulbs that you plant straight into the ground to create a lovely dense patch. Whether you start from seed or bulb, if the wild garlic likes the conditions it will slowly expand its patch itself over time. They can self-propagate themselves into a nuisance, but if you’re eating it then that should be a happy result or a fun challenge at the very least. If you’re concerned that they may get out of control you could consider planting them in a well-defined, enclosed border. Don’t forget the bulbs will be twice as deep as the bulb length and may take some extraction should you decided you don’t like it after all (not that I can think of any reasons why).

How to harvest

It does appear in February, but you generally need to wait till mid to late March when you can start harvesting the outer leaves. If you leave the inside leaves to keep growing, you can treat the plant as a cut and come again. All of the plant is edible, and you will be able to harvest the flowers which look amazing in salads in May. The bulbs are edible but small and fiddly. And of course, if you harvest the bulbs you won’t have the plant next year. You could use bulb harvesting to control the population if it gets a bit rowdy. Alternatively, you could also dig up the bulbs and spread them around to avoid overcrowding and increase the size of your patch instead as they tend to grow in clusters. The bulbs do not dry well like cultivated garlic.

Take the lovely big broad leaves. You could even take the tender buds if they’ve self seeded too much. You can see the small seedlings of the seed dropped the year before.

I would suggest that you harvest all of what is left around June before it all dies back naturally.

It may sound like they have a very short season compared to things like three cornered leek or Chinese chives, but that season is important. They thrive during the hungry gap when there are not many garden grown edibles available in UK climes.

How they taste

As the name suggests, and as you may be able to guess from the smell, the raw fresh leaves taste very garlicky. They go really nicely, with a few shredded in salads for flavour, but the smell and taste can be overwhelming. We prefer to eat the leaves lightly stir fried or thrown in last minute in various dishes. We love them chucked on top of soups, stews and congee (savoury rice porridge). It loses the garlic flavour very quickly with cooking but happily takes on a lovely sweet onion flavour. As soon as the patch is completely established, I suspect we will cook masses of it just lightly fried in a dash of sunflower oil with a pinch pf salt or chicken stock as a spring side dish.

The flowers are prettiest in salads, but pretty garlicky raw. They’re lovely just wilted by the heat of a dish as you serve.

I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you about the taste of the bulbs as I’ve been reluctant so far to remove any. Maybe I can update this blog in a couple of years when my patch becomes yobbish.

Asparagus

12th Dec 2020Leave a Comment

Short version:

A well known, long lived, perennial vegetable that tastes far superior to shop bought when home grown. It requires fertile, well draining, water retaining soil in a sunny spot. A great spring vegetable that grows in the hungry gap and once established requires little attention other than weeding. It takes some effort to start an asparagus bed and you’ll need to be patient enough to wait 3 years for the first harvest.

Asparagus (asparagus officinalis) is the first perennial vegetable that I grew. 2 plants have been with us for 13 years and through 2 house moves. I think the variety was Gijnlim, bought as crowns from the pound shop. They started off in the first home in the ground, in a garden that was about 3x4m. When we moved to a new place that had a paved garden about the same size, I dug up the asparagus and took it with us. It lived for 5 years in a very large pot, coincidentally in Battersea near the Asparagus pub, so named because the area was famously known for growing asparagus.

They’re now in a raised bed and new asparagus plants have joined them (varieties: Connovers Colossal, Jersey Knight and Crimson Pacific).

One of the original plants is in the top right. The other short plants about 4 months after they’ve been planted.

How to grow

Before you grow asparagus, you need to understand a little about them. They are perennial plants that love fertile, well draining, moisture retaining soil i.e. with lots of good compost in it.

When you start with a seed, for the first couple of years, the stems are very thin and unrecognisable as asparagus. They reach their feathery frond state (in the picture above) at about a foot tall. These leafy green tops need to be left for the first few years to photosynthesize and provide sugars for the plant. Asparagus should ideally not be harvested till the plant is 3 years old. When the plant is established, in early spring they send up the spears that you recognise from the shops. They grow upwards in their closed bud state and then begin to branch out. The stem gets tougher as thin green branches covered in thin feathery foliage appear off the main stem. With established plants, once the spears being produced become thinner than a pencil you should leave them to grow and feed the roots.

Males plants are reported to be more productive and less prone to disease. The female will produce little poisonous scarlet berries the size of a petite pois. You could save seed and propagate new plants. This is free, but as you can see from the info above, requires much patience.

I never got round to voicing over this… but…You can see the stems are mostly thinner than a pencil (there’s a couple at the back that I left too late to harvest). There’s a little spear still trying to grow. You can see the feathery fronds, the tiny flowers and a unripe (poisonous) berry.

Organic matter

However you choose to grow asparagus you should prepare the ground they grow in by one of the following:

In spring, when planting, dig a 20cm deep trench and incorporate 5-10cm of well rotted manure into the base of this trench and then fill it with 5-10cm of the original soil. How much you fill the trench will depend on whether you’re planting plants or crowns.
In winter for the environmentally friendly, recycling, cheaper route you can also dig 30cm trench and fill this with lots of green kitchen waste and brown waste like shredded cardboard. If you mix it in well with the soil around it, it will breakdown in a few months (hole composting) ready to receive the asparagus plants in spring.

Growing from seed

This is the very cheapest way to get asparagus. Sow single seeds in pots (or toilet tube rolls) indoors about 2cm deep in late winter. These can be transplanted into the garden late spring (biodegradable pots, like loo rolls, makes this more gentle on the fragile roots). The seeds can also be sown direct mid-late spring when the weather warms up. The picture shows three little seedlings pulled out so you can see the size of the seed and the roots (don’t do this with your seedlings).

Growing from plants

You can buy little plants from specialist nurseries online. These are seedlings that are a few months old. These are cheaper than crowns but will take longer to establish.

Growing from crowns

Crowns are the roots from a year old plant. If you are adding the well composted manure in the spring then you make a mound in the trench after you’ve added your 5-10cm of soil back. If you went the composting kitchen waste route the dig a hole about 15cm deep and then make a mound in the middle. Spread the roots of the crown over the mount like hair on a head, with the growing shoot buds facing up. Cover with soil leaving the bud tips just about visible. Water in to remove any air spaces in the soil.

Plants should be around 30cm – 40cm apart.

In late autumn when the leafy fronds have turned yellow you should chop down any of the above ground growth. I either put these in the compost bin or sometimes chop them into smaller pieces and spread it over the ground as a mulch and to try and deter the neighbours’ cats from pooing on my soil. At this point you could also mulch with some well rotted manure.

You could also add some blood, fish and bone, or other general purpose fertiliser in early spring before growth starts. It’s worth nothing that organic fertilisers are less prone to run off and therefore less likely to cause eutrophication.

How to Harvest

You will need to wait till the plant is around 3 years old (2 years if started from crowns) before you can start harvesting. Once you get shoots that are thicker than a pencil you can harvest by cutting the spear at the base with a knife. In this third year you should only take a couple of shoots. Leave any shoots that are thinner than a pencil. Through the season the plant will generally produce spears that are thinner and thinner. Once plants are established, spears can appear as early as the last week of March and last for about 2 months before you need to leave the rest of the spears to turn into the feathery fronds that can then photosynthesise and feed the roots. This makes it a welcome vegetable in the hungry gap.

Little one likes them sprayed with olive oil and roasted.

How they taste

Once you eat fresh, home grown asparagus, the stuff you get in the shops seems absolutely pants in comparison. I guess it’s hard to describe the taste of asparagus as it tastes… well… like asparagus. However, if you’ve tasted shop bought asparagus and hated it, don’t pass judgement till you’ve tried it very fresh.

It tastes lovely and ‘clean’ blanched or steamed. If you sauté it or roast it, it develops a complex nutty flavour.

Purple asparagus is reportedly sweeter. We ate 2 spears of our Crimson Pacific last year and it was lovely, but I think we need another year with a bigger crop (and maybe to try a few more varieties) to really be able to compare.

Problems

Slugs and snails can eat through the base of a spear, felling the entire thing. If you notice early enough you can still salvage the spear. Sometimes they nibble the tips causing the asparagus to curl. I haven’t done research on this, but I suspect this is because there are hormones all round the tips of growing shoots causing growth all around the tip at the same rate. When there are less hormones on one side there becomes uneven growth so one side grows faster than the other.

I suspect the biggest problem is actually me. Asparagus does not do well with competition so their bed should be weeded carefully by hand to avoid damaging the fragile roots. Impatience and lack of space in the small garden means that I am incapable of leaving the asparagus bed alone and I keep planting other edibles in and around them. They then compete for nutrients and then grow taller than the asparagus and shade it. Unfortunately I find it impossible to stop myself.

Jerusalem artichokes

14th Nov 202011th Dec 20201 Comment

Short version:

A tall, perennial, sunflower like plant that grows in full sun, in almost any type of soil to produce knobbly tubers that contain inulin and can be eaten raw or cooked.

The Jerusalem artichoke (also called sunchokes) – Helianthus tuberosus – is in the Asteraceae family like globe artichokes, though they are more like Chinese artichokes in the Lamiaceae family. Like Chinese artichokes, you harvest the tubers and propagate via tubers. Jerusalem artichokes however make tall, impressive plants like globe artichokes. Like the Chinese artichokes, posted last week, this is my first year growing them, so I have limited experience. I do love them though, so I thought it would be worth sharing and I can update as I find more about them.

steamed artichoke heart — globe artichoke

How to grow

These came in a gourmet roots pack with Chinese artichokes as little plants. They were put in the ground in May, but like Chinese artichoke these can be grown from tubers, and like Chinese artichokes if any tubers are left in the ground then plants will come back next year and are therefore perennial. Because the tubers are larger than the Chinese artichokes you are less likely to leave some behind. I will keep a tuber spare in some potting compost in the shed over winter in case I’m too thorough with harvesting. Each tuber is capable of producing more than one shoot.

Jerusalem artichokes will do fine in just about any soil, except waterlogged as this will rot the roots. However, deep, fertile, well-draining but water retaining soil (can be achieved with plenty of organic matter) will give the biggest tubers. They do fine in big pots. I grew mine in old, repurposed water tanks.

A week later with oca in front — planted end of May

The tubers can be planted from February to April, around 10cm deep and 30 cm apart. These do grow into big plants so do need some space as they can grow up to 10 feet tall. They make great living screens or do well in the back of a bed as they can still reach the sun. They can also be cut back and kept at 5 feet tall if that suits your space better. This also discourages flowering. If you do get flowers it is best to cut them back so that plant can put that energy into producing tubers. I have also read advice about earthing up the soil up the stem to support it and for better tubers. To be honest this plant is done very well despite my neglect. The only thing I did was shove the plants in very big pots and then stake with a bamboo cane when they got tall. I have run a dripper watering system through the garden (saves time as well as water – which you can read about here) so that was taken care of. However, don’t underestimate overcast days and strong winds. I made the mistake of turning the water off when the sun disappeared, and I lost one of my Jerusalem artichokes. We ate them anyway, but the tubers were much smaller and drier (shown in the very first photo at the top of the page).

Aug wind dried out a plant, but it recovered.

Only for me to neglect watering again and die in Sept — Aug wind dried out a plant, but it recovered.

How to harvest

It is best to leave this plant for as long as possible to get the biggest tubers. The leaves will start to go yellow and die as the weather gets cold. In this particular year (in London, UK) it was mid-November. You pull the stem up and some of the artichokes will come with it but really you will need to dig. Any plants you want to leave for later harvest, you can cut the stem back to a short stump and then leave the tops over the soil to keep it warm. They are fine to remain there even into December (as long as the soil isn’t waterlogged, and the ground doesn’t freeze). Once harvested they store in the fridge in a covered bowl fine for a week.

After 6mths, Nov cold has withered the leaves

pulling did not lift many tubers — After 6mths, Nov cold has withered the leaves

How to eat

The tubers have a thin skin that do not need to be peeled. The dirt should be carefully washed away though. If you would like to peel them, you can use just a spoon to scrape away the top layer and any bits you don’t want. Be aware that they do discolour very quickly so have a bowl of lemony water ready to receive them.

discoloured within half a minute — peeled with a spoon

They can be eaten raw or cooked. Raw they have a texture and taste a bit like water chestnuts, with a nuttiness and a very slight taste of artichoke hearts. I like them roasted with garlic and rosemary or thrown in with a roasting chicken. They take on flavours well and the inside becomes very soft like potatoes do, but silkier rather than floury. I feel they lose the nuttiness with cooking but acquire this sweet, artichoke heart-y, potato-y taste. If you do roast them, if you make sure they are not touching their skins can gain a bit of crispiness.

Warning

I thought I’d best put this in as my other half had a bad night after eating a few too many. Like yacon, Jerusalem artichokes contain inulin, which is a sugar that humans cannot digest. It is a prebiotic (not a probiotic) that feeds the flora in the gut (as opposed to repopulating the gut). It’s good for your digestive system, but it can cause bloating and flatulence if you eat too much, too quickly. Apparently, your digestive system can adjust if you can introduce it slowly.

Turkish rocket

22nd May 202022nd May 20202 Comments

Short version:

A hardy, perennial, shade tolerant, self-seeding vegetable with a long taproot that can be eaten all year round. The best bit to eat though are the flowering shoots.

I have no idea why it is called Turkish rocket (latin name – Bunias orientalis) as it is nothing like what people typically think of as rocket (Eruca vesicaria subsp. Sativa) or wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). All three of those rockets are, however, all part of the Brassica family. Bunias doesn’t look like the other 2 rockets and it doesn’t taste like them either.

How to grow

They can easily be grown from seed. As far as I know seeds are only available online but be careful and make sure you are buying Bunias orientalis because I’ve seen seeds marketed as Turkish rocket that look like they are just rocket. Turkish rocket can be slow to germinate so you do need to be a bit patient. I’d recommend starting them in pots indoors as they can look quite a bit like dandelion seedlings at the start with a similar rosette of leaves. This also gives you time to decide on a permanent patch.

The plants like a bit of sun but they do very well in quite a bit of shade. Our Turkish rocket patch is by the apple tree next to a tall fence. In the summer it sits in the dappled shade of the little apple tree in the morning and the shade of the fence most of the afternoon but in the winter I don’t think the low sun shines on it at all. They don’t do particularly well in pots because they have a deep taproot. However, they do very well in just about any type of soil. They have thrived in our heavy clay. This deep taproot can reach down many feet to get nutrients and water. This means it does very well in drought. This also means you need to choose your patch wisely because once it establishes itself it becomes quite hard to dig up. I haven’t seen it for myself, but I have read that if any of the root is left behind, the plant will return. It can also self seed merrily, but we’ve not really left any of the flowers.

There it is to the right of the apple tree, behind the raised bed. You can see the sun doesn’t reach it. That was taken after the first harvest.

Was a bit slow to harvest and some of the buds had opened. Ate it anyway.

Most of the leaves are in a rosette around the base. The flower stalks can extend up to around 80 cm tall. If left to flower you get yellow flowers with the four petals typical of brassicas.

The plant is very hardy and can survive a very cold winter and come back fine the next year. I found with the mild winter we had last year we still had the rosette of leaves at the base.

How to harvest

The leaves and the flower shoots are edible. Leaves are available all year round. I don’t usually harvest any over the winter as it doesn’t seem to have many leaves, whilst my perennial kales and purple tree collard do very well over winter. The flower shoots start in late spring (making it a good edible for the hungry gap) and can continue in flushes through the summer. If you don’t want it to self seed, it’s no chore to eat all of the flower shoots. They are best when the buds are still closed.

How to eat

I wouldn’t recommend eating the leaves raw. They can be a bit bitter especially in the height of summer. To combat the bitterness, you can blanche with some salty hot water, then drain and discard that water. Then cook again in any manner of choosing, e.g. frying in a bit of oil, boiling, adding to sauces or stews.

The flower shoots are the best bit and can be eaten like purple sprouting broccoli. They taste a little bit like a cross between purple sprouting broccoli and mustard greens. The texture doesn’t quite have the same bite as purple sprouting broccoli. It is more like the stems of the Chinese vegetable choi sum.

Problems

I only added this bit because one of the best things about this plant is that I have never seen any pests on it. It seems to be untroubled by my usual brassica diseases like powdery mildew. It grows like a weed and doesn’t need any tending at all. It’s true that I have only had it for 2 1/2 years but in that time after the original sowing and then planting out all I’ve done is harvest and eat.

Wild Rocket

7th Mar 20202 Comments

Short version:

Not for the faint hearted, this is a spicy rocket that really packs a punch. It’s perennial AND self-seeds readily. It grows in shadier conditions with poorer soil and lasts most of the year.

Arugula, rocket, rucola – whatever you want to call the regular, shop bought version is a complete wuss compared to the wild rocket, also called perennial wall rocket. Latin name Diplotaxis Tenuifolia.

Taste

Wild rocket is much punchier in taste, so be prepared. In the summer months it becomes so spicy that I can’t actually bear to eat it raw. If you’re at all unsure whether you like rocket you should probably avoid this. If you LOVE rocket, then this will definitely satisfy you. You may even find that you have to ‘dilute’ the spiciness with some more benign leaves, or some oil like cream or cheese. After gifting some to my neighbour, she sent it back over the fence in the form of an amazing pesto. That is literal by the way. We don’t often call each other or knock on the doors but conversations are held through the greenery and things are often passed in the gaps.

Growing

Seeds are easily sown straight into the ground a couple of weeks before the last frost. It germinates fairly quickly – around 2-3 weeks. It begins fairly spindly but by the second year if you cut it down to the ground it can become rather bushy. It does well in partial shade. In fact, some shade helps as hotter weather can cause the leaves to become very spicy. It does fine in poorer soils too.

This is a plant in its second year. This was February when it resurfaced. You can see it is fairly bushy at this stage.

Harvesting

Harvest the leaves as soon as you think the plant has enough to spare. You can also cut whole shoots for a more substantial harvest. This discourages flowering. This can be treated as a cut and come again plant for most of the year. Flowers can be eaten and smell rather sweet. Bees seem to be rather fond of them.

In June you can see the yellow buds on the end of the long spindly stalks.

When the summer comes I stop trying to eat the spicy leaves. This means that flowers tend to grow. I like the smell of the flowers and my little one likes to pick them – though she won’t put them anywhere near her taste buds. This means that will an abundance of flowers the plant often goes to seed. I find the rocket springs up in the cracks of my flagstones. They become my much loved bonus plants. In the areas of the patio with low foot traffic I let them be. That way I don’t have to actually give up any garden space to the plant and still get to eat them.

Red veined sorrel and wild rocket populate my cracks.

The question now is why grow this over normal rocket? The perennial habit of wild rocket wins it for me. When the conditions are ideal this plant has continued to provide food well into winter and only had a little break for about 2 months before it was raring to go again. In my experience it can keep going till November and is back by February. It grows slowly at the beginning of the year, but it can be a useful green for the hungry gap. With absolutely no effort from me since planting 3 years ago it keeps coming back like a weed and just challenges me to eat it into submission. Just FYI, I lost and dug plants ups for other people’s gardens.

Caucasian spinach

4th Oct 20197 Comments

Short version:

Mild tasting, spinach like, shoots and leaves that climb well, grow in shade, are perennial and can be grown from seed.

I can’t believe this vegetable, officially called Hablitzia tamnoides, exists. It seems to go against everything gardeners think of when they compare required effort and sun with the ability to produce food.

There is so much to love:

Perennial

This is a perennial, so it will grow back year after year once it is established. Over a cold winter it will look like it has disappeared forever, never to return, but this is a hardy plant. The shoots will make a reappearance in late winter / early spring. This means that once established it makes a great filler of the hungry gap. The shoots can be harvested a couple of times before you leave it to grow in the spring.

These are shoots in March. Apologies for the terrible photo. I didn’t know back then that I would write a blog.

Cold and shade

It prefers shade. It can tolerate half a day of sun. This feels rather unnatural, as we often talk about edibles needing a MINIMUM amount of sun. Pretty much every garden, especially those in the city with its large buildings, have some areas of deep shade. When you have a small garden this just feels like a waste. It’s not where you want to put your garden furniture as it’s not fun sitting OUT OF the sun. Almost nothing thrives. It’s a good place for a compost patch or a wormery but my the deepest shade is right next to my back door. The compost bin would live there if I was willing to share my kitchen with the clouds of fruit flies that have taken up residence in the compost. I have a constant urge to grow food in every available space and this and the hostas are my shade loving perennial saviours.

So we have 3 plants. One is in the deepest darkest shadiest part of the garden where it grows well with the hostas and wild garlic. One is under a fig tree. This was an error on my part that worked out OK. I didn’t realise how quickly and how large the fig tree would grow, but the Caucasian spinach does well scrambling up the branches in the shade.

Easily grown from seed

The seeds need a period of cold (stratification) before they’ll sprout. This sounds complicated, but all you need to do is sow BEFORE winter in a pot and just leave it outside to do its thing. If you sow in a pot, you can be sure of what you are growing before you place it in situ. I think bindweed can look a little similar.

Bindweed leaves are shaped more like an arrow head.

Though bindweed has rather attractive flowers, I would advise you to eradicate it as soon as you see it. Once it takes hold it can be impossible to get rid of. It is also not edible.

The beauty of growing from seeds means that it’s easy to transport, save for another year and give to friends.

Climbing

As I said, with the small garden, there is an urge to be able to use up every little bit of space. So, not only can you eat the early shoots, you can eat the leaves as it turns into a vine. If given something to climb, it will happily scramble up without any need to maintain or tie up. This is where climbers or tall plants are the most efficient. With the Caucasian spinach you get excellent production food per square foot of earth.

By early June there wass a twining messy clump of heart shaped leaves. Here it is has reached around 1.5m but could reportedly grow to twice that if given something that tall to climb. It got to the top of the frame at 2m this year.

Taste and texture

So after all it’s ease of growing it wouldn’t be worth it if it tasted rubbish. Caucasian spinach tastes wonderfully inoffensive. It is a green you can use lots of. It’s not sour like sorrel. It’s not bitter like many perennial greens. It’s just basically milder tasting than spinach even, and has the advantage that it doesn’t make your teeth feel furry the way that actual spinach does.

This is something I occasionally like to do: a taste test of a few greens. They all get fried in the same way for comparison. In the 1 o’clock position is ‘Teddy’ tree collard, at around 3 is good king Henry, around 5 is ‘Daubenton’s’ kale, around 6 is ‘Pentland Brig’ kale, at 9 is purple tree collard and just before 12 is the Caucasian Spinach – which, like spinach, reduces quite a bit in volume. In the middle were some three cornered leeks and Egyptian walking onions.

The young leaves feel thinner and not as succulent as spinach can be though.

The leaves can be used wherever spinach is used. They boil fine, fry fine, can be used to bulk out the vegetables in sauces and can be eaten raw in salads.

Soil

It prefers alkaline or neutral soil which is perfect for my garden. This may not be a bonus if you have a garden full of acidic soil. However, there are some things that actually REQUIRE acidic soil like blueberries, raspberries, kiwis and plenty of things that won’t mind acidic soil. Alternatively you can add lime to the soil, but that is something I would be far too lazy to do. An easier option would be to grow in a pot that you keep under alkaline conditions (though this may still involve adding lime).

So my third plant is in a very large pot full of compost. It’s large enough to accommodate the roots and I keep it well watered enough so it doesn’t dry out. It is doing terribly. I suspect it is a combination of the acidic compost (I did a soil test of the compost I use) and because it gets better sun than the other two plants.

The whole year this potted Caucasian spinach has not made it past this height.

I suspect soil pH is quite an important factor, but I’d have to wait till next year when I’ll move the potted one into more shade in order to draw a full conclusion.

Pests

It seems to be fairly resistant to the usual suspects in my garden.

If you look closely you can see the layers pulled apart to show where the leaf miner was living.

So far the Caucasian spinach has survived the pigeons, the caterpillars, the aphids, the shield bugs. My biggest problem in the garden tends to be powdery mildew – especially with the brassicas. So any leafy green that is not susceptible to powdery mildew gets bonus points.

The only problem that I’ve had with Caucasian spinach is leaf miners. The little grubs live safely nestled between the layers of the leaf. If you were to look at the leaf from both sides you’d not be able to see the grub. Traditional pesticides wouldn’t help you here. Luckily I don’t use pesticides so it’s not something that has vexed me. Regular harvesting means that I’m often scrutinising the leaves. This means that as I see any leaves with signs of leaf miner I just pull the leaves off and bin them in food recycling. This removes the pest from the local environment so they can’t spread.

There are many things to love about this plant. I’ve only been growing it a couple of years so I’m interested to see how it’ll get on in the future and how long it will continue to survive happily without my intervention. I basically want more food with no more effort.

Me? Lazy? Totally!

Globe Artichokes

19th Jul 201931st Aug 20197 Comments

Short version:

Large perennial grown for its flower buds. Choose a variety that is hardy for your conditions. Can be grown from seed or easily propagated from suckers. Preparation and cooking can be easy and eating, leisurely.

It’s probably only when you see the mature flower of an artichoke that you can see the connection to thistle flowers. Mine never get that far because we love them – and I do me we. I have never failed to get my fussy 3 year old to eat when serving artichoke. If you have very little space in the garden, then artichokes may not be for you. They do take up a substantial amount of space for the amount of food they provide (a bit like pumpkins). They block the light out at ground level so much so that I don’t usually have to weed around them. They do make a nice front garden statement though if you want something big and showy.

Growing artichokes

Seeds

One of the cheapest ways to start artichokes is to sow seeds. Seeds are easy to get hold of from retailers. The variety I see most often is Green Globe, popular for being hardy, reliable and prolific. I, therefore, figured it would be the easiest to grow. I planted 3 seeds and 2 grew. I’m sure experts could tell you what specific mix of compost, temperature and light conditions you need to ensure germination but my approach to all seeds is chuck them into a pot of whatever big bag of compost I happen to be working my way through, whack it in the porch, water it regularly and wait for it to grow as I’ve written in my ‘Sowing Seeds’ post.

Plug Plants

If you only want one or two plants and don’t have the patience for seeds, then you can buy artichokes as plug plants, though one will probably cost more than a pack of seeds. I bought the variety Tavor which is supposed to be hardier than Green Globe and matures in the first year.

I sowed the Green Globe indoors in February and then bought the Tavor plug plant in July. Both provided their first crop the following May. To be honest I can’t tell the difference in taste between the two. Both have given us a wonderful crop for a couple of years now. They’ve also survived the winters fine, even the freezing one that seemed to break half of London’s water pipes.

Green Globe
Tavor

Propagating artichokes

So seed was only ‘one of the cheapest ways’ because in fact the totally free way of growing an artichoke is knowing someone who is growing artichokes who want to give you their offsets!

See – when I have my way and half of the people in cities are growing their own food, imagine how easy it would be to ask someone on your road for a cutting of their perennials. Or in a barter system, do a ‘swapsies’.

Anyway… Artichokes, as they mature will start sending out suckers. These are little side plants that would grow into a new plant. Generally, it’s good practise to remove these so that they don’t end up competing with your established plant.

The offshoot is just left of the much larger original stem
This is about a month after it was separated. Be prepared for some of the original leaves to wilt and die back.

Growing conditions

Good sun is important and provide plenty of water during hot days. Yes, I’m sure there is plenty of information on how a soil rich in organic matter is best for your artichokes but the soil you have is the soil you have. Pretty much all of London (so I’ve read – I haven’t actually gone around testing samples) is clay. Mine is heavy clay and it would be too time consuming or expensive to amend it before I planted my artichokes. I have been slowly adding organic matter to the whole garden and will continue to over the next few years.

After a year the plant was about 3 foot
The year after the plant was about 5 foot

Harvesting Artichokes

This is the very small bud come after the side buds and probably won’t grow much

Size is supposed to be a deciding factor on when to harvest, but the size of your buds will depend on variety and whether it’s the main bud or a side bud. Therefore, I’d say when the bud looks like it’s beginning to open it needs to be harvested. If the plant isn’t watered enough the bud will try and open prematurely and it will be tougher. I have found that my plants stay quite tight budded for a good couple of weeks and the first year I found myself harvesting them far too early for fear that I would leave it too late. That’s not a problem though as I found in these cases that the ‘choke’ wasn’t so spikey and was actually edible. You will get one big main bud and then slightly smaller side buds. I have also found that there can be some even smaller buds that appear a little while after.

The main bud in the centre is ready for harvest. The secondary ones will not grow quite as big and will be mature about 2 weeks later.

To harvest, cut the stem a few inches below the base of the bud with a sharp knife or secateurs.

Preparing Artichokes

It doesn’t need to be complicated.

This is what I was told:

Wash thoroughly
Cut the stem from the base of the artichoke
Peel the stem
Remove the first layer or two of leathery scales
Remove the top inch of the bud with a knife
Using a pair of scissors cut the top of each petal to remove the thorn
Boil in a large pan of water with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon to avoid discolouration

The ‘thorn’ is in the centre of the tip of the petal
‘Properly’ prepared
The core is the yellow bit and everything else is fibrous.

These are the only necessary steps.

Cut the stem from the base which includes the 5 smallest petals (the first layer)
Wash thoroughly
Boil in a pan of water for around 20 mins or until a leaf comes away easily when you pull on it.

Two secondary buds of the Tavor
Cut the base petals off when cutting the stem
Here I prepared one fully and one the lazy way

Seriously, the rest is just minutiae. If you think the rest of the artichoke is a faff then you really won’t think the stem is worth it. If you’re trying to squeeze every last bit of eating out of the plant, then you can peel the stem and add it halfway through cooking – but it is only the very central core that isn’t fibrous. How many petals you remove is preference, but you can just cook them and try and eat them. The worst that’ll happen is you’ve left a couple of tough leaves that don’t have anything worth eating on them. Removing the top inch of the bud and the tips of the leaves is to remove the thorn but I’ve found that with most artichokes the thorn isn’t too sharp and/or the thorn becomes soft in the cooking and isn’t an issue. The last bit with the lemon and salt – sometimes I can’t find any lemon (not even bottled kind) in the fridge, or in fact I’ve forgotten both lemon and salt and it’s fine. If your bud is covered in aphids then just soak the bud in salty water for 10 mins and then rinse, pulling back the petals a little to wash in the gaps.

Eating Artichokes

So… this is where it’s fun/tedious depending on what kind of person you are.

Outer petal on top, the petals get much thinner than the one below
The inside with the choke on top
The choke is easy to pull away from the heart
Cleaned and ready to eat heart.

Using a thumb and a fingertip(s), with your thumb on the inside of the curve pull off a petal. When you lift it to your mouth, the thumb will be on the bottom. Use your teeth to scrape off the ‘flesh’ in the base inside of the petal. Do this for all the large petals. The petals get smaller and thinner as you get to the centre. For the very thin petals you can bite off anything that isn’t too fibrous. You then reach the choke in the centre. This is spikey and not edible. Scrape it off with a spoon and you’ll be left with the heart. In our family our hearts get devoured by the 3 year old.

My 3 year old has her own way of eating it. Aficionados will note that she is putting the petal in her mouth upside down. It’s easier to eat the other way round and scrape the flesh away with your bottom teeth than your top. We pile petals that have cooled enough and that she can easily eat in front of her. Just FYI that isn’t all from one artichoke.

The heart tastes a bit like taro but the artichoke (all of the bits you eat) has a funny way of making everything you eat afterwards taste sweet. It’s quite fun eating different things in between eating the petals. Try a sip of wine straight after a petal. This is because something called cynarin in the artichokes inhibits your sweet receptors. As you stop eating the artichoke and eat or drink something else the cynarin is washed away and everything taste sweet.

So literally, artichokes will make your life taste sweeter, if only for a couple of seconds.

Peas and Beans

6th Jul 201931st Aug 20197 Comments

Short version:

As legumes they are a good crop to plant before brassicas in crop rotation. They can be sown generally March to July in successional sowings to provide a long and bountiful harvest. Depending on the variety they do well in part shade to full sun but with support can grow to around 6ft in order to reach extra sunlight. This height makes them an efficient use of space in small gardens.

Legume family

Most of the legumes are pod producing plants that harbour nitrogen fixing bacteria in nodes in their roots. These bacteria convert nitrogen into nitrates, which is the form necessary for assimilation of nitrogen into plants. Nitrogen is a necessary component of protein molecules which, I assume, is why peas and beans are a good source of vegetable protein. It has been said that legumes are good for crop rotation due to these high levels of nitrates. However, most of the nitrogen will be in the plant structure so in order to benefit from this, after the plants have finished producing, they should be chopped down and buried back within the soil to decompose.

I am often enthusiastically recommending growing peas and beans to any poor soul who stumbles across my path. There are several reasons:

They’re productive and tasty

You need to pick varieties that you like, though the catch 22 is, how would you know if you like them until you’ve grown them and eaten them?

Please excuse the round courgette plonked on top. This is one day’s harvest from about 15 plants. At this peak time we were collecting this amount every other day.

Out of the beans I would recommend ones with edible pods, like runner beans and French beans. The long pods, especially runner beans, means that each pod provides a larger amount of food in the growing space and for your effort. I’ve grown a few varieties of runner beans and they generally taste the same so I would just say find a string less one and if unsure if a pod is ready, pick the pods early as opposed to late. Picked early they’re sweet and tender but you may not be getting as much food out of it as you potentially could have. Picked too late the pods are fibrous and the beans are floury, and therefore, worthless. I think there’s more of a variety in taste in French beans and I would recommend ‘Blue Lake.’ If anyone has any varieties (for any legumes) they’d recommend, feel free to drop them in the comments. Reviews are always appreciated.

As much as I like shelled peas, if you’re looking to get as much food, as easily as possible then sugar snap peas are the way forward. Mangetout are not bad for more food per pod, but they go very quickly from too small to too chubby with tasteless peas and fibrous shells. Sugar snaps still have tasty peas when the pods are ready to burst. The case may be a bit tough, but then they become no different to shelled peas.

If you want extra food out of your peas, the young shoots and leaves (the much paler green ones) are tasty in salads and stir fries.

They’re good for vertical gardening

You will get a decently long harvest from both beans and peas if you keep picking the pods. Once a plant has some fully developed seeds it’s happy to give up the ghost. They can also be planted in succession to provide food for longer, but I think this is something for people with a large garden or those that are well organised.

These sugar snap peas are not quite ready yet. You can see runner bean leaves all around as they were planted about a month after so that they could take over as the sugar snaps were dying. In reality the sugar snaps became over run by the runners very early on and were probably less productive because of it.

In a small garden you can grow vertical plants on all sides. This can cover unsightly fences or provide a privacy screen and means that you grow more food in a smaller space. I love that they have a small footprint and so take up little space. With their height, even if they start in part shade, they can always grow higher rapidly to make the best of their circumstances. So they also utilise garden space better. Runner beans can still do very well in part shade. Peas need full sun.

Runner beans and French beans will wind around a cane with little coaxing. Peas, however, have tightly curling tendrils and don’t do well with thick supports like trellises.

You can see the curling stems …
… so runner beans scramble up structures well
These tiny curled tendrils are so small…
….that they never made it up this.

Pea and bean netting is very cheap and you can wrap this around some bamboo canes, giving you a much larger area of support and very thin strands for the tendrils to curl around.

It comes in a roll …
… but can be used over a large area.

They’re easy

They have nice big seeds that are easy to handle. You can sow them indoors in early spring. I suggest one or two seeds in individual pots or in loo roll tubes. You can sow them in situ in warmer weather. I still recommend in the pots though if you want to avoid the mice getting your seeds or slugs and snails devouring seedlings. They grow so fast and you don’t have to wait a long season for a harvest.

They have a very long sowing period. Check the back of your particular pack for instructions but most will fall somewhere between April and July. Generally peas need an earlier sowing than beans but if you’re a bit late with sowing you can always aim for pea shoots if you think the pods won’t mature before the cold weather hits.

They’re cheap

A large pack of seeds is very cheap, and they are so easy to grow that it is rarely worth buying plug plants. Each seed will provide a large plant that provides many pods. In addition, it is easy to harvest seeds from current plants for the following year. Peas and beans tend to self-pollinate and so tend to remain true to the parent plant. Of course, there can be variation within a variety. Here follows my anecdotal warning. Back in the early days of flat renting I had a small outdoor space. I grew mangetout and they were prolific and tasty. In the first year, there were a couple of shorter, less appetising looking pods that I figured wouldn’t make good eating and were best left to grow seeds. Those seeds were taken and grown the following year. Again, I only saved the most unworthy pods for seeds. Four years of growing the same mangetout from its seeds I wondered why on earth I was growing this mangetout. All the pods were short and stubby. Some of the pods only housed one pea! The plants didn’t last very long. They were pathetic. It was only after I’d thrown away all the plants and vowed never to bother with mangetout again that I realised that it could be because I had bred them that way. Maybe I had encouraged this trait of very small pods. I also didn’t know back then that you needed to keep picking in order to keep the plant producing. So, whilst it is possible to collect seeds you do need to question whether it’s worth the effort.

Runner beans can be perennial in milder areas. I have left runner bean plants in the soil when I was too ~~lazy~~ busy to pull them out. I was surprised when the dead looking stems sprouted shoots and leaves the next spring. This gives an early harvest the following year for free!

These runner beans started sprouting leaves and flowers from old stems early April. In the bottom left you can see the old brown stems with little growth.

If you haven’t grown them before I hope this has inspired you to give it a go. You don’t need much space. The picture above was from an old place which was a front paved ‘yard’ with this north facing fence. Despite that you can see them encroaching on the bike shed on the right. I would also swear that freshly picked peas and beans taste so much better than the ones bought in shops…. and of course… there’s no packaging or food miles!

Sowing seeds

28th Jun 201931st Aug 20197 Comments

Short version:

My method for novices deterred by the perceived effort, cost or time taken to grow seeds, though I’m probably upsetting experts with my inability to follow instructions.

Collect toilet roll tubes, tetra pack cartons and plastic tubs for free and environmentally friendly containers.
Choose seeds wisely
Fill with normal compost
In the recommended month sow 1-8 seeds (depending on plant) in each container, picking a suitable container for each plant.
Place on a windowsill / warm place and keep the compost damp.
When planting out pop the whole toilet roll in the hole so you don’t disturb the roots. When planting Tetra Pak you can cut off the bottom and put the whole carton into the soil to provide a bit of protection from pests.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the information on different months to sow, types and mixes of potting soil, necessary temperatures, levels of light and water requirements, seeds that need soaking, scratching or a cold spell in the fridge. Then after all that, planting those seedlings outside requires another long list of requirements.

If you have the time, the patience of a saint and all the fancy equipment, like under pot heating, growing lights, a greenhouse, cold frame or even things like perlite and vermiculite then following all the guidelines could give you perfect results.

The question is: ‘How much worse will it be if you don’t follow instructions to the letter?’ Seeds may take longer to germinate. Fewer seeds may germinate. Seedlings may be weaker. At worst, nothing grows, and you’ve wasted the cost of a few seeds.

If you have a lack of space like me, I would advise starting most plants indoors. This provides a good start and ensures that something is actually growing before it takes a spot in the garden. You then also have spares for gaps as they appear. Planting straight into the ground can also lead to small stalks of nothingness – evidence of marauding molluscs. More mature plants are less susceptible or recover better.

My runner bean stalk of nothingness.
This was a kale I thought would do OK. It did not.

Also, my neighbour reminded me last week that those new to gardening can find it difficult to distinguish between intentional seedlings and weeds. Once you’ve been growing a while, you’ll be able to tell the difference but until that time – by growing everything in separate containers you’ll have no issues with identification.

1. Find containers

Toilet roll tubes – great biodegradable modules that you pop straight into the ground. It doesn’t disturb the roots and it’s a good way to reuse waste packaging. These are only suitable for fast germinating and growing seeds like peas and beans as the cardboard can go a bit mouldy and fall apart if left damp for too many weeks. Name and date the tube in pencil.

Mushroom boxes – stack the toilet rolls in here so that they don’t fall over and have somewhere for their water to drain into.

Plastic pots – pierce the bottom. A bradawl is the easiest, or even a pin heated with a lighter will do.

Couldn’t find the bradawl. Used a nail.
Heat the pin.
Pierce straight away.
A pin pierced hole is small, but it does still drain.
If you have very small spaces use two pots together. Pierce just the inside one and the outside one collects the excess water.

Tetra Pak cartons – If you pull out the side tabs and flatten the top they cut easily. You can also cut a corner on the bottom to allow for drainage.

Both shapes are great.
Flatten the top to cut straight across with scissors
Also cut a bottom corner.
Make sure you put into a tray for the excess water. If you don’t cut the drainage hole your plants can easily be waterlogged which can lead to a premature demise.

Make sure you wash the plastic pots and Tetra Pak cartons thoroughly before use. You can write names and dates with a permanent marker. Place these in the mushroom boxes or a tray of some sorts to avoid water draining everywhere.

You now have many randomly sized pots for free and even better you’re helping the environment. You haven’t bought a plastic pot, made from crude oil, that uses energy and creates carbon dioxide in the manufacturing. You are reusing something pre-made for another purpose and when you’re finished with it you can wash it and still put it into your recycling.

2. Choose your seeds wisely

Don’t be tempted to plant the seeds out of an apple you just ate or out of the butternut squash you had for dinner. Despite being an advocate of free or cheap growing, this is not usually a successful way to grow food. The first issue is that a lot of tasty fruit doesn’t provide you with seeds that are ‘true’. That seed will have the half the DNA of the mother plant but the pollen that led to fertilisation could have come from any of the species including crab apple. You might be lucky enough to get a tasty undiscovered variety, or you could get something sour and gross. This gamble would be fine if you didn’t have to wait several years for the first apple to find out. Your butternut squash may produce fruit (yes – squashes are technically fruit) in the first year but it, again, may not taste as good. If the original was grown in another country your new plant may also not be suited for your climate. It may grow but might not fruit. It also may not be disease resistant.

Buy from a reputable supplier. Spend time reading the back of packs and choosing types of edibles and varieties that will work in your garden for its conditions. It may be worth noting that if you live in a paved or concreted yard – you could grow amazing summer squashes or aubergines. Generally, cities are warmer than the countryside and when there is a lot of concrete absorbing and radiating heat it can push the temperature higher still. You won’t, however, be able to grow deep rooted plants like artichoke without a ridiculously large pot.

Sow things that work for your soil and circumstances. E.g.

Tomatoes (or squashes, cucumbers, peas, artichokes) need full sun.
Runner beans (or brassicas, watercress, aliums) still do well in partial shade
Caucasian spinach (or winter purslane) for deep shade
If you want pumpkins but lack space, mini pumpkins can be trained vertically
If you have the space bushy nasturtiums look fab.
If not you can get trailing/climbing varieties that will cover a trellis and taste just as good.

Seeds come in ridiculous quantities for small garden growers. I would never be able to plant 15 courgette or tomato plants in a year. I’d manage maybe 2 or 3. Kale comes in packs of something like 50 and at a push I’d manage maybe 10 plants. A great way to lower costs is to swap seeds or even plants with a neighbour. Seeds usually have plant before date, usually a couple of years after purchase.

Sort your acquired seeds into the months to be sown in. Sowing at the right time is something that I do believe is important. By sowing at the correct time, you ensure the soil outside will be suitable (frost free and/or warm enough) by the time your seedling is big enough to go out there. You also give your new plant a long enough period to grow and fruit to ripen before the weather turns cold. I.e. If you sow a tomato seed in January the plant will have grown far too big and probably died before the weather is warm enough to plant it outside. If you sow it in August by the time the plant has matured enough to flower the weather will be turning too cold to set or ripen fruit. I’m not too strict about dates though – if something should be sown February to March, I’ll still merrily sow it in the first 2 weeks of April. I would just maybe leave those plants indoors for a little longer so that they can catch up.

This is my crude, but effective, seed filing system. In early Jan before I start I sort everything into the month I’m going to plant in. If I sow something that I think I’ll want to sow again in a later month e.g. peas, beans and coriander rather than put it back into the original envelope I’ll put it into the next month I’ll want to sow it in. That’s why every Jan I need to resort.

Unless you have lots of experience for now avoid the seeds that need scarification (scratching the surface of the seed) or stratification (a period of cold).

3. Fill containers with Compost

The cheap and lazy me uses whatever giant bag of compost I happen to have open at the time. I feel it’s more efficient to sow everything in 30 pots in one go once or maybe twice a month. E.g. early March I may sow 5 containers of runner beans, 5 sugar snaps, 5 fine beans, 2 tromboncino, 2 pumpkin munchkin, 3 cherry tomatoes, 2 thai basil, 3 basil and 3 coriander. I’m sure each type of plant would have its own ideal type of potting soil but it’s so quick, easy and cheap just to fill all the pots with the same soil. Let’s face it – if it can’t grow with the decent compost I provide indoors, then it sure as hell isn’t going to make it in my terrible clay soil outdoors.

4. Sow your seeds

I don’t believe in thinning. The idea that you sprinkle lots of seeds into a tray of compost, wait for them to grow and then prick individual seedlings into their own pots sounds like an inefficient use of time and resources. So many seedlings get squished or die in the process and roots get tangled. I also don’t have the heart to kill a food plant when the books say sow 2 or 3 together and pinch off the weakest 2.

How many you sow in each pot depends:

Things that will grow into tree/bush type things and you want to keep indoors for as long as possible like tomatoes, artichoke, pumpkins and other squashes, physalis, etc I’d stick to one seed per larger container.

Things that you just want to make plug plants for like kale, swiss chard, rocket, nasturtiums, you can do one seed per small container.

Things that grow tall and thin like cucamelons, peas and beans I tend to do 2 or 3 to a container.

Tender herbs that get cut down quite quickly (basil, coriander, dill) and so don’t get chance to grow very large I’ll sprinkle maybe 5 or 6 seeds in one.

I’d suggest planting a few more containers than you need in case you have a couple of dud seeds. You then also have a spare or two if you do plant out your first seedlings and they get ravaged by the slugs and snails. You can always give these away or do a seedling swap.

Label them so you know what you have. If you’re fastidious: plant, variety and date. If you’re me there’ll be an unintelligible scrawl on the side naming many different plants after I’ve used the same container a couple of times.

5. Leave to grow

Windowsills or any sunny spots will do. Keep the soil damp. Some seeds germinate almost immediately whilst some take a little longer. There may be containers that continue to look barren. Not all seeds within a pack are viable. Some plants are just harder. I’ve failed to germinate perilla, tomatillo and pomegranate this year. Following instructions to the letter may have led to success. Then again, it may not have. If you think something hasn’t grown pop something else into these pots. Because I like to keep it easy, cheap and avoid anything too time consuming I give up on the harder to grow things. There will be some things that are better (though more expensive) bought as plants.

6. Choose a spot suitable for your plant

You can ‘harden off’ your plants by putting the containers outside during the day and bringing them back indoors for cold evenings. If the nights aren’t freezing, I have often skipped this step with little or no damage. You will have to see for yourself how necessary this is for your garden. If unsure plant one straight into the ground and see if it’s doing OK a couple of days later.

These two tomatoes at the base of the two canes were sown at the same time and planted out at the same time. The one on the left though had a tree collard that was too close. I removed it when I could see there was a problem but it still hasn’t recovered.

Ensuring enough sun, space and supports if necessary, gives you less work in the long run. If your plant is susceptible to slugs and snails, then you can cut the base off the container so you have a couple of inches of container as a barrier, but the roots still have soil access. You can put slug tape around the container or cover with the top half of a bottle to stop them getting in. I only bother with really precious plants that are very attractive to critters.

Just half a pot in the ground
This carton has a ring of copper slug tape
2 litre bottle cloche

After all that it’s worth noting that carrots, beetroots and turnips are best sown in situ. Because they are easy small plants grown in larger quantities, they are just a faff to put in containers first. Beetroots will need thinning no matter how careful you are as each ‘seed’ is actually a cluster of seeds.

Then after that has been said, by growing perennials or self-seeding varieties you cut out all the above work. However, perennials usually take much longer to establish themselves and become productive. To get self seeders into the garden of course you need to sow them first. Things like peas, beans and squashes don’t have a perennial version and they can provide you with food as you wait for your perennials to get going.

So, being end of June, there’s still time to sow some kale or Swiss chard for eating in spring, or peas (including sugar snaps and mangetout), beans (runner or French), beetroots, kohl rabi, , quick growing herbs (like basil, dill, coriander) or salad leaves for something yummy this year.

Today, out of that list I’ve only sown peas, but I’ve also sown an array of edible flowers that should hopefully make it into the lawn (more on that later). All of those would germinate in situ in this lovely weather, but the lawn flowers seedlings would never survive being trampled and I’m sure those little slimers are just waiting to take the growing tips of my beans! Grr…

Kales and Collards

21st Jun 201931st Aug 201913 Comments

Short version: Grow perennial kales and collards for an easy life. In addition grow annual kales for eating through winter. Eat all bits of any brassicas that aren’t too fibrous. Daubenton’s kale is amazing – unless of course you dislike the taste of brassicas. If that’s the case then maybe this post isn’t for you, unless you can be convinced that home grown tastes better than shop bought.

Brassicas and St Bernards

So kales and collards are brassicas. These also include cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, the odd-looking kohl rabi and the Chinese sounding kai lan. You may find it surprising that they all belong to the same species, all with 4 petals in their flowers. If you remember your GCSE Biology you will know that that ‘same species’ means they can pollinate each other. It’s like dogs. All dogs are the same species despite how very different looking the breeds are. A chihuahua and a St Bernard could mate to produce puppies but I couldn’t begin to imagine what traits the offspring would have.

Brassicas, like dogs have diversified through human intervention. People have chosen traits that they like and through cultivation (or breeding in the case of dogs) have selectively grown (bred) a variety (breed) that has the desired characteristics. Some brassicas are grown for their flower buds, like cauliflower and broccoli. Some are grown for the succulent stems like, kai lan.

Given that they are all the same species and all parts of the plant (except the roots) are edible, I’d like to encourage you to try the bits of brassicas that you may not usually eat. It’s good for your bank account and it’s good for the environment. Obviously there are some bits that are not worth eating. You’ll not be surprised to hear that walking stick collard stems are really very tough. Feel free to try broccoli leaves or the flowers of any the brassicas. This year we have begun roasting the cauliflower leaves (shop bought I’m afraid) that we used to throw away. We literally pull the leaves off, wash, chop into 1-2cm width sections, toss in oil and a pinch of salt and roast on 190^oC (fan) for 20mins. You can even roast them with the cauliflower florets and stem cut into around inch sized pieces. We find them tastier than the florets but tougher on the teeth.

To Grow or Not to Grow?

Being all the same species, it does mean that they generally do well in the same conditions. They are decently shade tolerant and are good for winter growing. They also favour alkaline soil. Now which of the brassicas are the easiest to grow?

Cabbages

The books all go on about cabbages and Brussel sprouts. I always see the seeds in the shops but I don’t know a single person who grows them. I attempted to grow cabbages, once about 11 years ago. They took an awfully long time. I patiently waited the suggested time, cut off my shot putt sized head, removed the lacey looking caterpillar eaten leaves, removed the leaves with little holes in, removed some more leaves, cut the now closer to tennis ball sized cabbage in half to find some more little worm like things. I was still determined to eat what I could salvage. The other 3 cabbages that I had managed to grow did not fare much better, but at least I was mentally prepared. I have not planted cabbages since. A red cabbage grew of its own accord last year but it didn’t even make it to my kitchen as it was so infested.

Brussel sprouts

My last pathetic plant of last year’s crop that by March still had no buds. At all.

I’ve grown about 20 Brussel sprouts plants in the course of 3 years. No matter how long I wait, I only get pathetic pea to marble sized buds. The buds eventually start to open instead of getting any bigger. Out of all the plants, in the whole time, I may have had about 5 respectable sized sprouts.

I could do the research and learn how to grow cabbages and sprouts successfully (maybe), but I just don’t see the point. They take forever to grow, they have a fairly large footprint, if they’re tasty they get eaten by something else first, you have to practise good crop rotation and they have to be planted every year. They also haven’t tasted any better than shop bought cabbages or sprouts.

Kales and Collards

Here begins the brassica love. So – about a year and a half ago I was looking for perennials to make life easier, something to keep the garden green over winter and something to cover the hungry gap. In my hunt I found kales and collards.

The Annuals

Clockwise starting top left: Red Russian, Pentland Brig and Cavelo Nero in a large pot by our front gate. These are about 3 months old and are crammed into the space. I’m hoping the Cavelo Nero will grow nice and tall and leave more space at the bottom for the others. I’ll eat whatever is growing the most into submission to allow space.

There is a plethora of annual (or biannual really) kales and collards seeds available in shops and online. Some of them are quite beautiful and come in pinks, whites, purples and greens. I, therefore, don’t understand why anyone grows ornamental cabbages.

Kales are fab! You sow the seeds. If you need to thin the plants, you eat the spare seedlings. Once you think the leaves are big enough and the plant has enough to spare – you start taking the leaves. The plant continues to grow, and you continue to harvest over a long period. You avoid a glut that needs storing and one of my favourite things about harvesting kale is that you are providing maintenance as you do so. Let me explain.

If you’re waiting for a plant to mature before you harvest, like cabbage, you don’t really pay much attention to it. If you’re regularly picking from a plant, as you look for leaves to harvest you may see slugs, snails or caterpillars that need picking off. If a leaf is badly infested with aphids and you don’t want to eat it, you can remove it and bin it. If you have a leaf with a few unwelcome guests, you can harvest it and give it a good wash before cooking. The pests are now going down the plug hole and are no longer in your garden.

Growth then slows down with colder weather, but there is still enough growth to feed you over winter. Kales and collards are hardy and after a frost they are sweeter. Then as the weather warms up the plant will attempt to flower to make seeds. When this happens to Cavelo Nero it is a bonus. The plant will send out masses of tasty tender flower shoots. These need to be cut off because once kales ‘goes to seed’ they die. However, if you keep cutting back the flower shoots more (albeit thinner ones) will grow to replace the ones you cut off. You do eventually give up as the flower shoots becomes so thin that you can’t see the point in trying to cook them.

It’s hard to see but in this photo the brightest green parts are the flower shoots just beginning here in March. They form at the base of the leaves and have their own mini leaves. They kept us in tender greens till the end of April.

There is a large number of varieties, but these are ones that I have grown and would recommend.

Cavelo Nero leaves makes great kale chips or shredded in dishes. These were planted late summer and this is end of Jan. By end of March see the photo above.
Pentland brig has a slight tang that reminds me of pak choi. It has a sweet kale flavour but can have a hint of bitterness in the aftertaste.
Teddie Tree Collard, top left, is not particularly tender but it is sweet and tastes slightly nutty and buttery. Red Russian, bottom right, is more buttery/creamy but has the slight bitter after taste. All bitterness disappears after a cold spell.

If anyone has any favourite kales that they would like to recommend or know of any kales that have yummy flower shoots like Cavelo Nero, please do post in the comments.

The Perennials

The perennial kales and collards are harder to get hold of. There are no seeds. The reason why these are perennial is that they don’t flower or make seeds for a few years. Even if a plant does flower and seed (and then, of course, die), because of the ease of cross pollination you couldn’t be sure that the offspring would be perennial. This means that you must get a cutting. This was something that I found quite difficult. These websites either have them or have a waiting list:

http://www.backyardlarder.co.uk

http://www.incrediblevegetables.co.uk

http://www.pennardplants.com

Daubenton’s Kale

Non-variegated at 5 months from receiving the cutting
Variegated at 5 months. The cuttings came not long before Christmas so they weren’t going to grow much in the cold months.

I ended up getting my Daubenton’s kale from ebay. I bought 2 variegated and 2 non-variegated. The variegated does better in my garden and the cuttings root more easily. If you’ve looked at the websites, you may be shocked at the prices. I was too. Now that I’ve been growing mine for a year and a half I think the pricing is fair. The plants are still quite rare. They’re not something you’ll be likely to see in your local gardening centre. Apparently, they used to be more common but commercial cultivators in the past shunned perennial brassicas in favour of annuals that they could sell seed for year after year.

If they’re hard to get and expensive surely they’re not worth it, right? Well:

We get year-round abundance.
They’re expected to continue to do so for years.
They fed us through winter and the hungry gap.
Even now in June it is growing vigorously and with asparagus season over and our sugar snaps just starting, the Daubentons provide our family of 3 with a vegetable side dish every other day.
We’ve gotten plenty of new plants from the original 3. Some have been kept and grown and some given to friends. It’s not just a desire to get everyone growing it, it’s also like insurance. If I manage to kill all mine off hopefully there’ll be someone I could beg a cutting from.
They are mostly left alone by pests.
Most importantly, they taste yummy. I’ve had no bitterness at any point of the year. My very fussy 3 year old absolutely loves it just simply fried in oil with a bit of salt. She won’t eat shop bought curly kale.
The smaller leaves are tender. The large ones are tougher but still tasty.

5 months
A year. 2 feet tall.
A year and a half. 4 feet tall and has been eaten all winter

That’s a lot to ask of a plant that cost you about a tenner. Maybe it’s because cuttings are small. Most people wouldn’t think twice about paying £10 for an apple tree.

Purple Tree Collard

It wasn’t till December last year that I finally managed to get hold of a purple tree collard (from The Backyard Larder). I have much less to say about it because I’ve only had it 7 months. Still, I’ve eaten from it three times so far and its taste is similar to the daubentons but is slightly nuttier and sweeter. It also requires a bit more chewing. My 3 year old has yet to touch it.

All my kales and collards, perennial or otherwise have few problems with pests beyond the occasional hole. The only thing that has been an issue has been powdery mildew. If it happens removal all the affected leaves and spray with a mix of a litre of water, a few drops of soap dish, a few drops of vegetable oil and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda. If caught late then it’s the same thing but you’ll be removing almost all the leaves. Whenever I have done this the plant has always sprung back after a month or so. It only happens in the hotter months when the plant is stressed from lack of water. The spores are spread by disturbance during rainfall and are specific to brassicas. So they won’t infect plants of other species and plants of other species with their own powdery mildew won’t infect your brassicas.

Because of this powdery mildew…
…this was turned into…
… this very scraggly thing.

Other Brassicas

Last year I tried kohl rabi for the first time. I neglected them and past harvest time they had holes munched into the leaves and swollen stem. I luckily tried to recover what I could. I’m so glad I did, as they were very sweet, tender, almost juicy and slightly nutty. It was better than any that I had bought from a shop before.

The nine star broccoli is apparently a perennial cauliflower, despite its name. I wouldn’t know as mine is pathetic. I’ve removed the flowers in the hope that it will then divert its energy to plant growth. Time will tell. I’ll let you know if it works. This is 6 months old and a pitiful 8 inches. It does not look anything like cauliflower.

Kai Lan (Chinese broccoli) is apparently perennial but I’d never know as every time I’ve tried (and I’m Chinese … so I’ve really tried) pretty much everything is devoured by something that isn’t me. I think the slugs and snails gang up with the caterpillars for these.

So, in conclusion brassicas are good vegetables to grow for eating through winter, are shade tolerant and do well in alkaline soil. Out of the brassicas the collards and kales are less affected by pests. The younger leaves are tender but the older leaves less so. Harvesting can happen over a lengthy period. For the easiest option perennial kales and collards are edible all year round, including the hungry gap and requires none of the faff of yearly sowing, thinning, planting out and crop rotation. In small spaces a perennial kale is the most efficient use of space and time for growing food.

I cannot recommend Daubenton’s kale enough. I think it may be our family’s favourite green. It’s not easy to get hold of but I think it’s well worth the effort.

In the interest of experimentation I need to try another perennial kale. I have my sights set on Taunton Deane and I WILL find a space in the garden…. Er… somehow.