Cornerstones of my Kitchen Garden No.3
Grow what you love, not what your told... Working around blight and low light.
When I first started out on this veg-tastic voyage, I followed all the recommendations for 'crops you should be growing’. Whatever Monty Don, Charles Dowding , or Huw Richards was growing, or what Gardener’s World magazine or the RHS recommended.
I spent days analysing their crop lists, pouring over books, consuming endless YouTube videos. I created a vast and bewildering spreadsheet to compile the info. Weeks flew by with the onset of crippling analysis paralysis,. Finally, I bought that first batch of seeds. It doesn’t sound it, but that was all surprisingly exciting! I sowed them, grew them, but did I actually ever pause to ask:
“What do we really enjoy eating?”
It may come as stroke of enlightenment (as it did with me), but it’s okay to have a preference! It’s okay to say “I don’t like turnips!” You can openly admit you hate Brussel sprouts with a passion! You’re the one growing them. You’re the one eating them.
This isn’t a time where you’re told to “eat-up-your-greens or else!?” Grow your favourites. Grow what you love! Grow what you know you will definitely eat… just leave a little room for experimentation and sampling, because that can be the really fun and surprising part of this fascinating journey.
Tweaking, adapting, evolving
I grew radishes for several seasons, mainly because (seemingly) everyone does and they’re such a fast cropper - it’s great to get the growing season off to a quick start. However, I wasn’t actually enjoying them. To me they’re an underwhelming ‘meh’, so I stopped. Same for turnips, chard, and celeriac. I’ve grown them, tried them… Not a fan!
I absolutely love rocket (arugula) served with great hefty peelings of parmesan, fine olive oil and balsamic. I can eat platefuls! However, mustards, endive, land cress, and hearting lettuces fail to inspire the same satisfaction. I prefer crunchy sweeter Cos type lettuce, compared to the pappy butterhead, so I avoid most ‘salad mixes’.
I see so many YouTube videos and blogs saying “Six vegetables you MUST grow!” Don’t be told what to grow. How do they know what you like to eat? There are NO vegetables you MUST grow… just grow what YOU will eat.
It’s my garden and I’ll grow what I want, thank you very much.
I LOVE beetroot - roasted, cooled, sliced, drowned in balsamic vinegar, topped with fresh basil or parsley leaves… absolutely lush! Podding peas in the spring sunshine, scoffing those sweet pops of joy by the handful, is one of life’s truest simplest pleasures! Next season, I’ll be growing more than ever.
Freshly harvested luminous orange carrots are packed with sweetness and flavour that you just cannot buy in a supermarket. The white ones are a touch bland, whereas the red/purple varieties are almost toffee-like when roasted!
Truly fresh sweetcorn is so saccharine sweet, so flavoursome, so delicious, it should probably have a health warning. Picked and plunged immediately (but briefly) into boiling water, decadently smothered in butter, devoured like an arborists wood-chipper! It’s impossible not to smile!
After just a little experimentation, you’ll quickly find particular ‘varieties’ that you prefer amongst your favourite veggies. For example, I like courgettes, but all too often they go rather soft and mushy when cooked, but the Italian ‘Romanesco’ stays firm with a good bite.
I like cucumber, but I don’t have a greenhouse. So I grow outdoor varieties, that are a bit knobbly. Fine. That’s what a speed-peeler is for. However, regular outdoor cucumbers are too large for us to eat (frequently enough) and I’m sick of looking at that mouldy half-end of cucumber languishing in the fridge. So, along came ‘Mini Munch F1’, a snack-size cucumber that you pick when sausage-sized. It’s deliciously cucumberish and disappears in a single sitting! Perfect!
I’m not terribly fond of raw tomatoes (it’s a texture thing), but ‘Sungold’ is sweet and juicy with minimal ‘yucky jelly stuff!’ It’s also a quick and heavy cropper, reliable even in a dismal British summer. You’ll have a harvest well before blight strikes! Both a real bonus if you don’t have a greenhouse. I’ll chop them up small with lots of basil and mozzarella, a real heavy-handed glug of finest-quality extra virgin olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic, gobbled hungrily, bruschetta style. It’s sunshine on a plate.
Squash can be another truly bountiful summer crop, especially if it’s hot and sunny! One plant can produce several large fruits. The winter squash, like ‘Kuri’ and ‘Crown Prince’, have a tough skin that, when cured by sun and warmth, can store through the winter very happily. These two are delicious too! Bright orange sweet firm flesh that works incredibly well roasted for soup or risotto, or used in a Thai red curry - a personal favourite. Red Kuri is ideal for two, but you’ll probably still only eat half in a sitting.
Seasonal fancies
In the spring, it’s all those super-fresh, but subtle tastes! Peas, baby broad beans, fennel, leafy herbs, spicy and crisp salad leaves, crunchy sweet young carrots and salad onions, all leading up to those first buttery potatoes.
In summer, roasted and raw veggies rub shoulders in our salads, the first courgettes grilled on the BBQ slide in cosily beside sweetcorn, oozing with butter. As summer wanes, we have the squashes and a new raft of flavours from leaves, kicking’ chillies and peppers, pungent garlic, zingy shallots, and sweet Roscoff onions. There’s so much leafy herb, it’s blitzed into pesto, ready to be dribbled and doused over every meal.
I wonder of this behaviour is true of others…? As the years tick by, I’ve learned that we are most definitely fair-weather salad eaters. While the sun shines and temperatures climb above 20℃, we can’t get enough! Crips green leaves will accompany every lunch and dinner, usually with feta, halloumi, smoked salmon, or shredded chicken. But, as soon as we have that, oh-so-familiar spell of cool and overcast weather, we stop.
Literally overnight!
When blight strikes
So far, my Kitchen Garden has only suffered two problem diseases. Rust and Blight. Blight affects tomatoes and potatoes. It arrives in summer and once it takes hold, it will kill plants outright. It’s a bit of bummer, to say the least. Some years, you have enough time for a great crop. Others, you might have to cut your losses, pick what you can, and ripen the rest indoors. I now grow just the cherry-type tomatoes as they tend to fruit and ripen on the vine, before blight arrives.
(Remember, I don’t have a greenhouse… yet)
If you do have a greenhouse, blight is far less of an issue. It spreads via microscopic spores on the wind and in rain, inhabits wet leaves and spreads from there. In a greenhouse you can keep the leaves dry by watering the soil/compost without ever wetting the leaves. Outdoors, you’re at the mercy of the weather, which is often merciless.
For potatoes, you can’t pull up a plant and ripen-off indoors. However, if you do see those tell-tale signs (black/brown spots and leaves blackening and collapsing), you can lift them earlier, for smaller potatoes. Potato blight starts on the leaves, works its way down the stem, into the potato tuber, making them inedible.
Because of blight, I no longer grow main crop potatoes (that harvest after august). There are blight resistant varieties like ‘Sarpo’ but spuds are actually cheap and I’d rather grow those ‘new potatoes’ varieties that tend to be more expensive. So, the workaround for me is to grow ‘second early’ potatoes that have enough ‘skin’ to store through autumn and winter.
I now grow almost entirely ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Marfona’. They taste great too. Proper potato flavour. Charlotte is creamy, slightly waxy. The classic boiled or salad potato, yet they make surprisingly good oven-roasted wedges. Marfona is a great all-rounder. Good for boiling, roasting, jackets, even mashing.
They both keep over winter, stored in the garage in paper sacks. Yes, they’re a little softer and may have those white shoots, but perfectly useable. Another huge benefit is that they’re ready for harvest by late June or early July, well before blight season. I can then plant out another crop in their place, making better use of the beds. Win! Win!
Winter’s long shadow
The main drawback to my garden is the aspect. It’s north-facing, on a hill, in a slight dell. From November until February, the entire garden is in permanent shade. After a few years of trying to overwinter vegetables, I came to the conclusion that I was fighting a futile battle and, quite frankly, you do have to pick your battles!
Winter crops sit there in stasis, at the mercy of the elements, beleaguered by weather, darkness, and opportunistic pests. Purple sprouting broccoli, kale, and spring onions are the only crops I’ve managed to reliably and successfully grow through the winter to any kind of harvest. This year I’m trying leeks too, but they’re already covered with rust and riddled with that abominable leek moth.
With winter set aside, my real focus is on crops for late spring, summer, and early autumn harvests. I need to cram in as much as possible, in that shorter window. If there’s an option for a quick cropping variety, I’ll take it. But only if it tastes good. I won’t compromise on taste. For example, I’ve tried many ‘first early’ potatoes but, to me, they’re flavourless. Sweetcorn ‘Swift F1’, on the other hand, is superb!
There is always trial and error which is why it’s so important to experiment!
Maximising the season
To get the most from the growing season, I grow multiple crops in the same space: Sowing well ahead of time, growing seedlings under cover, overlapping the planting of young seedlings, before the harvest of existing crops. There is no pause in growing, apart from the break in winter. The beds are full from March to November. I’ve adopted this incredibly effective and productive method after a completing an educational course run by Mr Dowding - highly recommended!
You’ll see planting times vs harvest times. You’ll notice many crops actually finish half way through a season, allowing for a repeat sowing or an entirely different crop. Apart from carrots garlic, and seed potatoes, all my crops are sown under cover, into ‘module’ cell trays or seed trays. These are all based on my garden in Southern England, USDA equivalent 8b (maritime).
Onions and shallots, sown in February, planted in March, harvested in July and August - allowing for a new crop from August.
Seed Potatoes are planted in late March or early April, ready for harvesting 90-100 days later in late June or July - allowing for a second, potentially even a third crop.
Leeks are sown in April, usually planted after potatoes are lifted, harvested in autumn and through winter.
Carrots and beetroots are sown in February, planted in March, harvested in June. Sown again in June and harvest in October or November (certain varieties can be left in the ground over winter)
Courgettes and Squash are sown in April, planted in June (after frosts), harvested throughout the summer into early Autumn. This allows for an earlier sowing of beets or salads crops.
Sweetcorn, sown in April, planted in June, crops in August onwards - often planted amongst ripening garlic that’s cleared in late June or early July.
Salads are sown successionally throughout the seasons.
Rocket, sown in February, planted out in March, crops through to June, with a second sowing in August
Florence Fennel, sown in February, planted in March, harvested in June and July. Another crop planted in early August for harvest in September onwards.
Sprouting broccoli is sown in April, planted in June or July, but not harvested until the following spring. This crop stands for a long time and they are very large plants by harvest time.
Coming up…
The next instalment of my Kitchen Garden Cornerstones series and we’ll explore how you can effectively protect your crops when growing organically - how do you fend off a veritable army of vegetable munching molluscs and caterpillars?!
Also, the true power of vigilance!
I want to try a few veggies next year Elliott! Thanks for making me thinking bout what I actually like before I start ordering seeds!