Madeleine's Corner: Feast or Famine

Well it seems to be feast or famine with the rain, watering was not an issue last week! At least here in Wiltshire anyhow.

The peas, broad beans, lettuces are all ready for harvesting. If you have too many lettuces – give some away, they won’t last. Hopefully you have another lot coming up soon.

If you planted beetroot, you can use some of the smaller leaves in a salad. You may also need to thin out your beetroot, cooking the little golf ball sized ones, leaving space in the ground for the others to grow. Keep the edges of your patches under control, the grass is still growing and before you know it, it has invaded your patch and is spreading weeds.

The fruits and berries have been unbelievable. There have been so many I haven’t known what to do with them. So pick them all before the birds and slugs beat you and put them into the deepfreeze waiting until you have time to either make a jam or incorporate them into a pudding. Remember that Strawberries come out like jelly if you freeze them.

Keep an eye on the slugs, greenfly and caterpillars. Pinch off any caterpillars, re-home the slugs, and I suppose spray the greenfly. Do it or you will lose your crops. Slugs come out at dusk, so if you are really keen take a torch. Sow some more carrots for the winter and some more basil to see you through the summer.

WIN Haxnicks Easy Tunnels with Kitchen Garden Magazine

The July issue of Kitchen Garden Magazine contains a fantastic competition to win £75 worth of Giant Easy Tunnels!

To win the set of tunnels pictured, all you need to do is buy a copy of Kitchen Garden Magazine (available from garden centres, newsagents and supermarkets).  Turn to page 91 for the above prize information, and then on to page 101 to fill in the form to enter.  Alternatively, you can visit Kitchen Garden's Web site competition area and enter online.

Good luck!

Madeleine's Corner: Glorious English Summer

Glorious English Summer – well it is one minute and then not the next. One is never sure whether to water the garden or will the Good Lord do it for you? Just make sure if you can help it that it is neither feast nor famine. Lack of water means that your crops such as spinach and lettuce bolt: so water evenly. Anyhow, Last week there was an awful lot of weeding to be done, if you don’t do it the weeds take all the energy from the soil and your peas turn out more like pinheads, and your carrots will never grow. Which reminds me thin your carrots, I know this seems harsh but it’s worth it. Thin them to 1 every 2” 5cm.

I use Haxnicks Speedhoe for saving energy and time weeding, and Haxnicks Micromesh to protect Carrots from Carrot Fly (especially important when thinning out as the Carrot Fly will no doubt get a whiff off the seedlings that have been removed).

Cover any berries you have with netting, Bamboo Fruit Cages or rig up some Birdscare or old CD’s so that the birds don’t beat you to the crop, once they discover them there won’t be any left for you. Pick and eat Rhubarb, soft fruits, lettuces, broad beans and asparagus, pick some of the small beetroot leaves for a salad. Take the last of your plants to be planted outside and get them in the vegetable patch. Sow another batch of lettuce (if you do this monthly you will get lettuces all year round), rocket and radishes.

How to secure your plants with Soft-Tie ~ Plus WIN a free pack!

Haxnicks' Soft-Tie is a special reusable rubber compound coated wire that has a never ending list of uses in the home and garden.

Here we are going to show you how you can use it to train your Tomatoes, Sunflowers, Sweet Peas, Runner Beans, Grapevines or any other plant that might need to be secured as it shoots up.

Cut off lengths of Soft-Tie with a pair of wire cutters, or a pair of pliers that are designed to cut wire as above.

 

You may then tie your  plants on to your supports (in this case a bamboo cane).  Be careful that you don't tie them too tightly.

Perhaps you might want to create more of a gap between support and plant.  Why not try this fancy technique?

If you are trying to train a climbing plant along a piece of fence or trellis, simply tie the plant stem along at regular intervals.  Use the above picture as a rough guide if you like.

Watch the amazing Soft-Tie YouTube video here.

Haxnicks Soft-Tie - durable, flexible, reusable. Choose from Original, Woody, Slim and Slim Woody.

If you would like to WIN a roll of Soft-Tie, simply become a follower of this blog and we will contact you to arrange delivery of your free gift!