Madeleine's Corner: Get the Cloches Out!

Post by Madeleine Cardozo

As a result of rapidly cooling temperatures, the amount of growth in the garden has slowed down enormously. This has meant that I have been a little lazy recently. So I forced myself to go outside and see what needed to be done. There was so much.

Mowing needed to be done around the vegetable patch, weeding around the lettuces and rocket. It's important to harvest as much as you can and either freeze the vegetables or store them.
Throw a little soil over the tops of the carrots to stop them going rubbery or green and I am happy to report that there are fewer caterpillars gnawing at my purple sprouting broccoli than last week.

Courgettes, squash and pumpkins need to be on placed onto something solid like a tile or paving, they do not want to linger on the damp soil for too long as they will rot. This is a way of hardening the skins and they could last for a few months if you let them ‘dry’ in the sun.

I really want to grow tulips and spring flowering bulbs, but I always seem to lose them and not look after them in my flower beds so I thought why not plant them in a space in the vegetable patch, they would have flowered by May which is when you begin to plant out your summer vegetables, so perhaps I can do both.

So I cleared a patch, fed it with old manure, spent a few bob on matching coloured tulips and now I will wait and see what happens.

Use cloches and small poly tunnels to keep your rocket and lettuce warm and growing. Spinach is hardy so you can leave that to the elements.

Lastly, collect your seeds! I wonder round the garden every now and then with a couple of envelopes, in them I put seeds from flowers and vegetables. Or if I cut up a courgette, tomato, bean or melon, I put them on a saucer and let them dry on the window sill and then put them into an envelope for next Spring. It saves you lots of money so why not.

Any questions related to this post, as ever, let us know in the comments box below and we'll answer as soon as we can.

Sowing Salads for Winter

Blog post by Robbie

The weather is currently so mild here in Wiltshire that I have already taken full advantage by sowing some 'Lamb's Lettuce' or Corn Salad.

Sowing
The back of the packet will say to sow seeds at fortnightly intervals from late summer to late autumn (so not beyond November) in a sunny position and well drained soil.

Because it's warm at the moment I've sown mine directly into a (25cm high, 45cm diameter) patio planter with special drainage holes.  The packet says I should sow in drills 12mm (½in) deep and 15cm (6in) apart every two weeks.  I like being different so I am largely ignoring this advice in favour of creating a spiral effect by sowing from the middle outwards, a new ring every fortnight.

Thinning out 
This is garden-jargon and it refers to the process of removing weaker seedlings to make room for stronger ones.  Basically, when the seedlings spring up you will notice that they might be quite crowded.  Especially if you're a crazy sowing maverick like I am and put too many in one spot!
You can't transplant them (plant them elsewhere), as we are outside of the growing season and they really won't like being disturbed.  Don't fret though - there are likely to be over 500 seeds in your packet so plenty to go round!

Winter cropping
The lettuce should make it through the winter outside if it's in a sheltered sunny position.  However, I'm taking no chances and will be protecting my crop from frost using a cloche or fleece blanket. I must also make sure they are kept moist - but if they are too wet the crops will likely freeze if left standing in a pool of water.

Why don't you try sowing your own winter salad? I managed to find this one online, but is sure to be sold by any one of our stockists.

Good luck and please comment below if you are also sowing winter salads or have a question to ask...

Madeleine's Corner: Harvesting vegetables & making leaf mould

Post by Madeleine Cardozo

This week we have all had a new lease of life in the garden, the plants are growing like mad as this extra bit of warmth has given them another chance. If you were worried about your tomatoes never ripening or your squash not getting large enough, your worries are over!

So back to the nitty gritty of harvesting to keep your crops coming, like courgettes, raspberries, rocket and beans. Clear any unwanted weeds from the bases of your vegetables and while it is still dry mow the grass.
Water anything you have in the greenhouse regularly as this weather is drying everything fast.

Leaves are starting to fall and it is a good time of year to make leaf mould. To do this rake up the damp leaves and put it into aerated bags, you can use a bin liner having stabbed lots of holes into it or you can buy fairly cheaply jute ones that look much nicer and rot down completely. In a years’ time from now this will have decomposed to a wonderful compost that is incredibly good for your vegetables.

There is a 'comedy gardener' called Rabbie, who shows you how to use the sacks in YouTube video if you like that sort of thing.


As you harvest more and more you will obtain space in your patch, I recommend forking it over, some people like the no dig method, but not me, it doesn't seem thorough enough. Do this little by little, 20 minutes at a time, as you do not want to spend the next few weeks nurturing a bad back. Add any well rotted compost/manure to it as you go along.

Plant: garlic, onions, sweet peas, broad beans, lettuce, rocket and radishes.

Any questions, please put them in the comments box below!

Madeline's Corner: Havesting Potatoes, Pickled Pears and something brutal about Tomatoes!

Well I don’t know about you but for me it has been a blustery week and I have been forcing myself to go out and get fresh air and to keep up the garden in a minimalistic way. I do feel that as soon as it is nice you should spend hours in the garden and when it is horrid only do the bare minimum.

So I have been harvesting potatoes, putting them into jute storage bags and then hanging them in the dry part of the garden shed. You can do the same with your beetroot, carrots etc, but only if they are suffering in the ground. If they are still growing, I would leave them in the ground for as long as possible, until the first frosts.

I have also been harvesting pears and bottling them, apples and freezing them in slices or bottling them, raspberries and freezing them. I am collecting enough raspberries to make jam, but it will take me about a week.

Get rid of any unwanted pea and bean plants, some of my beans turned to rubber - as they do when they become old – so I have got rid of them onto the compost heap. In this space I have planted out more rocket.

Now many of you will be worried about your tomatoes ripening. I cut off all the flowers and ½ of the leaves, I have been brutal, but I believe that all the energy now created will head towards the fruit and help to ripen them. If this doesn’t work them I find that green tomato chutney makes an excellent Christmas present.

Glee 2011

This year's Glee was a real triumph for us.  We managed to see most of our customers and they were all very complimentary on our new products, especially the Unidomes, which we are currently taking bespoke orders for.  Three domes were on display around the exhibition, as well as our victorian bells and other garden care products in the 'Off the Shelf' display.  All in all a very positive show - see you all next year!

Information for those that attended and would like to contact us:

Any general enquiries should go through our sales office sales@haxnicks.co.uk or 0845 241 1555 where Emily, Ali or Danielle will be very happy to speak to you.

If you are a retailer and would like to speak to our Sales Director, Malcolm Andrews, he can also be reached through 0845 241 1555 or malcolm@haxnicks.co.uk

If you wanted to discuss Unidomes, please address enquiries for the attention of Tom via sales@haxnicks.co.uk

What You Should Have Done Last Week in your vegetable Patch – Or NOW

Don’t down tools just yet fellow gardeners, there are still more seeds to plant, still more to harvest, still more to store. Plant another batch of lettuce and rocket, plant radishes and chard. This is still a good time for germinating, but watch out for the slugs as when it is wet they hide under the leaves of your vegetables. If you feel that the nights are getting a little cold by all means use a poly tunnel this will definitely prolong the season.

Pick off any caterpillars that are lurking underneath your cabbage or broccoli leaves, I find it easier and more successful doing this by hand rather than by using some kind of spray, it doesn’t take that long either.

I have pulled up all of my onions and garlic, they have been drying nicely in the sun and now my six year old son and I have tied them into wonderfully French bunches – We feel very professional! You do this by getting a piece of twine about 1m in length, then tie on each onion individually. Make sure that the neck of the onion is tied off tightly, this will keep the onion moist, and help it to last.

At the moment I am harvesting courgettes, lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, basil, climbing French beans, runner beans, potatoes, raspberries, plums and a few apples.

Madeleine's Corner: Picking Courgettes, Herbs and Raspberries

This week my courgettes have started to enter our lives – they are ready to be picked when they are small 10cm (4”) as baby courgettes or as large as 30cm (12”). I normally go for something in between. There are so many different ways of eating courgettes, I shall include a new recipe in an adjacent article.

If you are like me and have planted nasturtiums as a companion plant in your vegetable patch, did you realise that you can eat the flower in a salad, or add them to a bacon sandwich to give them a fiery taste?

Herbs need trimming, weather it is a perennial like rosemary or an annual like basil, so if you are not trimming them to eat, you should trim them so that they don’t grow leggy and start to flower. Trimming them will encourage a better bushier plant.

Autumn fruiting varieties of raspberries will now be beginning to fruit, don’t let the birds get them, either place a net over them or get some birdscare ribbon. I find that the ribbon works for me; others may need something a little more in the way of a fruit cage.