The Greedy Gardener

I decided to resow three trays of beans because of the disastrous effect that the cold, wet weather has had on the ones I carefully sowed in May. They grow so quickly in these longest days of the year; these were sown five days before the photo was taken, and just five more days later, they are already a couple of inches high with two true leaves. They’re now sitting on my patio getting used to the great outdoors before I plant them out on the allotment next week.

The climbing French beans should produce a decent crop, albeit later than usual, but I’m taking a bit of a chance by resowing Borlottis as they need a bit longer to produce beans big enough to eat - you eat the seeds like broad beans. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a warm dry autumn like last year, in which case, I’ll still have a good harvest of one of my favourite vegetables.

Gardening can sometimes feel like a battle with the various pests that threaten carefully tended crops, but some of the biggest pest problems I have are from the creatures I’ve invited to live with me. Chickens can wreak havoc in a bed of salad in a matter of minutes so an impregnable barrier surrounds the vegetable garden. Seed beds and newly planted seedlings are particularly attractive to cats so I take a range of measures, albeit with limited success. My newly transplanted lettuce seedlings are covered with netting and the pea shoots are interspersed with twigs, but both have been treated as a challenge by these furry terrors. A quiet afternoon’s reading lying on an airbed last summer was ruined in a single bound by a boisterous tabby with sharp claws.

Yesterday, I sowed a variety of salad leaves and covered them with fleece to avoid the carefully raked soil being used as a litter tray. Fennel has other ideas though and thinks I’ve made her a cosy day bed.

My lean to that doubles as a greenhouse is bursting with seedlings and plants but the weather has been so awful lately that I can’t even think about putting any of them outside yet. Everything is competing for light and space so I’ve taken a few trays down to the allotment and put them in the polytunnel, covered with fleece because even in there, night time temperatures can be rather chilly. At least I can reach the back door now.

I’m particularly concerned about some of my tomato plants. I sowed some in early March and they shot up in the warm sunny weather we had then but the heritage varieties I sowed a bit later are still tiny and have hardly grown in the past few weeks. A couple of people at the allotment this morning have said the same thing - we put it down to a combination of cold, damp weather and grey skies. Tomatoes are susceptible to low light levels and I think the younger plants with their smaller leaves have found it especially difficult. The generation monitor on our solar panels has barely registered anything this week, which would back up this theory.

The bigger tomato plants are getting by in the lean to but the younger ones have been moved into the warmth of the spare bedroom where there’s a big windowsill and I can keep the door shut and cat proof. In other years, the long window in my office has provided valuable propagation space. However, since the feline population of the household trebled last autumn, it’s now off limits to plants as it’s their prime spot for taunting next door’s dog - several trays of seedlings ended up all over my sofa in the excitement earlier in the year.

The various types of beans I sowed two weeks ago are all coming along nicely - these runner beans are doing particularly well. I always think the seedlings look like little elbows poking up out of the compost before they flip up and the first two leaves open. Weather like we’re having now is one of the reasons it’s good idea to sow beans indoors as the seeds tend to rot in cold, wet soil. The forecast is for more of the same so I won’t be able to think about hardening them off until it’s warmed up a bit, so my greenhouse will be chock a block for a few more weeks. There’s still time to sow beans - get them in now and they’ll be ready to go outside in about three or four weeks.

I haven’t grown tomatillos before and I’ve been surprised at how quickly they’ve grown in my little greenhouse. They already have flower buds on them and could really do with being planted out in the ground. However, I went to the allotment on Sunday to check the recording thermometer I left in the polytunnel overnight and I was astonished to see that it had recorded -2°C during the night. The forecast is for more chilly nights this week so they will have to struggle on in these little pots for a few more days.

Beans of various kinds produce crunchy pods during the summer and seeds for drying in the autumn and eating through the leaner months. I grow climbing varieties up teepees of canes as they take up less space and are easier to harvest. Beans need long root runs so I start them in trays of toilet rolls filled with compost. The young plants are susceptible to cold and need hardening off, then plant the whole thing, cardboard and all when the risk of frost is past in late May/early June.

A really useful variety is Blue Lake that produces masses of green beans in summer then later, white, haricot type dried beans that are excellent in soups and stews. Helda has long, flattened pods that can stay on the plant without going stringy for far longer than other varieties. Purple podded varieties such as Blauhilde are decorative and easier to spot amongst the foliage.

I also grow two different heritage varieties of runner beans, Red Knight with scarlet flowers and Painted Lady which has attractive red and white flowers. I save my own seed and unfortunately, I’ve mixed them up so it will be pot luck as to which is which until the flowers appear.

Borlotti beans such as the Italian “fire tongue” Barlotto Lingua di Fuoco, are also extremely attractive. The beautifully striped red pods produce delicious beans with a close, creamy texture for drying or eating fresh like broad beans, picked while still plump and the beans speckled red and white. For me, fresh borlottis simmered with thyme then dressed with lemon, olive oil, parsley and garlic are one of the highlights of the gardening year.

Sowing seeds in plastic modules is a really good way of getting things going indoors before planting outside. Germination is a bit more reliable in warmed, more controlled conditions. You can buy modules really cheaply in multipacks from household stores and they often come with useful plastic lids.

Big seeds like beans, are sown one per module. For smaller seeds, like these lettuces, fill the modules with compost then water it to settle it down. Put a small pinch of seed in each module and cover lightly with a sprinkling of compost. When they’ve grown a couple of true leaves, nip out the weaker seedlings to leave one good plant in each module. You can make the world’s tiniest salad from the ones you pull out.

The slightly darker oak leaf lettuce on the left has already been thinned with the paler Little Gem on the right waiting to be done. These can be grown on outside for a week or two longer before planting in the garden. Carefully lift each little plant out of the module with its ball of compost intact so as not to disturb the roots and plant about 12 inches (30cms) apart.

I mainly grow loose leaf varieties like Cocarde or Salad Bowl because you can take individual leaves from the outside of the plant as you want them, making each plant last for many months. Even if it starts to bolt and run to seed, cut off the plant leaving a few leaves at the bottom and it will put out new shoots in a couple of weeks.

It’s not too late to sow your own tomatoes, especially if you want to grow them outdoors. Tomatoes are a tender, warm weather crop so can’t go outside until all risk of frost is past, which in most of the UK means mid May, earlier for Cornwall, but even later in Scotland. Therefore, it’s not practical for most people growing at home to sow seeds any earlier because you end up with every windowsill filled with massive, gangly plants that are straining for light and nutrients. Unlike greenhouse grown tomatoes, you won’t get fruit until July at the earliest but with gardening, you have to go with the flow.

I sowed these a couple of weeks ago and some more yesterday. Plant individual seeds well spaced apart in a container (this is a recycled mushroom punnet) so that they’re easier to prick out. The first two leaves of any seedling never look like the end product, so pot them on when two true leaves appear. I favour the high tech approach of an old dinner fork to gently lift out the tiny plants. Pick them up by the leaves, not the stems and put them into 3 inch pots of compost, poking a hole with your finger first. If they’ve gone a bit leggy and lanky (like these have - too many seedlings, not enough greenhouse), plant them a bit deeper. They might need transferring to bigger pots again before it’s warm enough to put them outside.

This year, I’m growing four varieties, all but the last one from seed I’ve collected and saved myself:

Gardener’s Delight - huge crops of sweet, juicy, cherry tomatoes that have a multitude of uses. A bush variety that can be staked or left to sprawl along the ground with perhaps a little straw underneath to keep the fruit clean.

Marmande - an old French variety, big, knobbly fruits with deep grooves that are rarely seen in British shops because supermarkets think that uniform size and shape are more important than food with flavour. It tastes superb, with a fleshy texture and little juice so perfect for slicing and eating with mozzarella or making the best tomato sauce you have ever tasted. It does not crop heavily and is prone to blight but is well worth the effort.

Tangella - an heirloom variety whose seeds are not commercially available in the UK so you’ll have to join the Heritage Seed Library if you don’t know someone who grows it and saves their own. It’s a very heavy cropper of golf ball sized fruit the most beautiful shade of orange with a good flavour suitable for salads or cooking. Looks great mixed with red tomatoes and basil.

Tigerella - I haven’t grown these before but the stripey fruit is meant to be richly flavoured and very early so I’m giving them a whirl. I’m going to put a couple in the polytunnel to do a comparison with the outdoor ones.

As I was potting these seedlings on, I could hear the bells of the Carillon at Bournville wafting up the hill. One of many delightful details around Bournville village built by the philanthropic Cadburys, it plays a little tune at each quarter hour as well as being played by hand on regular weekend performances. Being Easter Sunday, there was a special concert of hymns, which made a very pleasant soundtrack to my gardening yesterday. As you can see, the effort has all got a bit much for one of my under gardeners.

Our lean-to/greenhouse/conservatory is beginning to fill with seedlings as it always does this time of year. We have to squeeze in amongst the plants and seed trays if we want to have a sit down and a cup of tea. I currently have various types of basil, aubergines, chillies, artichokes, lettuce, tomatoes, garlic chives, tomatillos, chard and leeks in various stages of seedlinghood.

The four little pots on the top left are cucumbers - I haven’t grown them since experiments with outdoors ones when I first started gardening ended in disaster. I’m hoping these will do better for me now I have a polytunnel. The variety is called Burpless; I can’t say that I’ve noticed cucumbers making me burp more than usual, but presumably they do some people. On the other hand, if someone could develop a fartless bean, now that would be a breakthrough very much welcomed in the Greedy Gardener household.