What to Grow | Baldock Allotment Association

April 26, 2018August 4, 2018

What to Sow in April

It may seem strange to be writing a post about what to sow in April, when April has nearly been and gone. However, this year has been a classic example of allotment gardeners needing to be guided by the weather and not by what it says on the back of a seed packet.

Normally, you would be able to sow most things from the end of March and into April. Generally the ground has warmed up sufficiently for seeds to be sown outside on our plots if they are being sown direct. However, if you remember, mid March saw a blanket of snow here in Hertfordshire which put paid to any idea of getting the season started for several weeks. The weather has improved greatly since, to the extreme of having a mini heatwave a week ago.

So what can you do when the weather is so up and down? Fleece or mini polytunnels can be used to warm seed beds and areas where direct sowing is going to be taking place, and can also be employed if the overnight temperatures plummet.

Root crops such as beetroot, radish, early carrots and parsnips can be sown this month. Make a narrow drill and sow the seeds thinly, cover up, water and hope! I often feel my first sowings don’t take. Beetroot can be started off in modules if you prefer and then transplanted once they have put on a bit of growth. Some people sow radish and parsnips in the same row. Radish will germinate quickly and can often be harvested before the parsnips (which are particularly slow to germinate) get going. I like to sow my parsnips in groups of three. The seeds are quite large and relatively easy to handle and if you get a little cluster of similar looking ‘weeds’ growing, you know it’s the parsnips!

Brassicas can also be sown now either in a seed bed or in modules. Whilst they are quick to germinate, they can be a bit high maintenance after that and don’t like being moved too often and then there’s the constant battle against the dreaded cabbage white butterfly and white fly.

If you are growing flowers, many of these can be started now. Some require direct sowing whilst others prefer to be sown in modules.

March 26, 2018April 16, 2020

Recipe for a quick and easy potato salad

Recipe for a quick and easy potato salad

Ingredients
Salad potatoes such as Charlotte
1 tub of cheese and chive dip

Method
1. Cut potatoes in half or quarters so they are all similar sized pieces.
2. Boil potatoes as you would do usually and drain once cooked.
3. Place cooked potatoes into a bowl and add several spoonfuls of dip.
4. Stir to ensure all the potatoes are covered.
5. Serve immediately or allow to cool before eating if preferred.

January 20, 2018

Sowing Sweet Peas

Everyone loves sweet peas don’t they? A quintessential British summer scent that wafts in the air as you pass their blooms, they also make great cut flowers to bring that scent into your home.

There are two schools of thought as regards sowing sweet peas; they can be sown in the autumn and overwintered thereby allowing you to plant out stronger and bigger plants in the spring, or they can be sown later in spring itself either in pots, or if you are really late you can direct sow them in the ground as late as April.

If you are sowing them in the autumn, the growing tip will need to be pinched out to encourage secondary growth and to stop the plants getting too leggy.

As I forgot to sow mine in the autumn and with my sowing fingers starting to get a little twitchy, I have sown mine in mid January this year. I have a selection of colours and varieties. I’m pretty sure I had some lovely red ones too somewhere, but can I find them?

The seeds themselves are quite large and round and are easy to sow as a result. I filled some pots with compost the day before I needed them and brought them inside so the compost warmed up a bit. No one, not even a tiny seedling, wants to dip their toe or first shoot into cold compost!

I sow mine five seeds to a pot spread evenly over the surface, I then just push them in about a fingernail’s depth and then cover them. Water and place the pots somewhere fairly warm to help germination.

Hey presto! A week later the first seed has germinated!

We’ll do an update in a month or two once the seedlings have got going a bit more.

September 24, 2017

What to Grow on your Plot in September

September is the month when you start to see bare patches on your allotment as you harvest and dig up this season’s plants. But worry not, there’s still things you can plant out during the autumn months and first up is autumn onion sets.

Onion sets are immature onions which have been lifted and dried to stop any further growth. You can buy several varieties from the members’ shop now. We have Radar, Shakespeare and Blood Red available.

Plant them out now and water well and they will then resume growing over the winter months. Autumn sets are hardy so no need to worry about protecting them from frosts etc.

The sets can either be planted direct into the ground, just push them in root end first so just the tops are showing approx. 4″ – 6″ apart.

Or they can be started off in modules with compost and planted out once the top growth is a few inches high.

Either way, I like to protect mine from being pulled up by pigeons until they have established themselves by covering them with a mesh tunnel.

Autumn planted sets are usually ready for harvesting a short time before spring planted sets, so I find it’s a good way of spreading the harvesting season. Once harvested, onions store well. Just string them up and hang in a shed or bin store in my case.

July 18, 2017August 6, 2017

What’s in Season – Courgettes

Ah….courgettes! One of the vegetables most allotment folk grow and look forward to harvesting……until the glut kicks in!

As a veg grower, it is always best to sow at least a few seeds when growing a crop but courgette seeds are usually good germinators. Sow them individually in small pots for best results. However, whilst you may have sown half a dozen seeds which become seedlings and then healthy plants, once you’ve planted them out the realisation hits you that you may just have grown a few too many plants. Once they start cropping, the courgettes keep coming! And whoa betide the allotment tenant who misses a few and finds they have now grown a couple of marrows!

Joking aside though, courgettes are actually quite a versatile crop. Google ‘courgettes recipes’ and you are inundated with a wide variety of suggestions from cakes, gratins and currently en vogue, spiralizing them!

And talking of versatility, don’t forget courgette flowers are also edible and quite a delicacy; deep fried in batter being a popular recipe. Pick them just as they are opening.

Once established, the plants throw up both male and female flowers with the female flowers being easily recognisable because they have a small fruit behind them. The plants can take up a lot of space and need a lot of watering in hot weather but regular watering will ensure better quality fruit. Pick the fruit when they are young and thin, perhaps around 5″ long and always cut them from the plant with a knife; twisting and pulling them off will damage the plant.

One of the best things about growing courgettes, is the varieties available including yellow ones. There are quite a few heritage varieties out there too.

My only courgette regret this year……not growing any. I actually feel a bit left out that I’m not suffering from a courgette glut!

April 11, 2017

What’s in Season – Rhubarb

No allotment is complete without rhubarb; indeed almost every plot seems to have a crown sprouting in a corner! One of the exciting things about rhubarb is seeing it starting to regrow in early spring.

Rhubarb is a relatively easy crop to grow as it needs little attention other than a good covering of manure over the winter to feed the crown whilst it is dormant.

Like any perennial crop, newly planted crowns should not be harvested in the first year and sparingly in the second. Thereafter stalks can be harvested by twisting and pulling at the base, taking care not to damage the crown.

Stalks can be harvested until June in most cases, so long as the plant isn’t over harvested.

March 27, 2017March 22, 2019

What’s in Season – Purple Sprouting Broccoli

By the time March comes around allotment folk are starting to reach the hunger gap, that time when the harvests of last year’s season are dwindling and the promise of this year’s harvest is some time off still.

Enter purple sprouting broccoli!

This delicious brassica needs a long growing season but it rewards you with wonderful tender stems with small floret heads and I much prefer it to regular broccoli (calabrese). It is often sold as a ‘luxury’ vegetable in supermarkets, attracting a luxury price tag!

The seeds are sown in late spring and once growing the plants need little attention other than perhaps staking and protection from the dreaded cabbage white butterfly.

When it is harvest time, usually in March, harvest the main floret head first as this will encourage more side shoots and therefore more floret stems! Cut the stems regularly to encourage more to harvest.

Not seen so often is white sprouting broccoli which has a more delicate flavour.