Posts Tagged ‘cress’

Learn From the Past and Learn How to Vegetable Garden

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There was a time when most young boys learned how to vegetable garden. It is perhaps more appropriate to say learned than taught as the learning process was a practical one. There was a great need to grow your own vegetables so that the family had food on the table.

The history books teach us that it was essential to grow as much of our own food as possible during the World Wars. Dig for Victory conjures up pictures of lawns and ornamental borders being grubbed up, dug over and planted up to provide the much needed nutrition for the family.

Instruction leaflets were produced to teach many people skills that they had not had to call upon when vegetables were readily available and affordable in the shops. And as we know, this was a task that had also to be undertaken by women as many of the young men were away fighting.

Returning to the period before the war, a picture is literally painted of cottage dwellers spending their leisure time cultivating their vegetable gardens and harvesting wonderful healthy and nutritional crops. This is so far from the truth and some of the blame can be put at the door of the commercial artists whose canvases show contented wives and children watching as the man of the house working in bright sunshine maintaining the vegetable plot. Apart from the cottages being draughty, cold, damp and overcrowded the man of the house had very little leisure time. They worked very long hours from dawn to dusk so how did they manage to dig over their vegetable gardens and cultivate their crops? The answer is that they had to work in the time they had available which would be late into the evening using the Parish Lantern to see what they were doing. What is the Parish Lantern? Moonlight.

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There is a growing interest in vegetable growing and some of our reasons for wanting to do so are the same as those cottage gardeners. For example, one reason is the desire to save money when prices of fresh vegetables have risen in the greengrocers and supermarkets. But we are also aware of the number of miles clocked up to get the produce to our table. The carbon footprint is not the only issue; we like to know that a concoction of chemicals has not been used in the production of that food.

If you want to help yourself and your planet try growing your own vegetables. You can start in a small way and expand as you become more confident. Unlike those gardeners of the past you may not have had the chance to learn vegetable gardening but there is not a better time to learn how to vegetable garden.

Rodger Cresswell is interested in all things about gardens and gardening. Flowers, vegetables and greenhouse growing and also tries to encourage as much wildlife into the garden as possible.

How to Vegetable Garden – Hints, tips and instruction about vegetable growing.

My Garden is My Space – Hints, tips and how to’s about gardening generally.

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Vegetable Garden Things to do in August

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We are that time of the year and garden season when hints and tips for the vegetable garden once more include the phrase “depending upon where you live”. In warmer regions you will be able to get away with late sowings while cooler regions may wish to take a risk or accept that there may not be enough warm weather to come to get crops to maturity.

Tomatoes

I make no secret of the fact that I am an enthusiastic grower and eater of tomatoes. Early in the season I can buy locally grown tomatoes from a market gerdener but there is nothing like that taste that comes from those freshly picked from your own vines.

Pick those tomatoes that are ripening quickly now and enjoy the abundant harvest.

Irregular watering can lead to problems with blossom end rot in tomatoes so it is advisable to water well during dry spells.

Keep up with potato blight control on outdoor tomatoes to prevent further infection of the crop.

Also keep your eyes peeled for ghost spot, blotchy ripening and greenback. Problems with ripening can be caused by heat damage, lack of feeding or water, or by a genetic tendency in some varieties. Tomato viruses are another problem.

Reading back over this it may not at first glance look like a good advert for growing your own tomatoes but with a sensible care and good housekeeping regime most problems are avoided.

Quick Maturing Crops

Here we go with one of those depending upon where you live:

In warmer areas you can still sow quick maturing salad crops such as summer lettuce, radish, rocket, sorrel, chicory and fennel. Continue to sow spring cabbage, turnips, Oriental vegetables and overwintering onions.

If like me and you have a greenhouse, try sowing salad leaf crops such as lettuce, matzuna, rocket, greek cress and golden purslane in seed trays on the greenhouse benching. Sow seeds thinly, grow to maturity in the seed trays and graze the young leaves so that they cut and cum again.

Remember to regularly pick fast maturing vegetables such as French beans, runner beans, courgettes and cucumbers which will prevent stringiness or toughness and encourage further cropping.

Read more Vegetable Garden in August – Hints and Tips

Tags: cress, cucumber, cucumbers, garden, gardening, greenhouse, hints and tips, leaf crops, leaves, pot, potato blight, runner beans, salad, salad crops, seed, seed trays, seeds, tomatoes, vegetable, vegetable garden
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