ROOF TOP VEG PLOT

Sow and Sow

Saturday 25th March

It's been a lovely day in the garden today.  Everything seems fresh-minted.  In the greenhouse I already have nasturtiums, Empress of India, flowering profusely.  Their green young leaves are at their best now.  As the summer progresses nasturtium leaves can become rough and too peppery in anything but the most feisty of salads.  Their smaller, fresh, young leaves taste subtler.  As they grow the flavour develops, but in many cases older leaves can be too powerful.  I try to get leaf crops to grow fast.  If they slow up, that means to me it is time to harvest and re-sow!

The early potatoes in the greenhouse are looking fantastic.  They've now been earthed up twice.  This year I'm using my own compost, not a purchased mix, so I'm being a little more careful to feed them.  (Though I'm not sure that my home made compost mix isn't richer than some of the bagged compost that I have been forced to buy!) I know that I'm skating on thin ice, having simply planted shop bought Charlotte potatoes that had started to sprout.  It remains to be seen how well they do.  Potatoes I planted a little later, in the open garden are just poking through the soil. It is a bit early to see if they’ve taken okay.

In the raised beds I'm growing loads of spring leaves including mizuna, mustard leaves, ruby chard and lettuces (both hearted and cut-and-come-again).  I’m sowing and planting out at intervals, determined to get a progression of leaves throughout the early summer. The seedlings I planted out only a week or so ago are already at the stage where a few leaves can be harvested. 

Red Little Gem should form tight hearts, so they will be left to mature.

In the living room my early seed trays have divested their first crop of seedlings and have now been replaced with tomatoes and courgette. I’m growing Moneymaker tomatoes (a reliable stalwart) and courgette Tromboncino d’Albegna – the only climbing courgette that I find reliable.  They grow into long ‘trumpet shaped’ fruits, but are better if picked before they become too comical! I've got basil and climbing French beans (Cosse violette) in the greenhouse along with marigolds and sweet peas. 

Suddenly spring is here.  The grapevine has thick brown buds.  The wisteria has furry leaflets and buds that look as if they've been fashioned from gold silk thread. The fan trained elder is in leaf and sports tiny propto-whorls of flowers.

The roses are thriving.  Their leaf shoots are soft.  Already a few aphids are on them. But I've spotted the first ladybird, a hardy harbinger of many, I hope.  And the white skeletons of already munched aphids tell of hover flies already at work.  

The herbs are fabulous at this time of year.  My mint pots already need trimming.  Their thick downy leaves stand ready for mint teas on sunny afternoons.  The sage had been giving flavour to salads and casseroles for weeks.  My parsley bed seems to have resisted the ravages of sługs since I liberally mulched with a kitchen mix of spent coffee grounds and crushed egg shells.  I've taken a pot of each down into the kitchen so that we can have fresh parsley and mint with our meals.  I do this swop-about all summer because my kitchen faces north.  I can't nurture herbs in the kitchen, but once they are mature a pot will last well in summer shade.  But trays of pea shoots and microveg do wonderfully in the shadier spots.  So everything in and out of the garden is flourishing – so far.

I'm opening for Chelsea Fringe this year and running some workshops - see side panel for more details. 

Now is the Season

My grandfather always planted his seeds at Easter time.  And I would have done the same this year, were it not for a virulent infunza that bugged me all over the holiday.   I’m glad I waited, because these last few days have contributed just that mix of sunny intervals and showers that emerging seeds enjoy. 

I find that waiting to plant seeds a little later in the season has many advantages.  They emerge fighting fit, rather than spindly and etiolated (elongated due to lack of light). 

Anxious to make a good impression for my first visitors of the season, I did a large sowing last week on the 5^th and 6^th of April.  Already, (10^th April) quite a few small seeds and the bigger ones are starting to come through.  (See below for the seed list)

Left: Fenugreek; RIght: Mizuna

I plant in the greenhouse, partly in order to protect the seeds from slugs and partly so I know what is what.  I’m not great at keeping accurate records within each bed. I don’t often plant in rows it can be difficult to remember where things are.

I do have a small fan heater in the greenhouse, but with night-time outdoor temperatures never dipping below 8°C here in central London, I don’t think I can be using much electricity.  The tomatoes, courgette and cucumbers have a little bit of bottom heat from an electric propagator as well.    

While the seeds germinate, I’ve been preparing the outside beds, liberally piling in semi-degraded kitchen waste which is brown and gummy and overtopping that with friable compost from the rooftopvegplot compost heap.  I’ve forked in a few chicken pellets and worm castings as well.  This week I shall anoint the bare soil with anti-slug nematodes. 

I’ve also planted violas around leaf crops sown earlier in the season.  Slugs prefer viola flowers to lettuces, so do a good job as an anti-slug decoy.  I hope that at least some of the viola petals I can use myself in salads.  They look marvellous, taste sweet and delicious and are certainly a visual improvement to ugly blue slug pellets.

Last year, due to family crises, I planted even later – and didn’t notice any appreciable drop in productivity.

The early bird might find the first worm, but the early planter may not benefit from any head start at all. My advice is to wait for the weather to tell you when to sow.   Now is the season for me.

 

Planting List

All seeds planted 5/6th April,  source Chiltern Seeds

* those that have germinated by 10th April
Climbing French Bean Cosse Violette
Courgette 'Costa Romanesco' (Cucurbit pepo)*
Agretti 'Roscano'
Gherkin, Cucumber 'National Pickling'
Tomato, 'Ailsa Craig'
Artickoke 'Romanesco'
Mustard Greens 'Indian Mustard' *
Oregano Heirloom/heritage variety
Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum)*
Mizuna 'Japanese Greens'*
Pot Marigold, Calendula officinalis

Perfect 'four-leaf-clover' leaves of Indian MUstard (Amsoi Green or Brassica juncea).

Autumn Sowing

Suddenly the sky is a brighter shade of blue; the clouds are cotton wool bubbles floating across the chimneypots.  It is still warm, but there is humidity in the air, a softness that we haven’t felt for several months.  It is autumn.

Just as I feel this new phase in the rooftopvegplot, so do the plants.  I’ve noticed volunteer nasturtiums, wild celery and lettuces coming up all over the place.  It is time to plant autumn seeds.  Last weekend I tidied up the greenhouse, finding a bit of space at last where the seed trays can live.  

What I've Sown
I searched through my seed collection for likely candidates for the winter harvest. I found many that I wanted and laid them out to sow.  But something was missing.  Somewhere in the back of my mind another plant yearned to be sown.  What could it be?  What is missing from this list?

Lettuces
Salad Bowl - a cut and come again staple.  These are the green, not the red ones.  Mr Fothergill.  These are not so resistant to frosts so I will keep them in the greenhouse, if times get cold.

Merveille d'Hiver - this heritage variety from Vilmorin France, is supposed to be exceptionally resistant to frost, so I will plant it out, under glass, when I have some space.

Autumn King - Thompson and Morgan, is another special winter variety and resistant to frosts.

Lettuce seeds are then covered with vermiculite, which helps keep them moist. 29th August

Other Leaves
I also planted rocket, this should still crop well before the winter comes and spinach, Matador - a late variety, suited to autumn sowing.  The kale, dwarf green curled, will grow quite large, but is best cropped when it is young and sweet, and before the bugs get at it!

Kale, dwarf green curled

Perpetual spinach - I'm trying this variety as I've had limited success with others.  They don't like the shallow soil I can provide, so I've had to grow them in deeper pots.  

Parsley, frisé vert foncé CV Verbo.  This is another Vilmorin seed packet that I picked up last time I went to France.  The packet recommends that the seeds can be sown right through until September, though it does warn that parsley is a Mediterranean plant.  I grow it in the greenhouse during the winter.

Mizuna MR Fothergill's.  Im running out of my favourite Mizuna which is a type called Kyoto, so I'm trying out this 'English' variety.

Watercress, Cresson de Fontaine a Larges Feuilles - another Vilmorin packet that grew like wildfire last winter.  It tasted fiery too.

Watercress, large leaf, Vilmorin Feb 2014

Autumn sowing is rather different from spring sowing.  Everything you've ever learnt about keeping the plants protected, about cold soil or about watering goes out of the window.  Seeds grow brilliantly at this time of year, they hardly need any cosseting.  And I don’t worry too much about succession sowing, because as it gets colder, the plant growth will slow down.  These cool weather crops won’t damage, or go to seed, as they do in the summer months.   A lettuce I sow today may be ready for cut and come again by October, but it will probably be equally succulent if I leave it until February, before I pick it.  You can’t do that in the summer!  So I've sown three types of lettuces, hoping that they grow up and then sit, waiting for me to thin or cut them throughout the winter. 

But as I sowed, I still had that feeling that something was wrong.  I searched through the seed box, wondering what I could be missing.  But I could not find anything.  So I covered the seeds with vermiculite, popped plastic lids on them and wheeled them into the greenhouse.  

I did other things.  I met my mum in the park and we sat in the sun and chatted.  I took the dog for a walk.  I went to bed, hoping to dream of the missing vegetable.  But my slumbers were uninterrupted by gardening tips.

Two days passed and the seeds I had sown started to come up.  I've never had such fast  or such plentiful germination!  Even though I sowed quite thinly, I will have to thin the seeds.  Roll on a lunch of micro-veg.  Then just as I was photographing the seeds trays for this blog, the notion came to me.  I realised what I had omitted to plant.  I'd forgotten to sow lamb's lettuce.

Sown 29th August, germination 1st September

Now, even knowing its name I still had difficulty. I couldn't find the seeds anywhere.  This is partly due to the fact that this little weed, that has been flourishing for centuries, goes by so many different names including corn salad, nut lettuce or field salad. And because I buy so many of my seeds abroad, I might also have filed it under M, for maché, its French name, or perhaps doucette or raiponce.  Luckily I hadn't even known its German name, Rapunzel, because my romantic leanings might well have led me to place the packet along with radish and rocket.  There is a website that lists 25 different names for the plant, http://www.epicroots.com/mache_around_the_world.php.  How would I ever find it?

 

Lamb's lettuce Feb 2014

I like the name lamb's lettuce.  It is apparently so named because young lambs in February and March love to eat it, when it emerges fresh and tasty in the fields and hedgerows Its Latin name is Valerianella locusta. It is a cool season crop, needing cool weather to grow and liable to bolt if temperatures remain higher that 24°C.  It needs no special care and is frost proof to minus 5°C, though I notice that the market gardeners in France put bed sheets over it on cold nights, and keep them covered, even in the market place if it’s at all nippy. 

I read that it is often found in corn fields.  (Though, I have to admit, that I can find no images on the internet to back up this assertion.) But if it does grow in corn fields, what does that tell us?  It tells us that it doesn't need too much space, that it will withstand drought, and that it doesn't mind being crowded, or slightly overshadowed.  In fact many people report that it does better in slight shade.  I have found it grows happily indoors, in winter, in a shallow tray and will also grow in companionable proximity to other plants, or crowded in on itself.  See here

Here it is in Anni's Perennial Vegetable Garden. http://annisveggies.wordpress.com/

The thing about lamb's lettuce is that it spoils easily and when it does, you know about it. It begins to smell of old drains. Ironically that means that it is an excellent candidate for home growing. I eat my salads within minutes of harvesting.  You never smell dodgy drains round here!

I turned the seed box upside down, in the end.  The loss of my favourite seeds, forced me to do a bit of a clear out.  The box was so full it wouldn’t shut properly.  But I never found them.  I’m off to France next week, so maché, will be top of the list when I visit my favourite Pas de Calais garden centre.  It won’t matter if I don’t sow the seeds until October.  They will grow in the shorter days of late autumn just as well.

You may wonder what is happening to those lettuces by now.  here is an image taken just a few seconds ago.

The same tray on 2nd September

Why do I do it?

Pansy and leaf veg. Did you know which the slugs prefer?

Yesterday Mark Ridsdill Smith and the irrepressible Kate Bradbury came to make a film on the rooftopvegplot, for Mark's fantastic website VerticalVeg. Kate tweets at @Kate_Bradbury and Mark @VerticalVeg. The video will be really interesting, imparting loads of information about attracting wildlife to the garden.  Kate blows the myth about shop-bought bug hotels right out of the flower pot and instead told us how to make our own creepy-crawly hidey holes.  Mark and Kate made a fabulous solitary bee box, on camera, which they kindly left me.  I’ve got to fix it to an east facing wall.  We should expect the first inhabitants very soon.

Chives are so attractive to bees

Mark asked me to say why I garden up here.  I burbled some sort of a reply, but I thought you all might like to read a more considered response.

Rooftopvegplotting is enjoyable, creative and productive.  I don’t spend a lot of money up here. I buy most of my produce as seeds and recycle earth and kitchen waste to make new compost.  Over the years I’ve tried to make the space as productive as possible, researching and experimenting into varieties, plant spacing and intercropping techniques.  It is my retreat as well as the family garden, so it also has to look beautiful.

Butterhead lettuce and giant red mustard make a fabulous combination

There is always more to learn, but now I reckon I can tell you a lot more about urban veg growing than many of the books.  For example, only this year I’ve discovered the magical combination of pansies and lettuces.  The deep, velvet colour of the purple pansies looks amazing against the spring fresh lettuces.  Like every good combination there is a practical advantage.  I’ve discovered that pansies keep the slugs from eating the greens.  Pansy flowers are good to eat in salads. And the slugs obviously agree.

But there is more to my potagista's fervour than the fun of it.  I live right in the heart of central London.  I’m surrounded by air conditioning extracts and ventilation systems.  There is so much pollution here from traffic, we have to dust every day. Leave a white shelf for half an hour and it will get grimy.  That dust is mainly caused by particulate matter from diesel engine exhausts.  I’m surrounded by supermarkets selling produce from Chile, Morocco and South Africa.  If I want to buy local it is very difficult.

Broad Beans Aguadulce

My flat roof is one of thousands around here.  If a few more people did as I do, then we could really cut down on the food miles that cast unnecessary CO² into the atmosphere.  If people stopped air conditioning their offices, and planted something - anything - on the roof, we could make a fundamental difference to what is termed the urban heat island effect.  That is the overheating that comes from too much energy use and too much concrete. My records show that temperatures up here are about 5° warmer than those in the greenbelt, just a few miles away.   

'Mr Prews' exceedingly tall peas

When the rain falls on my roof, the flow of water is interrupted by the plants, which absorb it to make our food.  When the sun shines the temperature is moderated by plants that absorb light energy and carbon dioxide and pump out oxygen.  My rooftopvegplot is not just a micro-farm producing delicious food for our table, it is a wonderful moderator of climate and pollution that, if replicated across London, could radically improve the city’s environment. 

When I need fresh veg I have no need to get into a car and steam off to a supermarket.  I can just saunter up to the roof to pick my own.  

Yes, it’s a pleasure.  Yes, we do eat better and more mindfully because of the rooftop plot. And yes, it might be making just a little bit of a difference to a city I love.

I can’t change the world, but I can show how small personal actions, replicated hundreds of times, by hundreds of different people, could make a massive difference.  That’s why I’m opening the garden for the Chelsea Fringe this year. 

Tomato Gardener's Delight