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. 

Harvest of the cold months

 

Once November starts to wane , once the harvest moon has set and we start to have log fires and light candles in the evening, I tend to forget the rooftopvegplot.  But because I've been so ill all summer, I still have a load of tidying up to do.*  Today was sunny and though not particularly warm, I was tempted to start the much needed autumn clear-up.  I'm not super tidy in the garden, being mindful of the needs of precious wildlife in London W1 where I live.  But, I don't want the decking to decay over winter or to find too many surprises in the raised beds come the spring.  

The job I've been really dreading has been to clear up the compost heap.  Some time after midsummer I noticed some potato shoots sticking out of the top of the compost bin, which is a huge timber school trunk.  I let them be.  Eventually the potato grew everywhere. We had an abundance of greenery, in fact so much greenery that I assumed that no potatoes would grow underneath.  And I figured that even if potatoes were growing in there, they'd be eaten by the slugs and worms that inhabit the heap.  The plant became so huge that I never got around to pulling it out - until today.  As you can see the shoots were still green, though the potato flowered long ago.  There's a rogue nasturtium in there as well.

Shoots from just one potato stem clambering all over the compost box.

Imagine my surprise once I'd cut back the upper part of the plant and lifted the lid. There, nestling on top of the compost, was spread a host of lovely, whole, huge, pink-tinged maincrop potatoes.  It was so easy harvesting them, they'd all grown on top, not inside the compost.  This might have protected them from slugs.  I found a couple of half eaten potatoes, but most were still intact.  

Potatoes growing on top of the compost, in the gap beneath the lid.

 Even before my find I was enjoying being back at work in the garden. Afterwards I was cock-a-hoop.  How simple my gardening had been this summer.  I know that really don't deserve such a bounty!  But nature had looked kindly on me.  I weighed the haul, noticing that, as far as I could see, this crop came from just one plant (that hasn't been watered all summer!)  That's 8lbs, over half a stone of big potatoes from one stem. 

I separated out the tiddlers and we had them for lunch.  Perhaps they would taste horrible? No, they tasted delicious and earthy, just the way new potatoes should.   Have I invented a new way of growing potatoes?  What am I going to do next year?  And by the way what variety are they? 

*I'm much better now thanks.  But look at the post: http://www.rooftopvegplot.com/2016/11/a-new-lease-of-life.html, for the full story of my illness and recovery.

The Humble Potato

The harvest of Ratte from one patio pots. 12 August 2013

We tend to think of potatoes as a poor man’s crop.  But they are far from humble food. Think of duchesse potatoes, whipped into a fluted cone like ice cream and then baked into a crispy frosting that complements the softness of the mash beneath. Or think of the regal King Edwards, the top spud of the main crop, diced into crinkly chips and flash fried with lashings of salt.

Potatoes are easy to grow, taste quite different fresh and despite being a mere root vegetable, they are filling and they are one of the most nutritious vegetables you can grow. During the war, people were advised that a potatoes casserole was as good as a meat dish. For years I thought this was propaganda.  But in fact the humble spud is as nutritious as it is flexible.  Freshly harvested salad potatoes, boiled for less than fifteen minutes, flavoured with a tart vinaigrette and tossed into a salade Niçeoise, is one of the simple pleasures of summer.

In order to enjoy that pleasure next summer, February is the time to get started.  The first and possibly most important thing is to select some really good seed potatoes.  These are little potatoes from last year that will sprout to form plants for this year.  It is impossible to stop any potato sprouting at this time of year.  You can plant the sprouters from your supermarket veg basket, and I’ve been successful with British Charlotte from Waitrose, but if you want the very best salad potatoes, it is best to order from a reputable supplier.  The range is massive; you can attend one of the many potato days that these suppliers support.

I had sent a special order to Chris Smith at Pennard, the acknowledged spud king.  I only sew four pots, with four tubers in each.  But even with this modest quantity I get a reasonable summer crop.

How to chit potato tubers?
My grandfather always chitted, and I think it is probably the best way to ensure an early crop.  Apart from being the first to enjoy fresh spuds, when they are still pricey in the shops, the other benefit of growing early potatoes is that they are less likely to succumb to potato blight.

The potato tuber grows sideways, from a thick fleshy chord that is attached to the plant.  A close inspection of your seed potatoes will reveal a slight indent and possibly a stump, where the spuds umbilical has been severed.  Don’t confuse this (pictured left) with the new shoots that grow from the other end of the seed, At this time of year the shoots will be tiny, dark green or white nipples. See right hand image.

 

I place mine, shoot side up, in egg boxes.  These I keep in a cool, dry and light (not sunny) place.  See above.  Don't forget to label them clearly.  This year I'm making a note of the seed company as well.  I have a hunch it makes a difference.

Growing Potatoes in Tubs
In about a month’s time, when we are unlikely to get any further frosts, they will be ready to plant out, on top of six inches of compost in big plastic pots. I put four in each pot and I don’t cut them (But you can with main-croppers in the soil, if you prefer more, smaller potatoes.)  I top up the earth as the shoots develop.  I find they like light sun or dappled shade and lashings of water and food.  I feed them with a homemade compost tea, or a slightly more diluted tomato fertiliser. 

Ratte growing in a 16 inch pot in late May

Harvest the first earlies when they begin to flower and second earlies when the flowering has ended.  Harvest the maincrop at any time, depending on the weather and your nerves.  The foliage will die down, but beware, I think it’s the dying foliage that is most vulnerable to blight, so if you think you have any, do not delay.  Cut all the foliage off straight away and then harvest as soon as possible. 

 

Ratte in flower- June 2012

The difference between earlies, second earlies and main crop is really only how long you leave them in the ground.  If it’s a good year, you can harvest second and maincrop by digging around underneath for an early meal and then leaving the rest of the plant intact, to allow a few to grow larger and develop into the perfect roasting potatoes.  As long as you don’t get any blight you can also save your own as seed for next year.

I’ve selected four varieties this year, two of which I grew last year.  The Pink Fir Apple potatoes looked wonderful in 2012, their foliage and flowers were a delight, but they succumbed to blight in August and by the time I harvested them, most of the pink skinned beauties were spongy and useless. And Nicola, which I rate higher than Rocket, was not available by the time I ordered.

Some have lovely flowers and coloured leaves.

Rocket
One of the first and earliest to mature, a round, smooth skinned and waxy salad potato.  Grown by the horticultural show anoraks, because of their reputation for heavy and early cropping and their resistance to all critters.  This will be my first to harvest.

A mixed harvest of Rocket and Nikki - another very early cropper

Ratte

Ratte harvest in 2012 - a very wet year and boy did they like it!

This is a real show stopper; they are small, elongated and gnarled.  (Some would say difficult to peel, but only a philistine would want to peel of the flavourful skin of this potato when it has been freshly harvested.)  This is classified as an early maincrop, but I defy anyone to leave them in the ground long enough to get really big.  However, it is a good keeper and suitable for many cooking purposes.

On the left you can see the wonderful crop that I got last year from just one pot - minus a few that I picked off earlier before I harvested the whole plants.

They have a lovely nutty flavour and are delicious as salad or boiled.  Because they are long and thin they make good chips too!

Belle de Fontaney
This, like Ratte is an old French variety.  It’s a second early. Keep it for a while after harvesting, to encourage the flavour to develop. It is a delicious potato but unfortunately last year they succumbed to blight.  

BF15
This variety was developed in 1947, in Brittany and the breeder, obviously with his mind on other things during the German occupation, didn’t bother to name the variety.  It is also a second early and has fewer larger tubers than the parent, which is Bell de Fontenay.  This cropped nicely and early too.

A small but perfectly formed crop of BF15, harvested on 14th July 2013. This is from one pot, but I did scrabble a portion or two out before I emptied the whole thing.