All About Magazine - Issue 17

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Growing trends...
by Mike Robin at
Any day now, (early Jan) it’ll be time to sow some
seeds, such as oninions, celery, tomato plants and a
few first little gem mini-cos lettuces. The seeds go in
pots, to be then put on top of the Welsh dresser in
the day living room, the room that gets most heat.
That’s fine till the seeds germinate, after which they
need daylight, so are then moved into a small clear
plastic ‘tent’in the conservatory, a small paraffin lamp
providing a bit of heat if it gets cold.
It won’t then be too long – early February – before
the seed potatoes need to be sourced, to be then put
in a greenhouse and covered with clear bubble wrap,
to get them sprouting (called ‘chitting’).
The big potential problem with growing organic
spuds is the dreaded blight disease, but on
discovering that the early variety, Pentland Javelin,
would bulk up to be an early maincrop, (and store
reasonably well) , the plan is to get this variety in early
under clear plastic sheets, to then get, as last year, a
reasonable crop before the blight hits.
Reading recently a book written by an ‘allotment-eer’
that some plants like sprouts need cast-iron stamped-
on ground to thrive, reminded of the time at an ‘eco’
place, of accidentally standing on a raised bed , and
getting sharply chastised. A raised bed was tried here
but seemed to need perpetual watering, so, back to
traditional growing ways. Raised beds are probably
pretty good for ‘heavy’ ground (i.e. ground with plenty
of clay in it), but ‘lighter’ground (i.e. sand or loam soils)
often wants a bit of ‘treading in’.
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