GARDENING Growing vegetables outdoors and in

Growing outdoors and in


Growing
Hans Wieland

Renowned organic gardener Joy Larkcom writes in her wonderful book ‘Grow your own vegetables’, “The newcomer to vegetable growing is sometimes at a loss as to how to start. This is hardly surprising: What works well one year may fail the next; what is suitable for a mild coastal area would be most inappropriate in a hilly inland area. The real gardener is inevitably an experimenter, constantly trying out different ideas until he discovers what is best for him.”

February tasks in the veg patch
Whether you are new to organic growing or are already a seasoned gardener, there are three things I recommend doing this time of the year:

• Improve your soil
• Get composting
• Plan or renew your rotation

One of the most important aspects of any gardening and especially organic gardening is a proper assessment of the soil of the garden. You can buy in ‘fertility’ with compost or soil improvers (and I am not discounting that!), but it is much better, cheaper and sustainable in the long term if you can do it yourself.
Find out what your soil is mostly made of – is it mostly clay and therefore very heavy? Perhaps it is a more-sandy type, which is lighter and easier to cultivate, but can’t hold water and nutrients very well. If your soil is very peaty, it is probably too acidic. Regardless, you will improve every soil with home-made compost! Use your compost (one wheelbarrow for two square metres on average) now to prepare your beds or start your compost heap immediately.
If you are new to gardening, start with four beds, 1.20m wide and 5m long. This is a plot of around 40 square meters, including footpaths. For the more ambitious and experienced amongst you, this is the time for changes (more beds, improvements on rotation to accommodate your new favourites).

To polytunnel or not to polytunnel
Then there is the big, big question of whether to grow in polytunnels. My answer is yes, yes! Polytunnels are an excellent way of increasing home production at a low cost. The use of it as a growing area brings important benefits.
The tunnels are great for growing tender vegetables that require higher temperatures than normally exist in an Irish summer, such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, basil, sweetcorn and grapes.
They also extend the growing season, both in the spring and autumn for veg like carrots, calabrese, celery, courgette, beetroot, scallions, radish and annual herbs, such as dill and coriander.
If you like your salad, think about this: In a polytunnel fresh salad leaves can be harvested all through the winter.
When it comes to plant propagation, polytunnels can successfully be used for raising plants either on heated benches or even in the soil for bare-root transplant raising.
Another very important advantage is the person gardening or growing during periods of rain or a miserable summer is kept dry and comfortable! Best of all, if you grow early potatoes in a tunnel you could be tucking into your first batch of new potatoes as early as late May or early June and have your own grapes in September…
A word of warning though: Don’t buy a small tunnel, because the benefits of protected cropping will become obvious very quickly and you will become addicted. A good-size family tunnel is about 12 to 15 meters long.
We have set up a ‘selfwatering polytunnel’ at The Organic Centre, and we’ll be monitoring it throughout the year to see how it works. If you want to have a look, we are open to visitors from March on, or by appointment.

Hans Wieland is joint manager of The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim, which offers courses, training and information in organic growing, and runs an Eco Shop and an online gardening store. For more information or to download the centre’s free 2013 Course Programme and Seed Catalogue, visit www.theorganiccentre.ie.
Gardening questions or comments? Contact Hans at living@mayonews.ie.