TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

February 8, 2010

Garden Poem

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — TopVeg @ 11:16 am

This poem written by Rod Whitworth is on  the garden gate at the start of the poetry trail at Nostell Priory

February 7, 2010

Sweet Potatoes for 1st stage Baby Weaning

Filed under: potato — Tags: , , — TopVeg @ 11:54 am

Sweet Potatoes are ideal for the 1st stage of weaning for babies from 6 months old.  Babies love them & they are full of vitamins & dietary fibre.

The whole family will enjoy sweet potatoes.  They are cooked in the same way as ordinary potatoes – roasted, boiled or baked.

sweet potatoes

sweet potatoes

The nutritional value sweet potatoes is excellent, they are high in:

  • Vitamin A
  • beta carotene
  • potassium
  • Vitamin E
  • calcium
  • folate

The Nutrition Action Health Letter rated 58 vegetables by adding up the percentages of United States Recommended Daily Allowances for six nutrients (Vitamins A and C, folate, iron, copper, and calcium), plus fiber. Sweet Potatoes came out top with 582 points; raw carrot came next with 434 points.

Click this link to buy some sweet potato slips so that you can grow your own & be ready for weaning your baby!

Blue Danube Potato Variety

Filed under: Uncategorized, potato — Tags: , , — TopVeg @ 11:16 am

Blue Danube is an early maincrop potato variety. It was known as Adam Blue.

BlueDanubePotato

BlueDanubePotato

Properties of Blue Danube potato tubers:

  • blue/purple skinned
  • oval
  • bright white flesh
  • delicious
  • general culinary use

The Blue Danube potato variety  has good resistance to:

  • blackleg
  • potato virus Yo
  • dry rot
  • potato leafroll virus
  • potato blight – tubers have excellent blight resistance, although the foliage has only moderate resistance.

Click this link to buy some Blue Danube potato seed, which is an early main crop variety.

February 6, 2010

Potato Growing Bags

Filed under: potato — TopVeg @ 6:01 am

Potato Growing Bags are ideal for gardeners who are short of space. The bags will go on a small verandah, porch or patio.

The potato grow bags have handles to move them about. The potatoes can even be started off inside, and moved out when the first shoots appear. This should speed up the time to harvest, and produce an even earlier crop of new potatoes!

new potato leaves

new potato leaves

There should be no slug damage with potato grow bags, as slugs do not like crawling up the outside of the bag to reach the potatoes.

potato-leavesKingEdward

potato-leavesKingEdward

Watering is very important with grow bags, particularly when the potatoes are in full leaf. Care must be taken to get the water under the leaves so that it soaks into the soil. If the potatoes are getting a lot of sun, they will need a lot of water to replace that lost by transpiration.

The Potato Growing bag is quite an investment because it can be re-used over & over again.

Click the link to buy some potato grow bags

Raised Bed Kits

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — TopVeg @ 1:00 am

Raised bed kits make vegetable gardening simple  & are an perfect for beginners.

Alison's raised bed

Alison's raised bed

Advantages of Raised Beds:

  • drain well
  • warm sooner
  • earlier crops
  • provide ideal soil for vegetables to grow
  • easy to maintain
  • few pests
  • less weeds
  • higher yields
  • better for bad backs

Click this link to buy  a kit for raised beds

Gill's raised bed

Gill's raised bed

February 5, 2010

Ultimate Allotments!

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — TopVeg @ 11:27 pm

According to compostpope on the BBC gardening message board, allotments in Switzerland boast:

  • a shredder which comes to the allotments 4 times a year, complete with 2 guys to do the work!
  • flushing toilets on-site
  • a shop that doubles as a cafe-restaurant

What more could you wish for?

Early Broad Bean Variety – Express

Filed under: pea&beans — Tags: , , — TopVeg @ 9:48 pm

The early broad bean variety, Express, matures quickly, thus producing a very early crop of broad beans.

ExpressBroadBeanPods

ExpressBroadBeanPods

Broad Bean Express:

  • produces up to 34 good pods per plant!
  • yields well for early plantings
  • is winter hardy
  • matures quickly
  • freezes well
  • has tender and tasty beans
shelled-broad-beans-Express

shelled-broad-beans-Express

Click this link to order the variety Express Broad Bean


Rainfall in the TopVeg garden January 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — TopVeg @ 3:34 pm

Rainfall in the TopVeg garden in January 2010 was 57 ml

Rainfall in the TopVeg garden in 2009 was 518.75

Month Rainfall ml
January 32
February 45.5
March 17
April 7
May 41.5
June 13
July 111
August 40
September 11.5
October 63.75 
November 69.5
December 67

 

The annual rainfall in the TopVeg Garden:

Year Rain ml
206 631
207 795
208 571
209 519

The  rainfall in January 2010  in the TopVeg garden (57) was much higher than last year (32), what was yours?

February 4, 2010

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-04

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 11:04 am

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How To Grow Borage Card

Filed under: herbs — Tags: , — TopVeg @ 10:54 am

 

Farming Friends & TopVeg have collaborated to create a How To Grow Borage card.

how2groBorage

If you would like a pdf of  the grow card for How to Grow borage, please complete the contact form asking for the grow card for borage and we will email it to you.

borage-shoot

borage-shoot

Borage is included in the How to Grow Culinary Herbs ebook written by TopVeg & Farming Friends which costs £3.

Click this link to buy a copy of the ebook How to Grow Culinary Herbs.

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