Sweat Equity
Sweat equity is an American expression describing their system of plant swapping.
Sweat equity is a great way to expand a collection of herbs, fruit and vegetables, as long as weeds and diseases are controlled!
Sweat equity is an American expression describing their system of plant swapping.
Sweat equity is a great way to expand a collection of herbs, fruit and vegetables, as long as weeds and diseases are controlled!
It is difficult to grow straight carrots in heavy or stony soil.
Carrots grow best on light stone free soil, such as sand, loam and peat soils, where there is no restriction on the tap root growing straight down and therefore producing a perfect, straight carrot.
I heard that a good way to stop carrots from ‘forking’ in rocky soil is to use the end of the rake or something long and cylindrical to make a deep narrow hole, fill it with lovely fine compost and sow the seed directly on top of the compost. Even with a bit of soil movement this should still help you have relatively normal shaped carrots.
It is possible to grow straight carrots by creating the correct environment for carrots.
A frequent question about potatoes being grown in tubs is:’ Should the container be covered?’
When spuds are planted in tubs, they are covered with soil, leaving enough room to “earth up”. The soil should be reasonably damp to allow the potatoes to grow, and the tubs must allow good drainage. The tubs need drainage holes in the bottom, and a stony layer for water to percolate through at the bottom.
The container with potatoes may then be covered over for a week or two until the first leaves appear. If it rains a lot, the soil will get very cold and wet, which will not encourage the potatoes to grow and they may rot if too wet.
Click the link for more information on the eBook ‘How to Grow Potatoes’ which costs £2.99.
Sow seeds:
Plant:
Six Steps to Show How to Make Raised Beds:
1. Mark out the position of the bed. Any size will do - but they should be no more than 4 foot wide - so that you can reach in to the middle of the bed from either side
hypercharleyfarley on the BBC Gardening message boards dropped an interesting aside:
‘By the way, Jerusalem artichokes & sunflowers are related - the name’s nothing to do with Biblical names, but a corruption of Girasole - turning to the sun, which is what sunflowers do.’
Further investigation on Wikipedia brought up ‘ when the Jerusalem artichoke was first discovered by Europeans it was called Girasole, the Italian word for sunflower.’ Read More »
Growing Five a Day in the Vegetable Garden for the Easter Celebrations is quite a thrill.
The remaining parsnips have started to grow and take quite a bit of digging out of the garden.
Urban gardeners with no space, and no wish to dig, can grow potatoes in simple containers:
Source: The Guardian
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