.

He has planted two varieties of onion sets:

• Senshyu a ‘Japanese overwintered’ variety, which is semi flat, with yellow/brown skins & matures in late June.

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Winter salad leaves are excellent value, especially oriental varieties and they should be sown, now, in the autumn. These cut-and-come-again salad leaves can be grown outside in the vegetable garden, in tubs or in window boxes. They grow well in the cooler temperatures and lower light levels of autumn.

Salad leaves to sow in autumn are:

Rocket - small, mild tender leaves

Land Cress - Variegated Winter - crisp & tangy

Mizuna - good taste & crunchy stem

This patch of Mustard - variety Mizuna - is doing well in Yorkshire. The center leaves are cut out with scissors, & provide fresh winter salad leaves with a bite!

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Pete from Cumbria says the reason why pumpkins are provided with shade is to stop them splitting.

“The theory is, these pumpkins grow so quickly that they can have a tendency to split. If the skin is shaded it will not ripen and therefore remain supple enough to stretch when the fruit is growing.”

Pete from Cumbria has written an article on How to Grow Big Pumpkins

How to Grow a Big Pumpkin

by Pete from Cumbria

So, you wanna grow a big pumpkin ?

I have been doing this for a couple of years as well as having a regular veg garden which supplies us with fruit and veg throughout the year.

I first got interested when I bought a packet of Dills Atlantic giant seeds at a local garden centre. These seeds grew a 50 pounder and I was pretty much hooked from then on. There is now loads of information on the Internet which relates to growing these things and that should be your first port of call. www.bigpumpkins.com is a particularly good site and I have a grower diary on there under the name pjgolf (take a look if you like)

So, what do I need to grow a big one I hear you asking !

Well, a good basic knowledge of gardening will serve you well. You will also need plenty of space. An Atlantic giant pumpkin plant will take over your garden if you let it. Then we are talking about 3 things, good seed, good weather and good luck !

I could write pages and pages about growing techniques but in a nutshell I would :-

• Prepare the ground in Autumn with lots of manure / compost / leaf mould

• Germinate seeds in mid May and plant out at the beginning of June

• Let the plant grow but keep secondary vines in check (they will go crazy if you let them)

• Hand pollinate if you can (then you know it`s been done)

• Limit the plant to 1 or 2 pumpkins if you want to grow a big one.

• Put some sand under the developing fruit to stop it sitting in water.

• Cover the fruit with some sort of shading to keep the sun off it.

• Harvest in September / October.

If anyone wants some seeds - send a requst via the contact form in the left margin.

Good luck if you try it and check out www.bigpumpkins.com

Pete


Pete from Cumbria is an experienced vegetable gardener - & has been growing fresh veg for his family for years. But always keen to try something new, Pete started growing giant pumpkins 3 years ago. We are pleased that he has written this helpful article for TopVeg on How to Grow Giant Pumpkins.

The difference between turnips and swedes is obvious when you look at them. Turnips are smoother, whiter, smaller but taste stronger than the coarser, rougher, yellow, sweet tasting swedes!

Swede - Latin name Brassica napus napobrassica Read More »