Veg Plotting

  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener

I ate my last home-grown tomato for breakfast this morning, so I thought I'd have a look back today on how this year's crop fared. It's been my best tomato season ever, partly helped by the weather and then boosted much further with the gifted 'Crimson Crush' seeds via Dalefoot Compost , who invited me to trial their new tomato compost this year. A few years ago I almost gave up growing tomatoes, because I can only grow them outdoors where they're at their most susceptible to blight. However, recent success from Simon Crawford's tomato breeding programme has resulted in not only strong blight resistance in his tomatoes, they're full of flavour* too. 'Crimson Crush' is one of his and were supplied for this trial by Pennard Plants , yay. I almost despaired this year too. June was unseasonably cold and my tomato plants took on an alarming purple hue. Luckily the weather soon turned warm and when my friend from Oz came to stay in early J

I've walked around the garden with more of a purpose than usual lately because I'm on the lookout for any plants with spittle, commonly known as ' cuckoo spit '. It's a sign a froghopper nymph (aka spittlebug) has taken up residence within the protective froth just like you can see in the photo above. Until recently I'd thought these sap-suckers were relatively harmless, but now I see they're of concern as they're a chief carrier of the bacterium  Xylella fastidiosa , which results in the disease and death of many popular garden plants. It hasn't reached the UK yet and the RHS would like it to stay that way. They've teamed up with the University of Sussex and Forest Research, who need thousands of volunteers - like you and me - to help map the distribution of spittlebugs found in gardens, meadows, grasslands and woodlands from April to late June. We're being asked to report sightings of spittle, in our gardens or on plants elsewhere,

Looking up the hill on Malmesbury Road   Chippenham has many stately horse chestnut trees, on our side of town in particular. Sadly all the ones I know of are heavily infested with leaf mining moth , and lend an early autumnal air to our townscape from July onwards. As the flowers of Aesculus hippocastanum bloom early enough to be unaffected, their candle-like blooms still make a welcome sight in spring. Looking down the hill with the tree featured in the top photo behind me. All the brown you can see are horse chestnut trees Late afternoon sunshine reveals the problem: each brown spot is home to a leaf mining moth It's a while since I wrote about this problem and at the time there was some hope in the shape of a parasitic wasp. Conker Tree Science led a citizen science project to see if  it could help to control moth infestations. Whilst there was indeed some impact, their results show it was insufficient to make the desired effect. Their research continues, as do

Once upon a time I wrote about potatoes and the excellent service called Blightwatch which warns when weather conditions become ripe for an outbreak of potato blight . Back then the service looked out for a Smith Period i.e. a time during the potato/tomato crop season when the weather served up 90% humidity over an 11 hour period in temperatures above 10°C for 24 hours, and for both conditions to exist over a period of two days. If this occurred for my postcode area, then I'd get an email warning me that a Smith Period had happened, or one saying there was a near miss if the conditions only occurred for a day. These emails usually started around July/August time and I always received them with a sense of impending doom. Now since May this year I've had several emails called a  Hutton  Alert from the same service instead. This is much earlier to receive a blight warning and slightly worrying. Is my practise of growing early spuds to avoid late blight in danger now? I

I've stuck with Friday's windowsill theme for today's post, but moved upstairs this time. I've just rescued my tomatoes from the patio as I spotted the first signs of blight yesterday. Like most resistant tomatoes, my trial 'Mountain Magic' does eventually succumb to the dreaded disease, though at a much slower pace. It means I've had enough time to harvest the remaining fruit. I picked 6 large punnets: 2 each of 'ready to eat now' and 'needs a little more ripening', plus 1 each of  'needs a lot more ripening' and 'not sure if they have blight'. I've found tomatoes tend to develop a warning translucence before blight reveals itself. You can see some potential candidates I'm keeping an eye on in the above photo. At this point, most people would share their favourite recipe for green tomato chutney, but we're not great eaters of it here at VP Gardens . Instead, I spread out my tomatoes on windowsills on the s

I've had a bumper crop of shallots this year, which I managed to get dried off thoroughly during the hot weather we had at the end of last month. However, despite their soundness when I put them into store, some are now showing signs of onion white rot like the one in the above picture. I've not seen it so early in the season before and indeed the fungus on my shallots hasn't been reading its official entry on the RHS website: "...in the UK the problem is more severe in cool, wet summers; in warmer climates the disease is only a problem over the winter months." Hmm, that's wrong on both counts, but before I declare I have a new strain of Sclerotium cepivorum , I wonder if my saved sets from last year could be the source of the problem. Some of these did indeed develop onion white rot over the winter and were thrown away*. Perhaps the sound ones I saved to plant out in the spring weren't so sound after all. Anyhoo, I can't do anything about

On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi

Veronica 's photo for Shows of Hands chimes with the  hot topic of discussion this week. She says: My hand is pointing to very heavily nibbled courgette plant. Bloody slugs. It's possibly the worst picture I've ever taken but it's the spirit of the event that counts! Aren't slugs and snails a real pain this year? I'm on my second sowing of courgettes and squashes as mine got nibbled to death when I put them outside to harden off. The jury's out on whether my wasabi up at the plot will ever recover. I'm also keeping a close eye on my dahlias which are just beginning to push their noses out of the soil - they're usually the slug dinner of choice if I'm not careful. As "Mad-Eye" Moody would say, "Constant vigilance!" is required. Thanks Veronica for capturing the mood of the moment with your photo. There's still a couple of days left for anyone else wanting to contribute to Shows of Hands . There's been

Happy National Tree Week! I can't think of a better way of celebrating than by planting a tree as part of The Great British Elm Experiment . This Conservation Foundation project aims to find out why some elms survived the Dutch elm disease epidemic during the 1960s and 70s which killed 25 million trees (around 90%) in the UK. If the why can be explained, it also paves the way for this iconic tree to grace our landscape once more. Over two thousand trees have been planted so far and height, girth, wildlife, signs of disease and other data are being recorded as part of this long-term experiment. The disease usually strikes when the tree is around 15 years old, so this is a long-term project. Trees are free for schools and community projects/non-profit organisations and there's a small charge for private individuals and businesses. Note: these trees grow very tall, so they need lots of space. A fab elm fact: Terry at The Botanic Nursery has surviving elms in his nu

It's been a good year for the roses here at VP Gardens , so I suppose it's no surprise to find rose sawflies have made their first ever visit too. Grrr. They're quite hard to spot, but what usually gives them away is the skeleton leaves left after they've munched their way through the softer parts. Look closely at the picture just above the flowers to the left and right (click to enlarge if needed) and you'll see what I mean. Double Grrr. Even when you know they're there, it can take a while to get your eye in and spot them, especially when they're lined up nose to tail on a leaf's edge. I've found shaking the leaves gently can help - they then tend to curl outwards away from the leaf, as you can see some of them have done in the above photo. A mass squishing and re-inspection session ensued to rid my roses of these pesky blighters. I've added regular inspections of my roses to my early morning walk around the garden with coffee mug in

Take that! Making sure the aphids don't get my chillis Various projects on the go plus the cold spring means our windowsills have been groaning under the weight of plants for much longer than usual. Most have moved outside now, but one of the permanent plants earmarked for the indoor life is my chilli 'Basket of Fire'*. I haven't had much success with chillis in the past and that's because I've moved them outside onto the patio for the summer. It wasn't until last year that I realised they like it really warm and so I need to continue windowsill growing with mine. I've had loads of problems with aphids** on my indoor grown plants, especially the chillis. That's probably a sign of stress, so I'm ensuring everything is kept well fed and watered. I was getting a bit fed up with the regular squishing sessions needed to keep on top of the problem, so I was pleased to read in  Homegrown Revolution  last week that using a home-made garlic spra

I've taken the plunge recently and treated myself to a dwarf nectarine tree. It arrived nicely wrapped and in bloom earlier this month and is currently sitting just outside the patio doors awaiting its new home.* Thus the tree gets a daily inspection when I step outside into the back garden. Yesterday I spotted some of the leaves have taken on a distorted, blistered appearance with some areas showing a pinky, reddish hue. My initial fears have been confirmed via the internet: it's peach leaf curl :( Having read the above link re the biology of this fungal disease, it looks like the tree arrived with the infection in place. The cold spring and sometimes damp weather has helped the fungus show its hand. As the tree is in its first year, I'm not intending on letting it fruit, so at least I won't suffer a reduction in the crop. I've picked off and destroyed the leaves before the whitish fungal spores develop. With a bit of luck, the warmer weather forecast  fo

A development broadcasting its greener credentials Migraines are funny things. As well as the headache, I've spent most of this week with a runny nose, not being able to speak or remember properly and fingers insisting on typing dyslexic looking words instead of what my thoughts are telling them to do. On Monday morning I discovered a new feature of this condition when I lost my ability to get somewhere directly. Thus I eventually found myself at Kensington tube station instead of the Chelsea Flower Show as expected. Very early stages of preparing for Chelsea in Bloom The final stages of preparation nearby combined with a little light window cleaning It did however, give me an opportunity to explore Chelsea in Bloom and life outside of the show instead of afterwards as planned. Elsewhere everything is in place ready for opening... ... and there's also the opportunity to have some fun Chelsea in Bloom officially starts on the first members' day

This post is for Bren , to reassure her that I haven't forgotten my promise to her to write about my experiments with growing beetroot for leaves during the winter... ...I speculated last year that seeing my autumn-sown leaves were doing so well - despite the frost - that maybe winter-sown ones might perform in a similar way to the previous successes I've had with pea shoots . Alys Fowler thought they wouldn't - when I asked her here  - but I resolved to try a little experimentation for myself anyway. Armed with a fresh packet of 'Bull's Blood' seeds and a sparkling new propagator, I set to on 3rd January and made a thick sowing onto some seed compost. I covered them, then watered sparingly with a mist sprayer, added the propagator lid and left them on our bedroom windowsill to go about their business. As you can see, germination went well and I soon had lots of bright stems and leaves at the microgreen stage. However, it's been a different story

As a first time winter salad grower, I'm learning not only is good protection needed, a good airing of everything from time to time is also a wise move. I'd spotted a touch of mould on the compost under the coldframes, so I decided to give everything a good airing last Friday to prevent further problems. It was a lovely dry, mild day amongst all the rainy ones we've had recently and it perked my salad up no end. As you can see, the potted lettuce 'Amaze' is coming along rather well under its cloche on the patio. A picking from a couple of these, plus some mustard, mizuna, fennel, chervil and pea shoots gave us a fine Christmas salad. Indoor sowings start in earnest in the New Year to supplement my under cover crops. NB I'm continuing with the 52 Week Salad Challenge into next year. Whilst I've managed to grow and blog something 'salady' for every week in 2012, it wasn't until March that I managed to grow a complete serving of salad for NA

Further to my post lamenting the potential loss of the ash trees at the side of my garden, here's a recap of  the useful links I've found, so we can all do our bit to provide identification of potential outbreaks ASAP. Ash tag apps  to help with dieback identification and location. Their website says it's better to look out for lesions as this time of the year. NB DEFRA's recent action plan recommendations includes 'citizen science' as an important factor in helping to identify outbreaks and to trace Chalara 's spread across the UK Forestry Commission information re Chalara Pictorial identification guide  (pdf for download) Identification video And here's some hope for the future - a recent  study in Sweden suggests some trees have resistance to infection.

I spent a huge chunk of the weekend peering up at the ash trees ( Fraxinus excelsior ) at the side of our house. They're always one of the last trees to decide it's autumn and last week they finally donned their seasonal clothes of buttery yellow. Saturday's blue sky and slanting sunshine made for perfect viewing. It's something I always do at this time of year, but this time was a poignant one because of the recent news about ash dieback fungus (aka Chalara fraxinea ). This fungus has attacked ash trees across Europe the past few years, for example decimating around 90% of those found in Denmark. Cases have been reported recently in East Anglia and Kent and many concerned groups - especially The Woodland Trust - have been actively lobbying the government to act swiftly to prevent the disease from spreading. Today, a ban on the import of ash trees comes into force and a number of civil servants have been redeployed to cope with the extra work anticipated over t

Luckily this snail was exploring the possibilities of compost digestion before deciding to attack my lettuce 'Amaze'. ...Or was it? As reported previously in August's Salad Days , we've been having an interesting #saladchat on Twitter recently about the seeming aversion slugs and snails have to red lettuces. The majority of you reported this is so with the varieties you've been growing this year. This is a top tip, particularly for any wet year which leads to a population explosion of these pesky pests. Resistant varieties particularly mentioned were Red Salad Bowl and Dazzle. Others said they hadn't noticed any difference, or indeed their slimy populations seemed to prefer red varieties such as Lollo Rosso, so it seems it's not quite as simple as red vs green. @littlesaladco said he'd found sappiness and leaf thickness was important, with the more sappy, thinner leaved varieties being preferred. During this conversation, I vaguely remembered