Episode 11 – Friday 30th May 2014

Gardeners World returns after Chelsea and is packed with tips of vegetable gardeners.

Hanging Baskets

This week we  meet Gerry O’Brien from the Churchill Arms pub in Kensington. He has been growing flowers to decorate his pub for some 30 years. In season he will water twice during the night so as to maintain his beautiful floral display. His pub is so recognisable it has become a stop off point for tourist photographs on London sightseeing buses.

Carol is planting vegetables for the cottage garden

Carol Klein returns to help out Dan and Dominique with planting vegetables.

The raised beds are already constructed and are filled with mainly topsoil and some manure instead of compost. The topsoil will be organic and provide good growing soil for years to come.  Courgettes are a favourite for cottage gardens and are really easy to grow. These courgettes have already been started  in pots – two are enough for the household. Carol has a special trick where she makes a depressed ring of soil around the new courgette plants so that when watered the water goes deep down into the roots that will shortly develop.

In the same raised bed she plants some climbing bean seeds. The larger seeds need to be sown deeper than the smaller seeds. In a separate raised bed carrots are planted in two rows and enjoy well drained soil, as do beetroot, parsnips and leeks.

Herb Garden

Back at Longmeadow Monty Don shares his experiences with herbs. Many of the herbs typically prefer a Mediterranean climate and this can present a challenge to his garden which often has heavy wet soil. When planting herbs try to make sure the soil is well drained and choose a sunny aspect.

Elephant garlic – remove the flower heads as they emerge. Ideally you want to let the leaves die back later on in the season and that is the best time to harvest.

French Tarragon – this is the best variety to grow to cook with. Its great with chicken and fish.

Jobs to get on with this week for allotmenteers and gardeners

• Chop back late flowering perennials
• Pinch out tomato sideshoots. Concentrate the energy onto trusses of fruit that are starting to develop
• Pot on some plants into larger containers before planting out