Now we’re in April, the gardening jobs start piling up.
And whether you’re lucky enough to have an allotment – or you're just gardening in a small outside space – there’s all sorts you can be doing now the weather is hopefully warming up.
When war photojournalist Lalage Snow returned from Afghanistan – she took over an abandoned allotment in her village and detailed her trials and tribulations in the book ‘My family and other seedlings – a year on a Dorset allotment.’
Here the mum-of-three gives her six top tips: including the ancient Native American Three Sisters method – where you grow three specific together to benefit each other.
Nourish Your is your canvas and it’s not too late to give it a kick with some well rotted manure from a friendly farmer or ‘farmyard manure’ from commercial outlets. But as it is pretty late in the soil cycle year already, do ensure you dig it in and let the worms do their magic.
Plan – Now is the time to work out where you at least want your veg to grow. Is there any shade? Companion planting is a good way of working out growing combinations. Garlic, onions and carrots work well, so does the ‘three sisters’ of corn, courgette/squash and beans.
Propagate – All you need is a window sill, . Lettuce, spinach, chard are easy croppers and don’t need much space. Propagate contingency seedlings if, like me, your plot is a favourite eatery for pigeons, mice and slugs.
Weather watch – In the UK we are still in frost territory for another month or so. If you do plant out or direct sow, keep a bit of fleece to hand and keep an eye on the forecasts. How much water will you need and is there a good source? Can you put in a water butt to collect rainwater?
Pollinators – Plant some pollinators beloved by and butterflies. Nasturtium, marigold, cat mint, lavender, pelargoniums are more or less edible so you won’t be sacrificing space for taste.
Enjoy it– After a long and pretty dull winter, any form of growing is the most mindful and meditative way of watching nature’s rhythms. And if things don’t work out, it’s only a few seedlings. Try again.
The Three Sisters method has been used for thousands of years, whereby Native Americans planted sweetcorn, climbing beans and pumpkins together.
The idea was that they offer benefits to each other.
The sweetcorn provides climbing support for the beans.
The Pumpkins shade the soil and their large leaves block out weeds from growing.
And the Beans fix the nitrogen in the soil – which helps the other two.
But the important thing to remember is not to plant them all in one go.
Instead, first plant the block of sweetcorn – sweetcorn always has to be planted in blocks as it's wind pollinated.
Then once the sweetcorn has reached around a foot high, plant the beans the base of each plant.
And at the same time plant your pumpkin seeds – one plant per metre. They need lots of watering throughout.
Currently you can buy Butternut Squash seeds for 49p from The Range, French bean climbing seeds from SowSeeds for 99p and Sweetcorn seeds for 99p from SimplySeed.
