If you’re not fast you’re last- in my garden anyway
If you’ve not yet started growing any seeds in your veg patch this year but would still love to have some yummy home grown goodies on your table this summer, don’t worry. It’s not too late as you can either buy small veg plants from garden centres or you can save money by growing heaps of different speedy veg from seed. Some are fab for little ‘uns like me to do all on my own but others were a bit more fiddly so I let Mummy feel all important and give me a hand.
Lulu is growing some veg too!
Let’s see the contenders in the race to be the fastest thing growing in my garden this June…
On Your Marks
The competitors stepping up to the mark are:
Broccoli Rabe “60 day”
This isn’t technically a broccoli but is a cousin of the turnip and mustard family. So it has a slight bitter taste. It’s also known as turnip broccoli, rapini and rappone. All of the plant is harvested and the stem, leaves and flower buds are eaten. Don’t be fooled by the 60 days in the name as it can be ready well before then and it will bolt (and go yucky tasting) almost overnight so harvest as soon as you see the flower buds form. You can store it in the fridge for up to 10 days before using. These were little seeds so Mummy only gave me a small amount in my hand at a time for sowing.
Turnip- “Purple Top Milan”
Just 6-10 weeks to mature but you can eat some of the leaves in salads before roots have matured. This is a good plant for growing in-between slower crops. Harvest when golf ball size to eat raw or when tennis ball size to cook. Another fiddly little seed so Mummy had to help me get these sown.
Dwarf bean- “Bobis d’ Albenga”
These are all stripy and remind me of the beans in Jack and the Beanstalk. The plants will grow to 50cm tall so they won’t win the prize for biggest thing in garden as I’m already way taller than that! They need just 9-12 weeks to grow and if you harvest them whilst no bigger than a pencil you can cook them whole, making them super easy for weaning babies and toddlers to munch on. The pods grow to about 12 cm long and they are stringless. The beans were really easy for me to handle as they’re nice and chunky.
Pea – “Kelvedon Wonder”
My Mummy remembers helping her Mummy harvest fresh peas from the pods a little girl and this is the first year we’ve tried growing any in our garden, so I have a really important job to do making sure Mummy does everything right. This variety is really good for June sowing and is ready in 12-13 weeks. Each little branch on the plant produces 2 pods so the plants should produce a really big harvest of tasty peas. It is also resistant to pea diseases such as pea wilt and downy mildew. Plant will only grow to 45 cm tall so good for smaller gardens. Cool fact- you can eat the pea flowers, shoots or vine tendrils and they all taste like young peas. The pea seeds were also easy for me to handle and sow all on my own.
Some fast growing veg!
Mangetout – “Shiraz”
We grew these purple mangetout peas last year. They were easy to look after and they produced heaps of pods, the more we picked the more the plants produced. Pods are ready about 12 weeks after planting when the peas are just starting to form. This variety is resistant to powdery mildew and will tolerate downy mildew. Plants grow to 1 metre tall so need supporting with canes or a trellis but they will be happy in a large pot on your patio with a cane wigwam for support. We ate them raw in salads or lightly steamed. Again these were easy for me to hold and sow without help from Mummy.
Salad Leaves
Easy peasy to grow. You can get loads of different mixes with plants such as pac choi, mustards, cresses as well as lettuces. I like the spicy, peppery ones best. These only take about 3 weeks to grow so these must be the bookie’s favourite to win the growing race. simply harvest a few leaves from each plant so you can keep going back and harvest more and more. These are teeny tiny seeds so mummy just gave me a few seeds at a time that I sprinkled over our compost in a container for our patio.
Last contender of all:
Me
I am a growing 3.5 year old boy after all, especially when I eat all of this home grown veg!!
Get Set
Before sowing seeds you need to remove any weeds and rake your soil to make it all nice and a fine. Lulu has a set of funky kids garden hand tools from Twigz which I’ve tried unsuccessfully to take home with me on several occasions. Mummy recently got me my own set. She said it was so I could finally “work for my dinner” but I didn’t know that food could be your boss! I found them really easy to grip and work with and I love the funky colours- orange just happens to be my favourite colour at present. I even let Mummy have a go with them and she thought they were really study and would put up with me using them for planting and as pretend airplanes, not like the sand pit rakes and trowels I had been using in the garden.
Go!
If you’re quick (get it?) you’ve just got time to get some of these seeds planted. They (except rocket) should be in the ground by the end of June as they don’t like it too hot:
Rocket
I love space rockets AND I love peppery salad leaves so a whole container of this might yet start on our patio. Again it is really easy to grow and it only takes about 4 weeks for a crop to be ready. Pick only 1 or 2 leaves from each plant to get the longest harvest- called”cut and come again”. Pinch out any flower buds when they appear to lengthen the harvest time. To stop plants bolting and becoming yucky tasting make sure to keep the ground well watered and grow bolt- resistant varieties such as “Skyrocket” which is also really fast growing-wooosh!
Prep your soil then sow your seeds in a nice neat row
Runner Beans
They like colder weather so are perfect for Scottish gardens. If you’re short on space you can even grow these in your flower borders as the plants produce lovely heart shaped leaves and pretty flowers. Also fab in containers but they do need supporting- make a wigwam out of canes. “Hestia” is a new dwarf runner bean variety. As it only grows to 45 cm tall it is great for containers and can easily be covered with a net to stop birds eating all your beans.
Outdoors Cucumbers
Radishes
These take only 3-4 weeks to crop but turn yucky and hard if you leave them in the ground too long so don’t get carried away and sow all your seeds at the same time. Sow some every week to spread out your harvest. Like runner beans, radishes don’t like too much heat so they are good for sowing in Spring and up until June. If you sow then in July you will need to be extra careful when watering- too much and their roots can split and rot, too little and they can bolt. Pick them when about 2cm in size and eat raw in your salads. You can keep them in your fridge for a week. “Sparkler” is a yummy type to try as it is reliable, easy and fast to grow.
So let’s get growing and see who/what can grow quickest in the next 2 months……
Quick update 2 months later and the first crop we got was broccoli rabe 60 days. It was yummy. Almost as yummy as the pigeons found our young pea plants! Peas now covered with a net and growing well.
Big hugs,
Euan xx
Lulu & The Sunflowers
As I might have mentioned last week, IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! I am now a big, grown up two year old. I don’t know where the last year went. Mind you, at least I can read back on my blogs to see what I have been up to 😉 Anyway, M&D threw me a wonderful party at the weekend and my lovely friends came along to celebrate. At the end I gave them all a party bag which contained something very special indeed…some sunflower seeds! So, I have officially launched the “Lulu & The Sunflowers Competition”. We all have to plant the sunflower seeds and send in photos of us standing beside our sunflowers. The person who grows the tallest sunflower wins a prize, huzzah!
Now, as I am taking part in this competition too (no show without punch!) I don’t want to give away too many tips to the opposition. But, I am taking my chances ‘cos I know that you, my lovely readers, all want to hear my top ten secrets for growing sunflowers…
Is there anything as cheery as sunflowers on a sunny day?
- You can plant your sunflower seed straight out where you plan to grow it. You need to wait until the last frost has passed though. Just dig over the soil and remove any weeds.
- If you don’t have anywhere in the garden to plant your seeds, don’t worry you can plant them in pots too, just make sure there is plenty space for the roots to grow.
- Sunflowers like lots of sun (isn’t that a coincidence Mummy?!) so choose your spot carefully.
- Dig a drill about 12mm deep
- Plant your seeds, leaving about 10cm between each one
- Cover your seeds with soil then water them gently. You will need to keep them well watered.
- As they grow, if they are too close together then thin out your sunflowers so they are 45cm apart, leaving the strongest seedlings.
- You may need to protect young seedlings from slugs and snails. If you cut the top off a plastic bottle you can use that to protect them.
- As your sunflower grows you will need to give it some support so add a cane and loosely tie the seedling to the cane.
- Sit back and watch your sunflower grow. And grow. And grow. And grow. And grow…
And remember, after your sunflowers have finished blooming, leave the flower heads so the birds can feast on the seeds.
I’m aiming high with my sunflowers!
I can’t wait to get started. I am soooooo going to win this competition! I’ll let you know later in the summer how everyone got on. Remember to send in pics of you with your sunflowers in the summer, I would love to see them.
Lulu