Reaping what you sow
Wild garlic or ransoms, often grow alongside bluebells in woodland.
Raised beds can be placed on grass and sown almost immediately — and they can fit in the smallest of gardens.
APRIL is in full swing and this is certainly a crucial month in the organic vegetable garden. If you are prone to reading the back of too many UK seed packets you’d be led to believe that you should have half your garden sown by now. Panic not, as realistically in Ireland the ground and temperatures are only right in mid-April.
Despite the misleading fine spell back in March, the cold temperatures earlier this month mean that if you haven’t yet sown a seed there’s still plenty of time to catch up.
Ground Preparation: First things first — you need to have ground prepared for planting. If your garden beds are already in place, rake them over to get rid of weed seedlings. If you find yourself looking at a blank canvas of grass and need a quick fix, my advice is to plonk raised beds over the grass and fill with manure and topsoil, cutting out a need for back breaking digging. Raised beds allow soil to warm faster and create better drainage than most open soil gardens. A raised bed could simply be a mound of soil or soil enclosed in a wood/ stone/plastic/brick/slate frame. The height of a raised bed can range from 10cm to 60cm and . you can even place raised beds on top of gravel or concrete. If doing this, ensure they are at least 50cm high. When planning paths between your beds, leave enough room for manoeuvre (2ft — 3ft being the norm).
If you don’t have a garden find some containers to fill with soil: unlikely spaces can yield more delectable edibles than you might think.
Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy People: The key to producing great vegetables is good soil. All vegetables are hungry feeders and thrive on plenty of organic matter. To quote one of my heroes, Lady Eve Balfour (1899-1990), founder of the UK Soil Association, “The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible.”
Well-rotted manure and garden compost are like gold dust to any organic vegetable grower. Not only do they add lots of lovely rich bulky matter to your soil but as they decompose in the bed, they feed the soil, your plants and our greatest of garden friends, the earthworms. And oh yes, they are free.
Seaweed has been used to enrich Irish soils for centuries and you can now buy seaweed dust and seaweed meal in good garden centres which can be sprinkled on beds and raked into the soil before planting.
Sowing Directly into the Ground: Mid to late April is a good time for planting main crop potatoes. They are traditionally grown in drills, ridges or trenches, but you could also try growing them in containers. If you are concerned about blight later in the season, why not try planting Setanta’s or Sarpo Miras. Both have good blight resistance, high yields but most importantly, have a great taste and a floury texture.
If you haven’t planted your onion sets yet, put them in pronto. Sets are readily available and are simply small immature onions which increase in size when planted. Avoid very large sets or those with shoots and roots sprouting. Remember a good set = a good onion. Peas, broadbeans, carrots, parsnips, radishes, swedes, turnips and beetroot could also be direct sown now.
Sowing in Pots: In theory, all vegetables can be sown directly in the ground where they are to grow, but generally I tend to sow as many seeds as possible in module trays to get them established in a protected environment before they are transplanted out to brave the elements. I direct sow fast growing hardy seeds such as peas and beans and the root crops such as carrots, parsnips, swedes, turnips and beetroot as they don’t respond well to transplanting.
However, all other seeds should do much better if you germinate them under your watchful eye in a controlled environment well away from the sly hungry slugs and wicked weeds! Now don’t get too overwhelmed but here’s just a few of the delectable edibles you could be sowing inside right now for later transplanting into your garden beds or outside containers: Salads, spinach, calabrese, chard, white cabbage, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, scallions, kale, celery, celeriac, leeks, parsley, scallions, and so on and so forth! I’m a real believer in starting small and grow what you like to eat. I’d advise any first time grower to select a few basic easy to grow crops (eg potatoes, onions) and take it from there.
If you feel the need to put a spring in your step, now is a good time to take a walk in the woods, breathe in some fresh air and go in search of wild garlic.
Otherwise known as Ramsons, you will need to follow your nose to find this lush leaved allium. Of all our native edible greens, wild garlic is one of the first to appear, the simplest to detect and the easiest to use.
It is characteristic to old established woodlands and it also grows in dappled shade conditions such as along stream sides and shady hedges. When conditions are moist, shady and right, wild garlic thrives and can be quite an invasive plant. It tends to form a distinctive dense carpet of leafy green growth in spring, followed by a profusion of pretty white flowers in May.
The leaves are great munched raw or cooked. You could add them to salads, sandwiches, stir fries, stuffings, scrambled eggs, stews, soups, casseroles, pasta, pies, puddings, cheeses, breads, pizzas, marinades, quiches, lasagnes, risotto or ravioli. Any recipe that calls for spinach or other fresh greens, substitute or mix with wild garlic. You could try adding some finely chopped leaves to butter to make a mild, wild, garlic bread or follow the foodies and make some yummy wild garlic pesto and preserve those nutritious tasty leaves for further use in a myriad of menus.
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