In May I realised that although I have written quite a lot about growing in different containers - growbags specifically were not something I had written about before.  But they come with their own unique challenges, so I decided that it was high time that I did!   I'm clarifying my instructions for making them here - with an update on how they've done so far.  Even if you already have plenty of growing space (and what keen gardener ever has enough?) they can provide really useful extra growing space in a small garden, or even if you have no garden at all - and they will very quickly pay for any outlay in terms of the amount of produce you can grow in them.  Just saving the cost of four or five bags of spinach or mixed salads from your average local supermarket at around €3 each would quickly pay for the cost of one bag of organic, peat free compost.  But all of the crops you will be able to grow in them will be worth far more than the initial outlay.  Two years ago they were charging €15 for large Crown Prince winter squashes in our local farmers market, selling them by weight, and I have several growing in just one growbag here right now! The growbags can also be recycled and re-used endlessly by refreshing the nutrients in them after they've grown a few crops!   

 
 
I have mentioned before that many years ago, before we moved here, I grew all our vegetables and fruit in containers and homemade growbags for two years.  It was impossible to buy organic produce back then, except from a handful of small-scale commercial organic producers - and most of those were situated a very long way away.  So if you wanted to eat truly 'clean', pesticide-free food for your family - which I did - you had to grow it!  Having only a tiny back yard, in a rented house where we couldn't dig up the only small patch of soil which there was - there was no choice but to use growbags and containers.  This was also essential as in the second year there when we had to be ready move at any moment - and bringing our crops too!  The big problem back then was that the only growbags available were filled with peat-based composts, containing artificial fertilisers, and not what I wanted to grow vegetables in to feed my severely allergic child!
 
 
Luckily now there are at least a few choices of peat-free bagged composts - and although these not all are organic,  it is very easy to turn those into growbags ourselves, with a little ingenuity.  Most have a larger volume of compost in them than normal growbags, which is a good start.  When buying growbags, there is in my opinion another absolute essential - and that is a growbag tray to fit underneath it, to catch any water and nutrients which will drain out of the bags, thereby stopping any water loss and preventing waste of nutrients and possible pollution. The trays I use for my home made growbags are just slightly bigger than most standard growbag trays, with a small lip around the sides, about 5cm or 1 & 1/2in. deep.  Most large bags of peatfree compost will not fit onto normal growbag trays when lying flat, without hanging over the edge, as they are wider than normal growbags - so theses larger trays are essential.  They are sold in various sizes for displaying plants in conservatories and garden rooms, and are ideal for the larger 75l bags of compost, which will fit on them easily with some room to spare.  This allows for easy watering and feeding from beneath later on, rather than always watering at the top around the neck of the pant. The added advantage of being on a tray also means they can also be placed anywhere you have room for them, on a path or a balcony, so they don't have to be outside, and can be placed anywhere with good enough light to grow plants. 
 
 
Before you plant anything in them the first thing to do is decide where you're going to put them obviously! Most leafy salad vegetables and greens like spinach will tolerate partial or total shade during the day, but if you want to grow great tomatoes, melons and aubergines, then they really need as much sun as you can give them. The next thing to do is to lay your bag of compost on the tray and give it a couple of good shakes to make sure that the compost is as evenly distributed as possible.  When you've done that - then make either two or three crosses in the top, depending on what you want to grow.  I cut the crosses with a sharp pruning knife, about 15-20cm either way. Two works for courgettes and squashes, which have a big root system, and three works for tomatoes and peppers.  I never cut out whole pieces as this can make the bags much less useful for recycling later for other uses in the garden, which is always something I think of in advance of using anything. Remember - you can make them larger, but you can't put anything back once you've cut it off!  DON'T make drainage holes at this stage - as the compost should be fairly dry when first opened, and the water may just run straight out, taking some compost and nutrients with it, as I saw happening to someone recently on television!  
 
 
Next water the bag as evenly as possible without saturating it.  Do this gradually, and after putting some water on, go back a few hours later to see how that's been absorbed, and if you think it needs more, add a little more then.  It can take fresh composts some time to absorb water at first.  Leave it to settle and absorb that for 12-24 hours, and if you think it's damp enough, only then cut or puncture 2-3 small drainage holes in either end, just below the end joins in the bags, which will allow for a small reservoir of water to settle at the very bottom before it overflows.  In the larger growbag trays, as some plants grow bigger, you can make the drainage holes slightly bigger, and make more along the bottom later, and even mound a little fresh compost up against the ends of the bag, so that the roots can find their way out to forage a bit more and that will give the hungry plants a boost, giving your crops a longer season.  You can pour liquid feed into the trays as well, rather than pouring it directly  onto the plant stems, which can sometimes cause stem rotting - especially in crops like cucumbers and aubergines.  Next place your plants into the bag, watering them in just a little to settle the roots in, but DON'T Saturate them.  Again, you can always add more gradually, but if you get them too wet and the next few nights are unexpectedly cold, they may suffer.   
 
 
If you need to support the plants later on, it is very easy to make a rectangular or triangular wooden frame which I did many years ago out of some wood which I found in a skip and recycled - and I'm no carpenter!  These can be very useful covered with polythene later too - making a handy cold frame.  I've also used old clothes horses or airers, and even ild metal wardrobe frames and metal stepladders temporarily, or you can buy metal concrete-reinforcing frames or panels in DIY stores.  These are quite expensive although they will last forever.  But never underestimate the usefulness of a bit of skip diving outside houses which are having a makeover - I'm rather shamelessly addicted to it!  It's amazing the useful stuff some which some people will thoughtlessly throw out to be consigned into landfill sites - it's no wonder we have a planet polluted with stuff that some people consider rubbish!
 
 
I must say that the winter squash plants I planted, two plants per bag, in late May have done incredibly well.  In fact they're currently making a takeover bid for all of the space at the top end of the polytunnel, and it's quite difficult to walk around them!  I planted four varieties, Blue Banana, Burgess Buttercup, Crown Prince and North Georgia Candy Roaster - all dense-fleshed great keepers.  These will be left in the bags until probably the end of September - until they have stopped growing, are really well-ripened, and their stems have become 'corky' - looking.  Then they will be cut off their vines, with a 'T'-shaped handle or stem, and left to ripen off a little longer in the sun, they will keep for months, often until it is time to sow the next year's crop.  Squashes and pumpkins don't die when they are harvested, and kept in a cool dry place - they will go on increasing in healthy carotenoid nutrients (precursors of vitamin A) for at least couple of months after picking. Really dense-fleshed squashes are delicious, nutritious and really useful for all sorts of dishes - bringing the distilled essence of summer sunshine to the darkest depths of winter.  Even though they're grown up now - my kids still look forward to my 'Sunshine Soup', which is always a staple here in winter.  The recipe for that is in the recipe section here. 

Borage, sweet potatoes behind - with convulvulus, marigolds, feverfew. Endive & beetroot flowering for saving seed at far end & also peaches - with a Flame grapevine in middle in the right hand side bed!

Aubergines, Peppers and Tomatoes 

Aubergine 'Bonica' (pictured here) is as usual cropping really well. The fruits look so beautiful it's almost a shame to pick them!. Each of the plants has already produced 5 or 6 fruits and has loads of babies developing. Many companies sell the seed of this one and it's the best variety I've ever grown - it's thoroughly reliable and I now grow really good aubergines every year - despite our unreliable climate here in Ireland.

 

 

 

'Bonica' came out top of the Royal Horticultural Society trials about 10 years ago and it's easy to see why. It's currently producing huge, beautiful minimum 12-13oz plus aubergines faster than we can use them - some weigh over a pound or around 500g!  I freeze any that I don't use immediately. They're sliced - brushed with olive oil and frozen on sheets of grease-proof paper, then bagged for winter use. They can then be oven roasted straight from frozen.  By the way - I never salt them - it's not necessary with home grown ones and ruins their sweet, almost meaty flavour. Considering that even non-organic, chemically sprayed ones are over a euro each at least in some supermarkets - they're well worth the extra TLC and they're very happy in the recycled coleslaw buckets as you can see from the picture here! Aubergines need careful watering - never soaking them near the stem as they are very susceptible to stems rotting near the base. Peppers need the same careful cultivation and watering for the best results.

 

  

 

Tomato art! Some favourite delicious beefsteaks.

 

We always look forward to our first Caprese salad of the year with huge anticipation!  This year because of the heatwave we enjoyed it earlier than usual - and we've had several since. Although our absolute favourite for this is Pantano Romanesco - which has no equal for flavour if it gets plenty of sun as it has done this year - I discovered a lovely new variety of tomato a few years ago. It's a heritage variety called Moonglow which came from Simpsons seeds and has a lovely fruity, quite unusual, almost 'apricotty' flavour. We really enjoy it with Green Cherokee, Nyagous and with a huge slice of Ananas Noir in the centre of each plate - it looks almost too good to eat, as it looks so pretty - but we manage to force ourselves!  Add to those the two new varieties I discovered this year which I talked about earlier - and our plates look just like an artist's palette.

 

 

 

 

Our classic Caprese though is usually thick slices of juicy beefsteaks Pantano Romanesco and John Baer (a wonderful very early tomato with a split personality which produces some beefsteak-like and some classic medium tomatoes with a fabulous flavour). With it we have some really good yieldingly-soft buffalo mozzarella (pizza standard cow mozzarella just won't do for this salad!) - dressed with my pesto dressing (a frozen pesto cube dropped into in more olive oil which thaws and dilutes it), a few grinds of black pepper and prettified with some shredded basil.  Accompanied by some crusty home-made ciabatta still warm from the oven, to mop up the juices, it's heaven on earth. One is instantly transported to the Med.!  What more could you want?  You can close your eyes and feel that you're perhaps sitting in a little sun-warmed piazza somewhere in Italy, in late evening - and almost imagine that when you open them again you will see a gilded campanile silhouetted against a cloudless turquoise sky!............Ah well.......dreams cost nothing!

 

 

 

Tomatoes Amish Paste, Green Cherokee and Indigo Rose 
 

 

I can't believe that it's already time to 'stop' the tops of the tomato plants. This year seems to have flown. When the plants have reached the top of the 8 ft bamboo canes which support them - normally when they have 7 or 8 trusses on them depending on the variety - I cut the tops off. I like to keep a bit of air circulating above the tops of the plants, so I don't like to let them grow right up to the roof of the tunnel, as many people do. Usually the plants won't ripen more than eight trusses anyway in a polytunnel in our climate here, because the air becomes more humid and the light much less as autumn approaches. In a tunnel which is only growing tomatoes, where you can keep the air much drier for them, you could allow them to carry more, by training them up twine which you let out, lowering the stem along diagonally - I used to do this when growing commercially. But most gardeners want to grow a wide range of different crops in their tunnels at the same time - this makes it more difficult to keep the air as dry as possible for crops like tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. Some other crops like cucumbers and melons need more watering - making the air much more humid, so it's really a bit of a juggling act. At this time of year it becomes even more important to be really careful with your watering - watering in the mornings if possible to allow the atmosphere to dry out a bit - rather than watering late in the evening - particularly when a cold night is forecast - as this will hasten the demise of most tender summer crops! Careful watering will ensure they last that bit longer without disease.

 

 

 

Pantano Romanesco - in my opinion the easiest and also the best tasting beefsteak

 

I walk round at least two or three times a week now with a large bucket, cutting off any damaged, diseased, or dead foliage (the 3 D's), or whenever I see something as I'm picking crops. Using a knife or scissors for a clean cut - otherwise stems may tear and then let in disease. This is really important. Diseases, particularly grey mould (botrytis) can spread like wildfire on the muggy, gloomy grey days we often get in August here in Ireland, even with all possible ventilation. It's a particular problem where we live - where we can get a sort of low cloud/sea mist for days on end, which often only lifts for an hour or two around lunchtime, often descending again around 3pm. Tomatoes really hate that sort of weather! 

 

 

 

The continental beefsteak types are the most vulnerable, and must be watched really carefully. I actually pick them with secateurs to avoid tearing the truss stems. Take a look at them every day and pick off anything dodgy-looking immediately. You'll often see the shrivelled dead flower petals still clinging to the end of the swelling fruit, it's a good idea to gently pick these off, it is a bit fiddly - but if you don't - disease can often start there and very quickly turn the whole fruit mouldy and rotting, and then spread to the rest of the truss. The trusses need to be kept really clean and free of any detritus. As I've said before, they are not really that happy growing here in polytunnels, they'd really much prefer the hot summers and brilliant light of the Med. - but their wonderful flavour makes a bit of extra TLC worthwhile! That thought keeps me going through the winter. You can't buy a tomato that tastes anything like them anywhere in Ireland - but they do bruise incredibly easily when properly ripened.  The commercially grown types are bred for 'travel-ability' and shelf life - not tender, melting, luscious flavour! Basil is a bit fussy too, but if you're really careful with watering, pick off browning or diseased leaves immediately and keep pinching out the flower buds - it should keep going well all summer.

 

Don't cut off curling up tomato leaves unless they are discoloured or going brown, or grey and mouldy at the tips - curling up is normally caused by excess heat a couple of weeks earlier, or depletion of nutrients as the plants get older. Only take off the first couple of leaves below the ripening trusses to help improve air circulation - even if they are still green. The others further up are needed to help the plant to photosynthesise and to keep drawing up the sap. Keep looking for any side shoots which may still appear all down the stem. Be very careful with the watering in the whole tunnel now. Try to water in the mornings if possible, on a day when sunny weather is forecast, this gives surface moisture a chance to dry off before the tunnel is closed in the evening. Watch the weather forecast, try to plan your watering and don't go soaking the whole tunnel thoroughly if wet dull weather is forecast for a couple of days. Try to keep the moisture content of the soil fairly even. Fruit may split if the roots have dried out too much and the plants are then soaked, and uneven, erratic watering can also cause 'blossom end rot' (where the fruit gets round black patches on the flower end) or the small fruit may even drop off altogether. 

 

 

 

Tomato & herb stepladder garden

 

 

I feed all the tomatoes now, with a half strength feed, at every other watering, as the slightly yellowing lower leaves with paler top leaves can be a sign of lack of nutrients. The top ones should still look healthy and green. The 'Maskotka' bush cherry tomato in large pots is looking particularly hungry now, as it started cropping really well at the beginning of June. It's a fantastic little cropper - every time I think it surely must finish soon, another flush of flowers appears! I think just one or two bushes would definitely keep one person in tomatoes for most of the summer- and could even be grown on a sunny balcony as they don't make huge plants. They hang from the plants like bunches of grapes and the flavour is utterly delicious! I have had a few split ones - but this was my really fault as in the hot weather they've really needed watering every day, because of being in pots instead of the tunnel soil, and there were one or two days where I was very busy doing other things and just forgot! This year my stepladder garden is tomatoes and herbs - Basil and Oregano. It's been hugely successful. This would fit onto any balcony or into even the tiniest of gardens!  This year I used Tumbler this year on every step, and we were eating them in mid-May!

 

 

 

 

 

How to get a Second crop of Climbing French Beans from the Same Plants!

 

 

'Cobra' French bean top & 'Golden Gate'

 

We're starting to get a good crop now from the Cobra climbing French beans I sowed in mid-June.  I normally start them off much earlier, but many sowings this year have been delayed due to my dodgy ankle.  I keep picking them regularly, because French beans will quickly stop producing more if they get too big and stringy and start developing seeds. If your French beans have just finished cropping, and you don't want the ground immediately for something else - I have a very neat trick you can use to fool them into producing a second flush of beans!  Carefully strip all the leaves completely from the plants, snapping them off with your finger and thumb just where the leaf stalk joins onto the stem. They will do this quite readily. Then give them a feed - watering them carefully (avoiding the base of the stem as usual), and give the wider root area a nice mulch too - avoiding the base of the stems or they may rot.  Within a few days - you should see tiny new flower shoots developing in the leaf axils. These will carry another later crop within a few weeks. 

 

Tiny shoot developing in leaf axil of French bean a few days after the leaf has been snapped off

 

 

  

French beans are one of the most productive crops you can grow in a tunnel and well worth growing, particularly in Ireland, where our summers can often be wet - which French beans absolutely hate. They're one of the very best crops for freezing too. Just loose freeze quickly without blanching, bagging up afterwards. The round podded, stringless variety 'Cobra',  is totally reliable, incredibly productive and absolutely delicious. It's actually an improved form of the old variety 'Blue Lake'. Beans fit well into the rotation plan in a polytunnel, making a good break between tomatoes and cucumbers, and also fixing nitrogen for following winter salads and greens. I trialled a new French bean - 'Golden Gate' a couple of years ago. This was supposed to be really early, with good setting of flowers, very tasty and productive,  ideal for tunnel growing. It was none of those things, in fact it was absolutely pathetic and tasteless into the bargain! So I won't bother with it again - I shall stick to 'Cobra' as ever! Quite apart from anything else, 'Cobra' seed is about a third of the price (particularly in B&Q). Golden Gate was an attractive golden bean, that's all - and a few people commented that it looked pretty!

 

    

Delicious white flowered runner bean Moonlight 

 A few years ago I tried another bean experiment, which I now repeat every year! As you'll know if you're a regular reader - I love experimenting with different ways of growing. I also love the taste of fresh runner beans, but I live in a windy spot here - and every year, when growing runner beans outside, as soon as they're carrying a full crop in August, along come the early autumn gales and destroy them. Literally blowing them to bits - no matter how well-supported they are! So I decided to try some inside!  As white-flowered runner beans tend to set pods more easily, and I always have a lot of bees in the tunnel anyway, I thought it might be worth trying what was then a new partially self-fertile variety called Moonlight - bred by crossing a French bean and a runner bean - thinking they might be amenable to growing in the tunnel. Lo and behold - I was right! I know most people grow them easily outside - but we seem to get particularly strong 'autumn' winds up here in mid-August. Since there are always plenty of bees in the tunnels because I grow so many flowers in them - there is no problem with pollination and for the last 6 years I've had delicious runner beans from them. Moonlight is a stringless and really delicious variety - which I think has just as good a flavour as Painted Lady which was always my favourite - but sadly it didn't really like tunnel cultivation.

 

 

 

Time to think about winter now!

 

An old freezer basket covered with fine Enviromesh protecting seedlings from bad weather and pests