Contents: On your marks, get set - grow!. Grow Great Kale All Year round.... Why organically-grown potatoes are more healthy than conventionally-grown.... Some tips if you're only just starting to grow your own food..... Seed orders are the main priority..... Why spend time NOW making a cropping plan?.... Why not try growing Oca this year?..... Another job for now is organising your seed sowing equipment.... Recycling saves money and avoids plastic waste.... A home made cold frame is useful if you don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel..... Grow some 'extra early' potatoes for Easter?....
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| Jack Ice - an exceptional lettuce for winter or all year round growing | Lattughino Rossa - another hardy winter and early spring lettuce |
On Your Marks, Get Set, Grow! - To grow your own health, reduce your carbon footprint, TRULY help the planet AND save money at the same time by growing your own peat-free organic food. What's not to like?
In mid January, as the light starts to increase, the sap starts rising in us gardeners and I always get the urge to sow something! Pay no attention to those who tell you it's far to early to sow anything! Things are much quieter in the garden right now, so we all have a bit more time, and if you take care to harden things off carefully and gradually when they starting to grow well and are big enough - there are plenty of vegetable seeds you can sow now for earlier spring crops! I shall definitely be sowing more of two of my favourite hardy lettuces in the next few days - Lattughino Rossa and Jack Ice - both of which can be sown now for early spring crops in the polytunnel or outside. Both of them are open-pollinated - meaning that you can save your own seed from them and not be reliant on seed companies who may drop wonderful old heirloom varieties without notice, something which I wrote about in this month's polytunnel blog. I saw that the now 'Big Ag' owned Organic Catalogue dropped Lattughino last year, when I checked for you to see if it was still available. Luckily I've saved my own seed of Jack Ice (available from Real Seed UK) and Lattughino for years now, but when I looked to see if Lattughino was now available anywhere, the only company now listing it is: https://www.sativa.bio/en/
Waiting until mid-February or early March to start sowing seeds may be fine for those who don't have frantically busy lives - but decades of experience have taught me that if something unforeseen happens then - that may delay things further and I may not get crops of some veg at all. Anyway - I'm always impatient to get going too - so I like to steal a march on spring and get a few seeds in early, to ensure I have crops of some of my favourite healthy salad greens and other veg. In fact, I find the best time to sow anything is when I have the time and the inclination! You can find my list of what you can sow in January here: http://
Mixed Red Ruble and Ragged Jack kale leaves and flower shoots in early March from the polytunnel
Grow Great Kale All Year round
Kale is a member of the hugely varied brassica (cabbage) family, thought to originally be native to the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, which has been grown by humans for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks and Romans are recorded as having grown kale in the 4th century BC, and by the Middle Ages, it was the most widely eaten green vegetable throughout Europe. No doubt this is because it is so thoroughly reliable and hardy, withstands most conditions except waterlogged soil, crops for a very long time, and you can pick just a few leaves as you want them, rather than having to cut the entire head off the plant at once, like a cabbage or cauliflower. I love generous leafy vegetables like kale as they are far less work, with just two or three well-timed sowings giving you year-round crops. What many people don't know is that kale also produces another valuable crop - delicious flower shoots just like sprouting broccoli in spring, if you allow it to. It really is such a good-natured and reliable food plant, and if you grow open-pollinated, non-F1 hybrids as I do, you can even save your own seed if you discover a particular variety you like. That can save you quite a lot of money when you look at the price of seed these days! The seed lasts for several years kept in a dry, cool place, as long as you can keep those dratted mice away from them! They adore them and know what's good for them!
Kale is one of the most useful, versatile and super-nutritious vegetables you can grow, and it's very easy to have lush crops of baby or larger leaves all year round. It is not just versatile in the ways you can grow it, but also in the kitchen. It can be used in a wide variety of dishes, both raw and cooked, but is actually higher in sulforaphane, a powerful anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer phytonutrient when it is eaten raw, or only very briefly cooked, just for a minute or so. It is high in Vitamin A, E, K, and B (especially folate), and is high in iron (the less easily absorbed, non-heme kind) and Vitamin C, and also contains more calcium gram for gram than a glass of milk! Some people worry as they may have heard that it contains goitrogens, like all the cabbage family, which may affect the functioning of our thyroid gland by interfering with iodine absorption, potentially affecting hormone production. But frankly, if you eat food grown with pesticides, smoke, take some medications like NSAIDs, use non-stick PFOA/Teflon-coated non-stick pans pans or use other products containing hormone-disrupting, goitrogenic chemicals, you need to worry about those far more than kale, unless you are eating tons of it raw every day! If you have existing thyroid problems, then don't eat it raw, as cooking inactivates the goitrogenic compounds.
But isn't kale just a winter vegetable though? Not here it isn't, because I want tender baby kale leaves all year round, when they are at their most delicious and nutritious! Most people just sow kale in May, to grow over the winter outside, but I usually multi-sow it three times a year. In late January or February for fast-growing crop of baby leaves in the polytunnel or under cloches through spring into summer outside, in May for eventual overwintering outside, and in late June or early July, for growing in the polytunnel over the winter. All of these will also eventually produce fat, tender flower shoots like sprouting broccoli if allowed to. The tunnel-grown ones being particularly valuable in spring, when the few plants that I leave to develop more seed produce precious early nectar and pollen for pollinators like bees, hoverlies and other beneficial insects.
By multi-sowing I mean that I sow a small pinch - perhaps 5 or 7 seeds - into individual modules of organic, peat-free compost, either on a windowsill if sowing very early, or later in my polytunnel. This is a very space-saving way to grow seeds if you only have a small propagating space, as just a few modules will give you a lot of plants. Also by not sowing in the ground outside, they are protected from bad weather much safer from slugs, mice and other pests, so you are guaranteed plenty of plants which you can thin or split up into smaller clumps of fewer plants when big enough, before they get too crowded and hungry. It may seem a lot of handling, but it saves on seeds, and realistically only takes a few minutes to split and pot on a lot of plants. The ones I grow for overwintering in the polytunnel I usually leave in clumps of three or five, potting them on as needed until their space is freed up in the tunnel after summer crops are cleared. I then have leaves within just a few weeks, which I can pick continuously all winter long.
One of my favourite varieties which I save seed from, and the one I have grown for the longest time, is Ragged Jack. This has very lush and attractive frilly green leaves, often with fascinating little bunches of tiny frilly leaves growing off the leaf veins too. I have been growing and saving seed of it for ovdr 40 years now, originally having obtained it from the HDRA (now re-named Garden Organic) Heritage Seed Library. Ragged Jack is also called Red Russian by some people, but there are many slightly varying strains of this wonderful kale, about 20 in all according to experts at NVRS Wellsbourne, in the UK. It is hardy, resistant to almost everything, and absolutely delicious. The other variety I love and grow every year without fail is the stunning variety Red Ruble, which was originally developed for baby salad leaf production, but actually makes delicious larger leaves and flowering shoots too. Red Ruble is not only very high in iron compared to most other kales, but its stunning deep purple colour shows that it is also very high in valuable, health-promoting anthocyanin phytonutrients. I like to try one or two other types of kale each year, as new ones or re-discovered heirloom varieties become available. Variety is definitely the spice of life as they say!
Kale is a member of the hugely varied brassica (cabbage) family, thought to originally be native to the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, which has been grown by humans for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks and Romans are recorded as having grown kale in the 4th century BC, and by the Middle Ages, it was the most widely eaten green vegetable throughout Europe. No doubt this is because it is so thoroughly reliable and hardy, withstands most conditions except waterlogged soil, crops for a very long time, and you can pick just a few leaves as you want them, rather than having to cut the entire head off the plant at once, like a cabbage or cauliflower. I love generous leafy vegetables like kale as they are far less work, with just two or three well-timed sowings giving you year-round crops. What many people don't know is that kale also produces another valuable crop - delicious flower shoots just like sprouting broccoli in spring, if you allow it to. It really is such a good-natured and reliable food plant, and if you grow open-pollinated, non-F1 hybrids as I do, you can even save your own seed if you discover a particular variety you like. That can save you quite a lot of money when you look at the price of seed these days! The seed lasts for several years kept in a dry, cool place, as long as you can keep those dratted mice away from them! They adore them and know what's good for them!
Kale is one of the most useful, versatile and super-nutritious vegetables you can grow, and it's very easy to have lush crops of baby or larger leaves all year round. It is not just versatile in the ways you can grow it, but also in the kitchen. It can be used in a wide variety of dishes, both raw and cooked, but is actually higher in sulforaphane, a powerful anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer phytonutrient when it is eaten raw, or only very briefly cooked, just for a minute or so. It is high in Vitamin A, E, K, and B (especially folate), and is high in iron (the less easily absorbed, non-heme kind) and Vitamin C, and also contains more calcium gram for gram than a glass of milk! Some people worry as they may have heard that it contains goitrogens, like all the cabbage family, which may affect the functioning of our thyroid gland by interfering with iodine absorption, potentially affecting hormone production. But frankly, if you eat food grown with pesticides, smoke, take some medications like NSAIDs, use non-stick PFOA/Teflon-coated non-stick pans pans or use other products containing hormone-disrupting, goitrogenic chemicals, you need to worry about those far more than kale, unless you are eating tons of it raw every day! If you have existing thyroid problems, then don't eat it raw, as cooking inactivates the goitrogenic compounds.
But isn't kale just a winter vegetable though? Not here it isn't, because I want tender baby kale leaves all year round, when they are at their most delicious and nutritious! Most people just sow kale in May, to grow over the winter outside, but I usually multi-sow it three times a year. In late January or February for fast-growing crop of baby leaves in the polytunnel or under cloches through spring into summer outside, in May for eventual overwintering outside, and in late June or early July, for growing in the polytunnel over the winter. All of these will also eventually produce fat, tender flower shoots like sprouting broccoli if allowed to. The tunnel-grown ones being particularly valuable in spring, when the few plants that I leave to develop more seed produce precious early nectar and pollen for pollinators like bees, hoverlies and other beneficial insects.
By multi-sowing I mean that I sow a small pinch - perhaps 5 or 7 seeds - into individual modules of organic, peat-free compost, either on a windowsill if sowing very early, or later in my polytunnel. This is a very space-saving way to grow seeds if you only have a small propagating space, as just a few modules will give you a lot of plants. Also by not sowing in the ground outside, they are protected from bad weather much safer from slugs, mice and other pests, so you are guaranteed plenty of plants which you can thin or split up into smaller clumps of fewer plants when big enough, before they get too crowded and hungry. It may seem a lot of handling, but it saves on seeds, and realistically only takes a few minutes to split and pot on a lot of plants. The ones I grow for overwintering in the polytunnel I usually leave in clumps of three or five, potting them on as needed until their space is freed up in the tunnel after summer crops are cleared. I then have leaves within just a few weeks, which I can pick continuously all winter long.
One of my favourite varieties which I save seed from, and the one I have grown for the longest time, is Ragged Jack. This has very lush and attractive frilly green leaves, often with fascinating little bunches of tiny frilly leaves growing off the leaf veins too. I have been growing and saving seed of it for ovdr 40 years now, originally having obtained it from the HDRA (now re-named Garden Organic) Heritage Seed Library. Ragged Jack is also called Red Russian by some people, but there are many slightly varying strains of this wonderful kale, about 20 in all according to experts at NVRS Wellsbourne, in the UK. It is hardy, resistant to almost everything, and absolutely delicious. The other variety I love and grow every year without fail is the stunning variety Red Ruble, which was originally developed for baby salad leaf production, but actually makes delicious larger leaves and flowering shoots too. Red Ruble is not only very high in iron compared to most other kales, but its stunning deep purple colour shows that it is also very high in valuable, health-promoting anthocyanin phytonutrients. I like to try one or two other types of kale each year, as new ones or re-discovered heirloom varieties become available. Variety is definitely the spice of life as they say!
Why organically-grown potatoes are more healthy than conventionally-grown - whether you want to use them for seed tubers, or to eat them!
As most organic gardeners will know - there are many toxic chemicals such as artificial fertilisers, fungicides, pesticides and herbicides like Glyphosate used in the growing of conventional potatoes. You will also know if you are a regular reader of this blog that I have been studying the effects of such chemicals since my daughter was born with serous allergies over 40 years ago, when our unusually enlightened doctor for that time recommended a totally chemical-free, organic diet. The reason I am going into a little bit more technical detail than usual here, is because I was asked a question on Twitter last week by a doctor who was perhaps questioning my knowledge of such chemicals, as often happens on Twitter!
In addition to all those used during the growing and harvesting of potatoes, there is another which is used after harvest - a so-called 'sprout-suppressant' chemical which prolongs the storage-life of the tubers by preventing them from sprouting, as they would normally start to do in mid winter, once the natural dormant period of potatoes is over. Many people are completely unaware of the use of these toxic chemicals, which I believe everyone ought to know, given their toxicity.
Potatoes for processing, commercial and table use often need to be stored for 6-9 months, and so some sort of sprout suppressant is required for this unnatural, long-term storage - whereas the homegrown potatoes I have stored here are already starting to sprout. Although there are several chemicals used - the most wide-spread and most commonly used is one called CIPC or Isopropyl N-(3-chlorophenyl) carbamate or Chorapham. It is a selective systemic herbicide - 'systemic' meaning that it is translocated and present throughout the plant tissue of the tuber. CIPC has been in use for more than 50 years, and has been the most commonly found residue in potatoes in all surveys since 1994. According to studies, it is among the pesticides which have been found in the highest concentration in the diet of the average American, and comprises 90% of the total synthetic chemical residue found in US potatoes. Studies have also reported that toxicological evaluation of CIPC, as tested and documented under lab conditions, is an underestimation. Recently various important safety concerns have surfaced over its long-term and continuous use, due to the higher toxicity of it's metabolites (the degradation or breakdown products it produces in the potatoes after treatment) and the fact that the levels of these can increase with the multiple treatments carried out during the storage period, something which was unknown at the time the chemical was first used.
CIPC belongs to a group of pesticides known as Carbamates. It is applied by a process known as 'thermal fogging' in order to reach all the stored potatoes, and this step causes not only the thermal degradation of it, but also its breakdown into aniline-based derivatives which have a high toxicity profile. One such breakdown product of CIPC is 3-chloroaniline (3-CA ) and being an aniline-based derivative, it is considered more polluting and highly toxic that the parent compound itself and potentially carcinogenic to humans. According to the Extension Toxicology Network, chronic exposure of laboratory animals to CIPC has caused "retarded growth, increased liver, kidney and spleen weights, congestion of the spleen and death." In the UK, over 6 million tonnes of potatoes are produced annually, and more than half of this production is stored for the fresh market and for food processing. CIPC is currently used as the main sprout-suppressant in commercial potato stores.
Perhaps you might not find those non-organic baked potatoes or crisps quite so tempting now? - Sorry!........ And you'll also now understand why I recommend that you only use organic potatoes to get them sprouting for your' extra-early' potato crops which I talk about later on - otherwise you could be waiting a very long time! This is obvious in the picture above, showing a comparison between the nicely sprouting organic potatoes in the top of the picture, and the same variety of non-organic ones at the bottom - which have clearly been treated with a sprout-suppressant chemical!
Overture and beginners - some tips if you're only just starting to grow food
Welcome to a new gardening year here on the blog and an especially big welcome if you're a first time reader! The main advice I would give to any beginner just starting off, is don't be tempted to start off by trying to take on too much - because that can be a recipe for disaster. Start off growing your own food by doing it a little at a time, then any disasters you may have will only be small ones - not so big that they make you feel utterly useless and you give up! If you're only starting on a windowsill - or you've even taken on an allotment for the first time, do it a little at a time. Don't try to run before you can walk!
If you have an allotment - PLEASE don't listen to the old timers on the site who will tell you to spray everything off with weedkillers like Roundup which contain Glyphosate! Not only do ALL weedkillers kill vitally important soil life that would otherwise help you to grow naturally healthy, more disease-resistant plants - but what the manufacturers don't tell you is that they're actually a complete waste of money, as they don't kill weed seeds. So as soon as you touch the soil with even a hoe and uncover long-buried seeds, they will grow, because that's what Nature designed them to do! Seeds will also blow in from other places, and you can't avoid that, but don't worry - there are plenty of non-toxic, nature-friendly ways to beat weeds!
Instead of using a weedkiller - blocking out the light which encourages weed seeds to germinate is the best thing to do. You can do this by covering the whole site with some sort of mulch and then cardboard or thick wadges of newspaper with cardboard or recycled polythene on top. Don't be tempted to buy in farmyard or stable manure which may well be contaminated with chemicals like weedkillers or worm-destroying veterinary 'worming' medicines. In the first year, you could either uncover just a small patch, or grow stuff in large boxes or containers on top of the weed-suppressing mulch - that's how I started in my first garden 43 years ago. Start off with just a few lettuce plants if you can get them - they'll give you faster results and something to pick quickly to spur you on. But most garden centres won't have them until March - so buy some really cheap 'value' seed like lettuce mixes, or oriental salad mixes, Claytonia etc (see my what to sow list) (non-F1 hybrid seed is cheaper and often more reliable as they are older, more commonly grown varieties).
One thing I would never advise is trying to save money on compost - this is where your growing budget is best invested! Buy the best quality organic peat-free seed compost you can get. This will last well if you keep it in a dry place or you could also share a bag with a friend. Buy some organic peat-free potting compost at the same time. Why do you need that? Because it has more nutrients than seed compost and will either be suitable for growing plants to maturity, or for potting them on into larger pots until conditions are suitable for planting either outside or in a polytunnel.
Don't buy expensive seed trays and pots - save money, recycle and ask friends to save for you - soon you'll be inundated! Ask for mayonnaise or coleslaw tubs at supermarket or local shop deli counters - they always have them as they buy that stuff in and then just throw them into the plastic reycling bin when empty. They'll save you loads of money, make great growing tubs after you put drainage holes in them, they're free and last years if you keep them out of the light when not using them, as light makes the plastic brittle. Some of mine have often lasted for over 30 years!
Start to grow your own nutrients. Make some worm compost - feed worms instead of feeding your council food and garden waste bin! It's much less hard work as the worms do it for you - then all you have to do is put food waste in and magically get the best super-charged compost out! Worms turn food waste into wonderful stuff, which doesn't smell, and which is high in nutrients and important beneficial enzymes and microbes. Making one is a very easy project for cold days. You could get a suitable bin in the Jan sales - or perhaps you may have something suitable already which you could re-purpose? Here's a link to my 'How to make your own worm' bin article: http://
Grow some 'extra early' potatoes for Easter.
Planting well-sprouted seed potatoes in pots
Extra Early potatoes 'Lady Christl' & 'Mayan Gold'. Harvested late April.
At the moment - there isn't very much that can usefully be done outside
Now is the time to get on with inside jobs while you have the spare time - because there won't be too much of that in March! If you try to do anything that involves walking on your garden soil - you will actually be doing more harm than good by compacting and squashing the air out of it. If you have heavy clay like mine - when it dries out it will turn into concrete! I've often been tempted to make bricks or a cobb house out of it - and I have in fact made small pots just to prove it!
The well-known rule with winter soil is - if it sticks to your boots or if you sink into it - then it's far too wet to work - so just stay off it! Get on with some jobs you can do inside in the warm instead, like getting all your seed sowing kit ready, cleaning seed trays and pots, and ordering the last of your seeds if you haven't already done that - this will be a real help when the spring rush of jobs arrives! It's closer than you think - so it's really time to get on the starting blocks and be ready for action! So keep to the paths if you need to do things! If you're growing in the traditional way on the flat - and you have to step onto the soil to harvest things like brassicas (cabbage family) and leeks - then get a wide plank to walk on in order to spread your weight a bit. This will minimize damage to the soil as far as possible. If you grow in raised beds - as I do - they're great because you can always work from the path without compacting soil at all. This is far better for all the soil life that actually needs air too. Raised beds are also a lot easier on the back, which does make life easier at this time of year.
Why spend time NOW making a cropping plan?
A few months ago someone asked me - "if I could come up with a suggested rotation and cropping plan" for early in the New Year, but this is really something you just have to work out for yourself, other than the usual rule of not growing any one plant family in the same place more than once in 4 years. The main reason for that is to prevent pests and diseases, or nutrient deficiencies building up. It's impossible for me to suggest cropping plans and rotations, as I don't know what you like to eat. or what quantities you may need of any particular vegetable all year round. The classic four course rotation would be potatoes, peas and beans, brassicas, and then roots along with any others like cucurbits (marrows, courgettes and pumpkins) or onion family (leeks, scallions etc.). In practice it's almost always a longer rotation - so 6 beds or more to accommodate the different plant families is probably more realistic if you're aiming at self-sufficiency.. Growing lots of different varieties of veg is a good idea - 1. because it prevents you losing everything if a disease or pest strikes that particular crop. 2. because all the latest research shows that the more variety of plant foods we eat - the healthier our gut microbes are. 3. Obvious! It stops you getting bored and having massive gluts that you can't eat or process for preserving all at once!
Seed orders are the main priority right now
Why not try growing Oca this year? 
One thing I haven't seen mentioned in any magazine articles or books though, is the fact that being a member of the sorrel family, they are actually quite high in oxalic acid - which accounts for the sharp lemony flavour of both the tubers and the pretty clover shaped leaves pictured here, which can also be used sparingly in salads. So rather than eating them daily, it's best to have them as an occasional treat, or you might end up with kidney stones if you're susceptible! There is some research currently being done into low oxalic acid varieties - but at the moment I definitely wouldn't think of them as a suitable everyday alternative to potatoes! We don't need to eat potatoes everyday either. There are plenty of lower carbohydrate alternatives that are equally as delicious - Jerusalem artichokes for one - which are incredibly healthy for your gut - being full of prebiotic Inulin which feeds your gut microbes and encourages them to multiply.
Another job to do now is to organise your seed-sowing equipment.
Recycling saves money, and avoids plastic waste.
A home made cold frame is useful if you don't have a greenhouse or polytunnel
Speaking of recycling reminded me of this. If you're gardening on a budget or don't have a cold frame - you can easily make one using 2"x 4" rough timber and clear polythene sheeting obtainable pretty cheaply from builders merchants or DIY shops, or even from skips if you're like me! Mattress covers which you can often pick up from furniture or bed shops also make great covers for cold frames or raised beds, and I never throw away any large pieces of polythene or bubble-wrap, as even relatively small pieces can be so useful! A home-made cold-frame can be made a lot higher than those normally available and being higher allows you to grow taller summer crops which need protection too - like bush tomatoes and peppers etc. If you make a box shape from timber laths, leave one end and either the top or bottom of the box open, covering the rest with polythene - you can make a really useful cold frame in any size you like! It's really useful if you have a path against a wall as I did when I made my first one, which gives you an extra bit of reflected heat. Then depending on whatever you're growing - you can turn it any way you like, or raise it up on blocks or bricks, pull it away from the wall for air circulation it even becomes a mini greenhouse if it's raised up high enough! I grew my best aubergines ever in my old grow frame!Firm in and stake Brassica plants
Keep veg beds covered if they don't currently have a crop in them
I just want to remind you once again that if you leave freshly dug ground uncovered and open to the elements, as some people do, our increasingly high winter rainfall will wash out and waste valuable nutrients, causing pollution o
