Peas and beans are members of the leguminosae family. These are incredibly useful plants. They provide more protein than any other garden vegetable and is hugely important for the vegetarian or vegan community but most of all, if you are intending to be self sufficient without much meat then you cannot really sustain yourself healthily without leguminosae.

The hugely beneficial trait of the legumes is that they have a nitrogen fixing ability. So if you wish to be organic or don’t want to spend a lot of money on nitrogen based fertisers then rotation planting with legumes is just the ticket.

Here in the U.K. our winter is fast approaching. It is the end of October at the time of writing. We have harvested most of our garden and we can look forward to next spring when most of our planting is done. What can we do right now?

Well, we can sow some winter peas and broadbeans! Great stuff. Some positive action in the garden. You need to cultivate the ground pretty deeply. Hopefully your land will have had some deep muck or compost in it. Remember, peas don’t like acid soil so you need to take action if it is. pH 6.5 is about right. If it is below this, then use lime to balance the soil. A quarter of a pound per square yard is about right.

For the Peas, make broad drills about four inches wide and two inches deep.  I use a spade with but probably a better measurement is a hoes width. Then sprinkle the seed evenly so there is an inch or two between seeds. Then rake the earth from each side and bang down firmly with the back of your spade or hoe. Then give the drill a good soaking. Seeds sown October/November will be ready to harvest May/June. I used Unwins Meteor. If you want a succession of peas in the summer then sow fortnighly from March to July. There is nothing like the taste of young peas straight from the pod. I can’t wait!

Broad Beans can stand up to a fierce winter and can get going very early in the spring. It stands pretty strong in the ground and doesn’t need any support. Unlike the tender French and Dwarf Beans, the Broad Bean is hardy and robust. An essential crop for the self sufficient gardener. I am told you can survive on dried broadbeans and potatoes alone! Not that I am going to try it!

Anyway, it is very useful in the cooking pot, easily stored and pretty easy to grow. The soil treatment is similar to that for peas. They like potash. So if you have some wood ash then that would be useful to spread on your intended broad bean patch. Plenty of muck is desirable too.

You need drills about 3 inches deep and about two feet apart. Put the seeds in about 6 inches apart. When they begin to grow it is a good idea to earth them up. Keep them clear of weeds. If you are living in windy conditions then you could put stakes or canes at each end and put a run of string around each row. But often this is not necessary.

Sown now, you should enjoy a broad bean harvest between June and July.  Pick them as young as posible for the very best flavour. Watch out for black fly. To deter them you just pinch out the growing tips of the plants when they are in full flower.

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Your store cupboards should be filled with jars and bottles full of great produce. You will have stored your root crops ready for the winter feast.

As you clear bed after bed, do not neglect them. Feed them with organic material, manure or the results of your composting.

Consider harvesting your own seed for next year. Remember, seed is becoming more and more expensive and it might be wise, and fulfilling, to harvest your own.

You will have harvested your last peas, broad, french and runner beans. You can harvest marrows, courgettes and onions when they are ripe and then you can store them.

In October it is the time for lifting and storing your potatoes. You can lift your Beetroot, turnips, swedes and carrots. Earth up your leeks and celery. You can sow winter broad beans and peas.

November in the United Kingdom which is often frustrating. Dig when you can dig… tidy up the garden as you can. Pull dead leaves off the brassica plants and watch out for slugs and snails. Cover up your winter crops such as celery with straw or something to keep the worst of the frost out. Mulch over tender plants such as asparagus and globe artichokes.

Now is the time also, to think about next year. Begin to prepare in your mind what you wish to change. How did things go. What do you want to grow. Can you sow things now to benefit the garden early next year. Get a vegetable gardening calendar for your part of the world. See what the sowing and harvest months are and plan for them. Make notes of your crop rotation so that you can safely rotate your crops to prevent disease and encourage growth. Remember, don’t put crops like potatoes in the same place every year! Tidying up the garden will help your garden next year. Maintaining your compost bin or heap with leaves, dead plants, chicken droppings etc , will set you up for a long time. Composting brings nutrients into the garden.

My plan this autumn is to complete my home vegetable garden. I have 6 raised beds now, two having just been prepared. I will be sowing winter peas, beans and spinach and planting our spring cabbage.  When we get our new allotment that is when the work will really start. With not a lot of notice, we will be quickly planning our layout and our main crop planting and preparing the ground for a new season. We will be busy this winter thats for sure.

Please let me know what you think of the post and let me have your own autumn gardening experiences and plans through your comments on the blog.

Have a great week in the garden.

Peter

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Perhaps though, we need to take it all a little more seriously, as food shortages and concern for food security is becoming more and more of a concern within the western world.

“Britain must grow more food, while using less water and reducing emission of greenhouse gases, to respond to the challenge of climate change and growing world populations”, said the U.K’s Environment Secretary this year.
“Food security is as important to this country’s future wellbeing, and the world’s, as energy security. We need to produce more food. We need to do it sustainably. and we need to make sure what we eat safeguards our health.”

The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. In its paper Food Future: Rethinking UK Strategy Feb 2009, the Chatham House Project under the umbrella of the Royal Institute for International Affairs is summarised as below:

“Over the next few decades, the global food system will come under renewed pressure from the combined effects of seven fundamental factors: population growth, the nutrition transition, energy, land, water, labour and climate change. The combined effects will create constraints on food supply and if action is not taken, there is a real potential for demand growth to outstrip increases in global food production. Effects on developing countries would be devastating. Developed countries will be affected too. Expectations of abundant and ever cheaper food could come under strain. The UK can no longer afford to take its food supply for granted.”

Now, I am no politician, or economist or expert in international financial affairs. I know that there is or has been a Global Recession. I know that the U.S. debt is $13 Trillion. I know that the U.K. debt is £3 Trillion. It seems to me though, that the skills of being as self sufficient as possible need to be re-learned and that producing your own fruit and vegetables and perhaps supporting animals and poultry for meat and fresh eggs, seems a very sensible approach to life right now. Skills that families took for granted in the past, like canning and bottling, making preserves, storing home grown produce should be relooked at. Materialism has been pretty cool for all of us,  but gadgets and doodads cannot feeed a family.

Perhaps its time to enjoy simple pleasures, get some fresh air and provide for ourselves a little more.

Would love you to post your comments on the blog. Let’s have a debate about this!

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Vegetable gardening for beginners is all about making it easy to start this great hobby and the best way to get real benefits from it.

Not everyone has the time to dedicate to use DIY solutions to create their raised beds so I thought I would check out a few products for you to see if they can provide you a shortcut at reasonable cost.

My preferred options are below. They seem the right size and come from renewable sources…and are an ideal way to begin your garden hobby.

First up is from RecycleWorks  Raised Beds – The Ecconomy Plot

This inexpensive solution provides you with a number of benefits and is suitable for  helping children in particular to see the benefits of growing your own vegetables and it includes a composter!

Product features:

• Pointed posts for pushing into the soil
• 6 foot wigwam for winter beans
• A FREE selection of 6 summer salad seeds
• All seeds germinate easily
• Free link board for joining to a composter
• Dimensions: 153mm (h) x 900mm (w) x 2.6m (L)

This is a great starter kit for anyone considering this wonderful hobby.

You can also get triple bed starter kits from recycle works  FSC Triple Wooden Raised Bed Starter Kit

These provide

• Posts for fixing crop protection.
• Wooden Raised Beds will allow your roots to grow long, straight and strong depending on height of Raised Bed.
• The crop will be easy to harvest to perfection.
• Ideal if your plot has poor drainage.
• Wood will insulate the soil preventing side heat loss.
• Modular design so you can add on as many extra modules as you wish!
• Ideal Starter Kit to get you ‘Growing Your Own’.
• Cloche Hoop option – See Detailed Images
• Can be assembled in seconds!

These Wooden Raised Beds are manufactured from wood that comes from FSC certificated Northern European Forests. They have been treated with a non-toxic preservative that will not kill the worm & bugs in the compost or spoil your plants.

I always look forward to feedback, so please comment on whether you use raised beds for your vegetable gardening or whether you have bought purpose made raised beds to start your vegetable garden.

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I have been a passionate advocate of deep bed vegetable gardening ever since I was introduced to it by reading John Seymour’s great book, the Self Sufficient Gardener. A good way to do this is to have a raised bed. This is an ideal way to start off as it does away with the old chore of double digging as you can single dig your bed and then add muck to it. Raised bed improves drainage considerably so it is particularly useful in a garden that has heavy soil. The soil in the raised bed warms up quicker in spring also and also means that you can focus all of your energy into a contained area. Crops, because their roots can go deeper in loose soil can be grown closer.

As always, preparation and hard work in the beginning as you create your vegetable garden pays off in the end. Once you have successfully created your vegetable garden this wayyou will have a low maintenance kitchen garden that will serve you well for many years.

The practical way to create raised beds is to use wooden planks and create a box like structure – usually about 12 to 13′ long and about 5′ wide. You can use something like scaffolding planks for the purpose and then nail them to gether through a simple post in each corner.

Raised bed gardening is a pretty ancient tradition. Apparently it goes back to the monks in the 13th century, they judged that the width between beds should enable you to kneel between them so you can work comfortably.

You can of course purchase ready made raised bed kits. Garland Raised Bed Kit These are particularly useful for busy people who just want instant results.  I have used these in the past and they serve you pretty well. The thing is to plan your vegetable garden in such a way as to know exactly how many beds you want, what dimensions you want them to be and then what your budget is.

Which ever way you decide to build your raised bed garden, DIY or kit, it is very much worth the effort. Just check around a community garden or allotment site to see that the best and most organised gardens use deep bed gardening in this way. A bit of work in the beginning and then just planting and light maintenance all the way through the season.

Crop yields are much greater too in land that is deeply dug, no compacted and treated with good organic muck.

Before starting a vegetable garden it is important to think about a few things before you put your spade in the ground. Whilst we are about providing help and advice on vegetable gardening for beginners this is just as important for experienced gardeners.

Work out your plan. A vegetable garden should do what you want it to, so ask yourself what your desired outcome is.

What I would start with is to make a list of what produce you want and need. I think it is kind of pointless growing vegetables just because they are easy to grow when you don’t actually like to eat them?

So start with a list. You can just grow for maximum yield and stuff that provides a stable diet; potatoes, runner beans, brassica(cabbage and such like).

All of these are normally easy to grow depending upon your climate and you should get a substantial crop that will keep you from starving..but will it satisfy your creativity or desire to produce something that is more exciting or demanding to grow?

If you have just a small plot – and the size of your plot is a big decision maker – then it makes sense to grow the more
exotic vegetables in your small plot and shop for bulk crops at discount stores or from a friendly farmer.This way you can
grow the vegetables in your small plot that are best when eaten fresh; corn, peas, salad crops etc.

Somethings to consider:

1. Where is your garden sited?

Now that you have ascertained what crops you wish to grow you need to consider the geography of your garden.
You are often recommended that a south facing garden is best and this may be the case. But don’t use the fact that your garden
faces a different direction than south as an excuse for your crops not to grow. Good gardeners can grow excellent
produce in a north facing garden.

2. Is your garden in the shade?

Remember, there are lots of plant that won’t grow in the shade. So it is important to plan your garden around this. A good
thing to do is to watch your garden over the course of the day and note where the sun is and where there are particularly
shady spots throughout the day.
I have had problems with trees in the past. In fact this year because I decided to have a small plot at home, I have had
to trim trees and hedges to ensure the sun attends my little plot through the day. Reducing shade can make a big difference.

If you have a shady garden then consider carefully what to grow. Don’t worry. There are solutions and plants you can grow.

3. What is your climate like?

It’s no use trying to grow oranges in England! Well, not in your back yard anyway! So you need to understand your climate.

A few things you should consider. Are you likely to be effected by frost? If so then work out your growing season according
to where you live. Lean on local gardeners for advice on this. You can use cloches, greenhouses, cold frames to help you
extend your season but you need to be aware of your limitations.

What are the normal wind conditions for your plot? Some plants cannot tolerate wind. You may need to find someway to
shelter them. You can do this with fences, hedges etc.

Wherever you live, your plot will need water. So make sure you have a water source available to you. A convenient tap, well
or rainwater tub. You want it to be close by so you are not hampered in getting the right amount of water to your crops and land.

4. What are your soil conditions?

You need to be sure of what your soil condition is so that you can ensure it is treated the right way to maximise your crop.
You can get a simple pH kit to establish the acidity of your soil. Generally you would consider you are ok between 6.5 and 7 pH
there are a number of ways in which you can correct your soil. A good compost or manure at the beginning is often the best way to go.

But if your soil is acidic, say around pH 5 or so, then you can dress it with lime to increase the pH to around 7.

If you have clay or sand then both of these can be treated with a heavy muck and mulch which will set you on the way.

5. Have you got enough space?

Lets consider what you will need for vegetables.

A seed bed, a holding bed, composting area and around 4 beds for your annual vegetables. 4 beds for your annual vegetables
is an ideal way to be able to rotate your crops intelligently to prevent disease and to increase your yield. More on this later.
In addition to this you may wish to have a herb garden, a soft fruit area and an orchard. You may wish to keep animals for
further self sufficiency, poultry, rabbits etc.

You would probably need a shed for potting and storage. If you are in a climate where you cannot grow things like tomatoes
peppers and cucumbers outside then you may require a greenhouse.

So consider all of your options right at the start so you are clear about what you want to achieve.

Think about your climate and water source, what plants you would like most convenient to your back door etc when planning your
garden. It makes sense to have the herbs right by the kitchen so you can pick them during cooking time all nice and fresh.

It makes sense to have your seed bed and holding beds close together. Have them near water..because those tender plants will
require more water while young than when they are in moist, well mulched and composted main crop beds.

You garden size is extremely important. If you have a small plot, then you might have to think of growing vertically. If you have a large plot
then you have less of a challenge but it will be more physically demanding of you, so be smart right at the beginning. Make
sure you have paths that are well constructed and everything conveniently situated.

Please also remember. Gardening is fun. It is rewarding. But it is often hard work and you are subjected to your climate 12 months of the year.
So planning for the worst of the weather is pretty important. Don’t create a garden on a whim and just abandon it after a few months.
Plan for the long term and enjoy it. You will develop a relationship with the soil, your plants, the wild life in your garden. You will
enjoy fresh produce that will be the envy of your friends, neighbours and relatives. You will be creating something of great benefit
to you and nature.

Have a great time planning your garden. Let me know what you think and give me your feedback.

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What a time it was. On a Friday evening the BBC‘s Gardeners World  presented by Geoff Hamilton was our family oasis away from all the troubles in the world.

You can get a taste here:The Geoff Hamilton BBC Collection (40th Anniversary Gardeners World DVD Box Set)

Geoff was a true organic gardener. He worked on the Gardener’s World team from 1979 until his sad death cycling for charity in 1996.

n 1979, he was given the job of working on BBC’s Gardeners’ World team, the popular gardening programme. Geoff soon endeared himself to the viewers. He had a wonderful way of engaging people and enthusing you with his very practical and down to earth approach to gardening.

Geoff was keen to show how gardening could be practicaly enjoyed even if you didn’t have much space or much money. His style was modest and often he would explain the things that went wrong.

He wasn’t a perfectionist but sought to make gardening enjoyable especially the aspect of growing things from seed and cutting.

Geoff Hamilton and Organic Gardening.

Geoff was an early pioneer of organice gardening, at a time when it was considered freakish and oddball. He showed how organic gardening could be practically implemented. In particular he sought to show the garden as a living organism. For example, he was known to encourage friendly predators such as hoverflies and butterflies, even going so far as to harden off his hoverflies.

His stance on organic gardening definitely made it more mainstream and encouraged others to take up his approach.

Geoff reminded me of how it was in the days of family self sufficiency and practical kitchen gardening when I was a young boy. His enthusiasm uplifted me and created a desire to get into the garden immediately the programmes had finished.

If you are living or visiting the UK,then you must visit his garden at Barnsdale. Many of the gardens he created for Gardeners World are at Barnsdale and you will see and experience for yourself the great mans work.

http://www.barnsdalegardens.co.uk/

All of the huge influences on my life in the garden have sadly passed away. My father and grandfather for sure helped me appreciate nature and the pleasure of gardening for the kitchen table.

After they had gone I searched for other help and influence similar to theirs. I found John Seymour, master of self sufficiency and a great advocate for everything organic and artisan.The Self-sufficiency Manual was the best investment I had ever made. Full of wonderful information on how to grow your own vegetables, keep animals and poultry, learn how to preserve produce, including making jams,pickles…just lots and lots of great stuff!

John made the garden more than just a space for recreation. He created an enthusiasm in me to use every way I could to provide fruit and vegetables for my family.

John was lucky enough to have  had small-holdings and lived a relatively self sufficient life with his family in Suffolk and then Wales for many years.

He developed a school in self sufficiency, sharing his vast knowledge with all that wished to follow his example. He was a master of self sufficiency and was always up to date in the subject – keen to promote it and passionate about his organic principles.

He has written many books with which he  shared his passion and knowledge.

He was truly an amazing person, a great advocate for self sufficiency and he has created a great legacy of self sufficient gardeners, or those that do their bit in a small space to provide for their kitchen table.

Do your best to look into John’s life and see for yourself the satisfaction and joy their can be found from your home vegetable patch.

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Soil provides nutrients for plants and allows the roots to anchor the plant so that they can take up water and air – like humans, roots need oxygen too. “Good” soil is made up of 50 per cent soil, 25 per cent water and 25 per cent air – and it is not impossible to create.

There are two ways to improve the quality of your soil: the dig and the no-dig system. The dig system, as the name suggests, means digging manure or compost into the ground every autumn. The no-dig system means that you just put the organic matter (this means it’s made of material that has lived, so leaves that have rotted down, kitchen waste, grass clippings, chicken or cow manure) on top of the soil in autumn. Earthworms will drag it down into the soil and mix it up for you – so it’s great for people with back problems. As earthworms move about the soil they improve its structure by creating more air passages. As a result the soil particles don’t stick together as much and the roots find the soil easier to grow into.

There are advantages and disadvantages to the no-dig system:

- Advantages: Earthworms, fungi, bacteria, etc are not disturbed by your digging; weed seeds are not brought to the surface; moisture is not lost as you turn over the soil and cause evaporation; and, of course, it’s not such hard work and won’t take half as long as a full-scale dig.

- On the down side, pests may build up in the soil because you’re not disturbing them and if you don’t already have many earthworms, it will take ages for the organic matter to be taken down into the soil.

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Here’s a list of veggies that are easiest to grow in a temporate climate.

Early potatoes: very easy to grow – they’ll do all the work for you – just remember to water them if you don’t have a drop of rain. I am looking forward to my first new potatoes this next week from my containers on my patio!

Broad beans: there are two benefits to this crop – not only can you pick the beans when they’re small and  delicious, but once the plants reach their full height you can pinch off the tops (it helps to control the blackfly, which find them tasty) and gently heat them in butter. Depending on how many you have, they also make a wonderful soup.

Leeks: easy from seed or bought from your local nursery. They’re easy to transplant and taste excellent when young. You can always grow BIG leeks for show! It’s fun.

Radishes: a perfect fast-growing starter crop to encourage salad-lovers and children – the varieties available are amazing, all sorts of shapes and sizes. Radishes are always the first crop from your salad patch. It is very encouraging to eat your first veggie from the garden.

Runner and French beans: the flowers are pretty and the more you pick, the more you get. I love watching the runner beans climb the canes and bring their red flowers into bloom brightening up the garden.

Courgettes: need quite a bit of space. They become marrows if you forget to harvest them. Their flowers are delicious, too.

Herbs. You can buy a lot of herb plants from your garden centre and they are easily arranged in pots on your patio and some of them fit very well into your flower beds. I love to see chives in full bloom.

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