Get colouful with vegetables
Break from the norm and wow your friends with these amazing bright varieties
1 CARROT ‘PURPLE HAZE’ Purple carrots have been bred from purple-rooted wild carrots found in the heart of Europe, where summers are hotter, so they do far better in a warm summer. It’s a good idea to sow them from late April onwards, once the soil has really warmed up, for better germination. If you use a 10cm (4in) wide drill, you won’t have to thin them. Modern F1 purple varieties, with added vigour and uniformity, include ‘Purple Haze’. This produces pointed Nantes-type carrots, with a shiny, purple skin and pale orange flesh. The newer ‘Purple Sun’ is
purple through and through. 2 DWARF FRENCH BEAN ‘POLKA’ Yellow French beans look great on the plate, and they can be sown directly into the ground from the middle of May right up until early July. All French beans are frost tender and the slightest frost stunts them, so fleece on cold nights and be wary of slugs. Dwarf varieties can be grown in containers, in gaps in the vegetable garden, or in dedicated rows, and they’re pretty enough to have in a flower patch, too. ‘Polka’, a popular eastern European variety, produces pale yellow pods, while ‘ Sonesta’ is a brighter yellow bean. Later July sowings perform well in September. 3 POTATO ‘SALAD BLUE’ Wild potato species come in a range of colours, including blue, red, almost-black and purple, and people have been enjoying the floury taste of blue potatoes for more than 100 years. ‘Salad Blue’ is a 1900 heritage maincrop variety, usually cooked with the skin so that it keeps its colour. All potatoes are easy and bountiful, and are available from www. thompson-morgan.com. They’re frost tender South American plants, so mid April to mid May is an ideal time to plant them. First and second earlies, harvested from July onwards, can cope 30cm (1ft) apart, but maincrops need more space. 4 BRUSSELS SPROUT ‘RED RUBINE’ This dark red, heritage Brussels sprout keeps its colour once cooked, so gardeners often grow a few plants for their Christmas lunch. Ideally the seeds should go in during March and April, but there’s still time to sow now for a later crop. When sowing all brassicas it’s best to use modular 6x4 trays. Pop two seeds into each compartment and then tweak out the weaker seedling. It’s vital to plant them as soon as the roots reach the bottom of the module. If it’s dry, puddle them in by filling the hole with water. Brassicas need nitrogen, so give them pelleted or powdered chicken manure.
5 RASPBERRY ‘AUTUMN AMBER’ This apricot-coloured raspberry was selected at East Malling in Kent and released in 2012 to coincide with its 100th anniversary. It’s a deliberately bred cross and has a less acidic flavour than red-fruited varieties, so it’s popular with children. Like all autumn-fruiting raspberries, the smooth stems will produce an autumn crop if cut back hard in spring, because this primocane raspberry fruits on first-year wood. The flavour’s excellent, the berries are large and conical, but this raspberry will need supports. Potted plants are available from Suttons or Lubera. 6 APPLE ‘REDLOVE ERA’ This series of berry-flavoured, red-flesh apples was bred by the Swiss company Lubera (www.lubera.co.uk), who are specialists in colourful and unusual fruit. ‘Redlove Era’ can be picked and eaten straight from the tree from September onwards, and any surplus apples will store until Christmas. It keeps its colour when cooked, too. The fruit is an ideal size for children and the blossom is a rich purple-pink, so it’s a decorative tree for a small garden. Place all fruit trees in a warm, bright position that’s as frost-free as possible, to encourage pollination and fruit set. 7 STRAWBERRY ‘PINEBERRY’ This novelty strawberry, with white flesh freckled with red, has an unusual flavour reminiscent of pineapple, hence its name. It’s a recent introduction, but was originally discovered in France by a group of Dutch farmers. They reselected the best plants, and at this time of year you’ll likely get cold-stored plants that will produce a crop for next year. Protect early strawberry flowers from frost by fleecing, and feed with a potash-rich fertiliser between May and July. Cut off the foliage after fruiting and give your plants a good watering.