Rob Smith gets creative with corn
My mix of blue cobs with pretty sweet peas will be a riot of colour
Where you live in the country will decide what you’ve already planted outside – the last frost date here in Sheffield was May 10. I then leave it around 10-14 days before I plant anything too tender outside as I know Jack Frost will spoil my plans by either killing or stunting my plants.
It’s going to be a busy week, with lots of veg going in the ground, including squash and courgettes to climb up my new squash tunnel. The ‘Blauwschokker’ peas I planted by the tunnel are already scrambling away, so there should be a riot of colour when the squash start to produce fruit, too. Remember, you can train trailing varieties up any sturdy structure – just remember to tie them in regularly and choose a smallerfruited variety.
I started my sweetcorn off in root trainers earlier in the year and they’re about 20cm (8in) tall now, and ready to plant out. I’ve gone for a heritage variety called ‘Blue Jade’,
which only grows about 1m (40in) tall and produces five to seven small, dark blue cobs per stem, making it very decorative and small enough for containers. It’s normally very difficult to grow any
variety of corn in a container, as even if the cobs are small, the plants are normally way too tall. I’m going to grow this dwarf corn with dwarf sweet pea ‘Jet Set’. They should grow about the same size and give a real mix of colours. I’ve also been building new raised beds in my tunnel, meaning I haven’t had the space to plant any of my tomatoes out yet – shame on me! They’re certainly ready to plant out, and the tunnel’s just about finished, so it’s time to get them in. A trick my grandad taught me is to plant tomatoes quite deep. This means there’s more space above ground for trusses of fruit to form rather than have lots of bare stalk before you get any fruit. I usually plant mine 15cm (6in) deeper than the top of the pot I grew them in. It may sound odd, but try it, it works!