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Harvest your first crop in as little as three weeks – just follow our expert’s tips on caring for vegetables and deterring pests
Our vegetable garden is divided into four plots and is designed to look pleasing as well as be practical.
It has a small diamondshaped flower bed in the middle in which there is a deep red rose called “William Shakespeare”, surrounded by a mass of tall purple alliums and an edging of lavender.
The four plots mean that David can change the vegetables he grows each year and this rotation helps to stop the build-up of pests and diseases. He keeps a plan, albeit on the back of an envelope, so he can remember from year to year, and this tried and tested system works well.
It helps to understand how pests work. Carrot root flies can spoil your harvest and are attracted by scent, especially when you thin out David sows different carrot seedlings. The female coloured lettuces, spring flies low to the ground but onions, beetroot and you can beat this in several radishes alongside dill, ways: by fleecing the crop, by parsley, coriander and pea a 60cm high physical barrier shoots. They grow fast and or sowing later in the season. you can be harvesting some This year David is trying lettuce varieties after just carrot seed tape from three weeks! Thompson and Morgan, of a April is when he sows veg variety called “Fly Away”. that need warmth. He You simply roll out the tape particularly likes dwarf of pre-spaced seeds, there’s French beans for their flavour no need for thinning, it’s and the fact that they crop British Bred for resistance to heavily from just small plants. carrot fly – and the tape Courgettes are invaluable suppresses weeds. for pasta, salads, stews and Even in a tiny with tomatoes and they, too, garden or in produce a lot from one plant. containers, you can They need to be sown in the grow salads and greenhouse and moved to the enjoy eating fresh garden when there is leaves and herbs. absolutely no chance of frost. Sow straight into Cucumbers sown now will the soil, or start off be grown in our greenhouse in plugs if you have until the autumn and give us a greenhouse. a mass of tasty fruits. LL W IE WITTER C TTA E ARDE ER