Crown your garden and grow rhubarb
We are still ploughing our way through this year’s rhubarb harvest – bags of the stuff picked and frozen when it was in its prime, so it may seem a bit strange to be thinking about ordering new stock.
But many people don’t have their own rhubarb patch, having to rely on the largesse of friends and family to provide them with what is considered to be a Yorkshire-inspired vegetable normally cooked down with loads of sugar and treated like a fruit.
So why not grow your own rhubarb? Varieties like ‘Timperley Early’ can be forced (grown in darkness under a large pot) or left to grow undisturbed and within a couple of years from planting they can be providing plenty of tender stalks.
Rhubarb crowns are best planted in the spring or autumn while the soil is warm and moist, so the time is nearly right for starting your own rhubarb dynasty. Potted rhubarb plants can be planted out at any time of the year if the soil isn’t frozen, waterlogged or too dry. Prepare the planting hole by digging in plenty of wellrotted manure or other organic matter and then set the crown(s) just below the soil level. Give them plenty of space because a healthy, happy plant can stretch its mighty leaves several feet in all directions
Next spring, pick off the rhubarb flowers as they appear. You want the plant’s energy to go into the edible stems instead of flowering and setting seed. Rhubarb plants will also appreciate a feed of general purpose fertilizer in spring.
In autumn, when the leaves die back, cut back the old rhubarb stalks to leave the buds exposed to cold winter weather. Apply a mulch of well-rotted manure around the crown of the plant to help conserve moisture, deter weeds and provide food for the following growing season. It pays to lift and split established rhubarb plants every four or five years. Divide roots and replant them, ensuring that each piece has a healthy bud.