Special treatment
Concentrate on your favourite vegetables when sowing seeds, says Bob, so you can give them your full attention
LOOK at the plots of the ‘old boys’ on any allotment and note what they grow. Apart from the odd adventurous one, most have remarkably few ‘unusual’ vegetables and not many different vegetables overall. Look at the ‘grow to show’ prizewinners’ plots and, again, you’ll see there are not many other crops competing for their attention. Then consider how many packets of seed you have waiting to be sown…
Our common selfinflicted problem is that we want to try growing absolutely everything, aggravated by our habit of potting up every seedling. We tend to spread ourselves too thin. It’s an easy trap to fall into at the start of the season, with everything looking hopeful. It’s just that when it gets busy and all the tasks start piling up, something gets neglected – a thinning, a weeding or a watering. The essence of successful gardening is in the regular attention and performing of jobs as they become due.
This is why prizewinners concentrate on just a few lines, and why the ‘old boys’ only grow their favourites. It’s so everything gets the care it needs and can prosper. Now you can have fruit bushes and perennials around the edges, as their workloads are more flexible. But with the vegetables as such, it really will pay to be ruthless and concentrate on fewer. Obviously, grow your favourites – but I suggest that you don’t devote more than a trial corner to anything you’ve never bought, eaten and enjoyed already. On the other hand, I do suggest you try more varieties of those crops you do grow. It can be quite amazing to see the difference between a half-dozen varieties of, say, carrots. It’s not that some are good or bad – it’s about how well suited each is to your site. So thin out those packets now!
“It really will pay to be ruthless”