Diaries through the years
Making sense of sowing dates
I’m juggling Chelsea and Malvern sowing times with the help of my trusty old diaries. Chelsea Flower Show is in May while the Malvern Autumn Show takes place in September.
This month I’m sowing my Chelsea parsnips, long carrots and stump carrots, all on different dates, and starting my heaviest onions and giant cabbages for Malvern. Thankfully the diaries I’ve kept over the years are invaluable in helping me get organised.
While on holiday in Aberglasney Gardens in October I studied diaries from 2002 until 2010 to work out optimum sowing dates for Chelsea. Luckily, I always used to write a post mortem after the show.
I gave an overview of how each vegetable performed from the dates they were sown, making comments such as ‘too early, sow two weeks later next year’ or ‘too late by a week, sow 10 days earlier’. These sowing dates are important because vegetables maturing too early or late are of no use for my display, which is frustrating when I’ve spent valuable hours growing them.
The most critical aspect of any sowing date applies specifically to single-cropping plants, such as kohlrabi, turnips and radish – you only get one chance at these. However, with multi-cropping beans, peas and tomatoes, with careful cultural growing and removing trusses of those likely to be too early, you should get a dish full for the right date.
I’ve had to move things about in the greenhouse and polytunnel to accommodate the larger range of vegetables I’ll have over the next seven months. The glasshouse barrels have been filled with clean sand and I’ve included two extra ones at the end of the row. I’ll split the barrels that normally grow parsnips for Malvern and use half for growing long carrots and the other half for parsnips. ● Follow me on Twitter @medwynsofangles.