January 2014 Newsletter
Madam Chairman’s Piece
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I am writing this in early December, so I don’t know what the weather will bring us this Christmas, but some snow on a non-work day would be nice.
Are you happy with the state of your allotment/garden? All ready for Spring planting? Yer right! I think I should be planting my shallots soon, and onions if I can give them some heat. January is often the coldest month of the year, but they do recommend we ventilate the greenhouse/coldframe on sunny days. A bit of digging is a good way to keep warm, my husband says; if you’d rather keep warm by staying inside, January is a good time to think about crop rotations and plan out 2014’s vegetable plot.
Some dates to put into your new 2014 diary/calendar, so you don’t miss out:
- Our AGM is on Friday 4th April, starting at 7.30 @ Centre 70
- We hope to be supporting the St George celebrations in the town square again, on 19th April 2014
- And the mega Plant Sale of annuals, veg and perennials is on Saturday 10th May at the store
As ever, we would love to see some new faces on the team, to help support the hard-working committee members. I understand that you may not be in a position to make a commitment to join the committee, so can I ask you to please let me know that you are willing to help out at events, if available. I can then keep a list of “WAGS helpers” that we can contact as and when we need a bit of support, for the Show, the store or for trips etc. This would be a real help to keeping WAGS going. If you would like to find out more about joining the committee that would be fab, just give me a call, and any ideas you have are also very welcome.
Wishing you a great growing season in 2014!
Sandra Halstead
Madam Chairman
Are you happy with the state of your allotment/garden? All ready for Spring planting? Yer right! I think I should be planting my shallots soon, and onions if I can give them some heat. January is often the coldest month of the year, but they do recommend we ventilate the greenhouse/coldframe on sunny days. A bit of digging is a good way to keep warm, my husband says; if you’d rather keep warm by staying inside, January is a good time to think about crop rotations and plan out 2014’s vegetable plot.
Some dates to put into your new 2014 diary/calendar, so you don’t miss out:
- Our AGM is on Friday 4th April, starting at 7.30 @ Centre 70
- We hope to be supporting the St George celebrations in the town square again, on 19th April 2014
- And the mega Plant Sale of annuals, veg and perennials is on Saturday 10th May at the store
As ever, we would love to see some new faces on the team, to help support the hard-working committee members. I understand that you may not be in a position to make a commitment to join the committee, so can I ask you to please let me know that you are willing to help out at events, if available. I can then keep a list of “WAGS helpers” that we can contact as and when we need a bit of support, for the Show, the store or for trips etc. This would be a real help to keeping WAGS going. If you would like to find out more about joining the committee that would be fab, just give me a call, and any ideas you have are also very welcome.
Wishing you a great growing season in 2014!
Sandra Halstead
Madam Chairman
Potato growing
Growing your own potatoes is so easy, and a wonderful way of encouraging children to help in the garden or allotment. What taste can beat that of cooked new potatoes, just hours after digging them up? Potatoes – especially new ones – are a good source of vitamin C, as well as potassium, protein and fibre. Growing potatoes is easy if you make sure that you buy good quality seed. A small bag from the Store should provide about 30 tubers – enough to plant a 10–12 m row.
Potatoes like rich, well-prepared soil, so add some well-rotted manure or compost over the winter. Either dig it in, or let the worms and rain do the work!
As soon as you have got your bag of seed potatoes home, you need to set them out in trays – use egg cartons – in a light, airy, frost-free place to sprout (chit) before planting. The sprouts grow out of the eyes, generally at one end of the seed – put this “rose end” uppermost – but don’t let them grow too spindly!
Plant first earlies, such as Maris Bard and Swift, in mid-March for use as new potatoes in June and July. Second earlies, such as Kestrel – good for chips and roast potatoes – are planted in early April for lifting from July to September. Maincrop varieties like Maris Piper take longer to mature. Plant these in late April, to lift in September/early October for winter storage. If space is a premium, try one of the salad varieties, such as Charlotte or Nicola, and just grow a small crop to harvest when shop prices are high.
To plant them, just dig a hole (15–20 cm deep) and drop a potato in each with the sprouts facing up. Allow plenty of space between plants and make sure they are well watered, especially when they start to flower. To avoid the potatoes turning green, the soil needs to be earthed up round the green tops as they grow. That way more offshoots are produced, which means more potatoes! Also, you want to avoid the potatoes turning green as this makes them mildly toxic.
If, like me, you have very little space, try putting a few tubers in a large pot about 30 to 45 cm wide. Fill it with good, rich potting compost and put in about four seed potatoes to a depth of about 10–15 cm. Cover them with soil and keep well watered. As growth progresses, add more compost at intervals till it reaches just below the rim of the pot.
You can harvest baby potatoes by carefully scraping away the soil around a plant, leaving the main plant still in place. Pull up earlies when the plant starts to flower, but leave maincrops till the leaves wilt and die. Lift them out of the soil but take care as you dig up the plants not to spike any on your fork. Children can join in the treasure hunt and scrabble through the soil looking for ones you might have missed…
Have fun!
Frances Watkins
For grow-your-own advice as well as recipes and how to preserve/freeze etc., have a look at these websites:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Potatoes
http://www.howtogrow.co.uk/how-to-grow-potatoes.html
And this group in the USA tested 7 different ways of planting potatoes, 4 in containers and 3 in the ground:
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/7-ways-plant-potatoes
Potatoes like rich, well-prepared soil, so add some well-rotted manure or compost over the winter. Either dig it in, or let the worms and rain do the work!
As soon as you have got your bag of seed potatoes home, you need to set them out in trays – use egg cartons – in a light, airy, frost-free place to sprout (chit) before planting. The sprouts grow out of the eyes, generally at one end of the seed – put this “rose end” uppermost – but don’t let them grow too spindly!
Plant first earlies, such as Maris Bard and Swift, in mid-March for use as new potatoes in June and July. Second earlies, such as Kestrel – good for chips and roast potatoes – are planted in early April for lifting from July to September. Maincrop varieties like Maris Piper take longer to mature. Plant these in late April, to lift in September/early October for winter storage. If space is a premium, try one of the salad varieties, such as Charlotte or Nicola, and just grow a small crop to harvest when shop prices are high.
To plant them, just dig a hole (15–20 cm deep) and drop a potato in each with the sprouts facing up. Allow plenty of space between plants and make sure they are well watered, especially when they start to flower. To avoid the potatoes turning green, the soil needs to be earthed up round the green tops as they grow. That way more offshoots are produced, which means more potatoes! Also, you want to avoid the potatoes turning green as this makes them mildly toxic.
If, like me, you have very little space, try putting a few tubers in a large pot about 30 to 45 cm wide. Fill it with good, rich potting compost and put in about four seed potatoes to a depth of about 10–15 cm. Cover them with soil and keep well watered. As growth progresses, add more compost at intervals till it reaches just below the rim of the pot.
You can harvest baby potatoes by carefully scraping away the soil around a plant, leaving the main plant still in place. Pull up earlies when the plant starts to flower, but leave maincrops till the leaves wilt and die. Lift them out of the soil but take care as you dig up the plants not to spike any on your fork. Children can join in the treasure hunt and scrabble through the soil looking for ones you might have missed…
Have fun!
Frances Watkins
For grow-your-own advice as well as recipes and how to preserve/freeze etc., have a look at these websites:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Potatoes
http://www.howtogrow.co.uk/how-to-grow-potatoes.html
And this group in the USA tested 7 different ways of planting potatoes, 4 in containers and 3 in the ground:
http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/7-ways-plant-potatoes