Page 8 - Simply Vegetables Summer 2022

Kelvin’s Comments
At the time of starting these comments I am anticipating having room for one of my rants as there is not often a lot of branch news in July owing to there not being many shows yet so the length of my comments will be dictated by the articles and news I receive. I am always pleased to receive articles of any length from members on any vegetable or
fruit related or growing topic so please consider putting pen to paper or fingers to keypad.
So far 2022 has been an interesting year with an energy crisis, war in Ukraine, inflation taking off, increased food prices and we are only halfway through the year! This is not to mention the emergency climate change which is more important than any of the others (unless you live in Ukraine). Climate change will make the others look like a walk in the park to our future generations and we need to get a grip and take action NOW. Although for some reason the media tend to focus on the negative side of things (it sells papers
or get listeners and viewers) there is a positive side effect. Higher energy costs hopefully will make people reduce their energy use which we need to do, I hear
on the radio of people with energy bills
of £2000.00 a year, what are they heating Buckingham Palace! It needs insulation, lower temperatures and wearing thicker clothes or more layers, less travel or more efficient transport. We need to change our way of living to a more sustainable one to avoid leaving a mess for future generations.
population. For the first time in many years, I heard a politician say on the radio that
we need to do more to reduce the ever- increasing population. It seems that at least someone is getting the message! From a growing perspective we need to make use of techniques like successional sowing
so that we have a continuous supply of the quicker growing crops. Make use of intercropping where a quick growing crop like radish, lettuce, chard or similar are sown or planted between slower, larger,
As any expert on food
will tell you the cost of food
has been too cheap for
too long, in the 1950’s we
spent 33% of our income on
food, in 2017 we spent 16%.
Food is our most important
commodity after air (oxygen)
and water, yet we waste
money on social media,
junk materials, luxuries, or
other less essential items.
People would appreciate
food more if it were more expensive, having said that we need to try to keep the costs at a reasonable level for the sake of those on lower incomes or we need to teach
and get them to grow more of their own food. Which would help to reduce climate change as there would be less food miles and less imports.
There is a phrase give a man a fish and you feed him for a meal, teach him to fish and he can feed his family for many meals, we need to teach more people to grow their own food so they can feed their family for life.
We need to make maximum use of space especially on a small island like the U.K and Eire and the ever-increasing
and widely spaced crops like some of the brassica, sweet corn, peas, or beans. Another useful technique is catch cropping where again a quick growing crop such as radish or lettuce
is sown / planted on an area where a later growing crop is to be planted. So, an area set aside for sweet corn or French beans or squash which are not
planted until late May could be cropped with an early quick crop. Something I tried last year but not all together successfully
is under sowing, this is where a widely space crop has another crop sown under it. An example, would be sweet corn can be planted and then the area sown with clover as a green manure crop which can be left to grow after the sweet corn is removed
or dug in as green manure or cut and composted if a no-digger. Last year it came in dry after I planted my sweet corn so the clover germination was very low, but I will try again this year and will try it with other wide space crops. Too many gardeners think growing is from March to October and leave their vegetable plot empty over winter; nowadays there are many crops that can be grown and harvested either during the winter or early the next spring so make use of the land all the year round. Finally vertical growing, making use of space growing upwards therefore getting more from the same area. Have a look around your garden and see if any space plants could be trained upwards.
Late Sowing
We have had articles on late sowing in Simply Vegetables over the last couple of years so I will not repeat them, but I am still keen to encourage more people to grow later crops to give them a supply of
As any expert on food will tell you the cost of food has been too cheap for too long
Salad leaves
Successional sowing
Salad leaves in pots
8 Simply Vegetables
KELVIN MASON, NATIONAL MAGAZINE EDITOR