Page 46 - Simply Veg 3.21

Red Currant Rovada
grown up supports, over the years the breeders have produced dwarf peas
(mainly for mechanical harvesting but also smaller gardens). There are still some of
the tall cultivars available the most widely grown being Alderman which will grow to 2-metre-high and if picked regularly crop over a long period. A heritage cultivar is Ne Plus Ultra Pea which again will grow up to 2m and is said to have good resistance to mildew. Carouby De Mausanne is another old cultivar which is a mange tout type and will grow 1.2 to 1.5 metre high. Two other tall growing mange tout type are Herald which will grow up to 1.2m and Ezetha’s Krombek Blauwschok which has purple pods and grows up to 1.8m.
On the unusual side there is okra
which needs a warm site and is better in polytunnels but worth a try outdoors if we continue to get warm summers. It is grown like tomatoes up a cane. Becoming more widely grown is Malabar spinach which I
have seen growing at Hyde Hall. It will grow 2 metres plus and is
available in red and
Veg trug
green leaves which are used like spinach. Looking at edible flowers you have the trailing Nasturtiums in which the flowers,
leaves and seed pods are edible. The flowers are used in salads to give a bit of colour and the leaves can also be used in salads but have quite a peppery taste; the seed pods are pickled as capers.
Moving onto fruit which naturally grow vertically there are several trained forms
that are vertical and take up little space so are suitable for small gardens. Cordons, espaliers and fans can be grown against walls and fences or trained on wires between posts to form a type of hedge / screen. Cordons can be trained vertically where they take up no more space than a Brussels sprout and fit into containers easily; or trained at 45° if tied to wires. Apples, pears, gooseberries and red and white currents all make good cordons. Apples and pears are often and have been for many years grown as espaliers, whilst plums, cherries and related fruit are more commonly grown as fans; gooseberries can also be trained as fans.
An alternative to vertical cordons are the Ballerina and Minarette trees that have
been bred to fruit on spurs
Vertical gardens
Vertical wall
on the main vertical stem of very short branches of it. They are usually allowed
to grow to approx. 2.4 metres height and maintained at that height if only to make picking easier. Apples, pears, plums, gages, cherries and damsons are available as Minarette trees. They can be planted at 60 to 90cm apart so take up very little space and can be grown in containers.
Strawberries are not usually trained upwards but will trail down so if grown in containers can be allowed to trail over (see Gerry Edward’s article in the previous Simply Vegetables).
So if you are short of space give vertical growing a go.
46 Simply Vegetables
Pouches on fence