Garden, balcony or windowsill: what to do this month
By Fiona Law
Who doesn’t love a pumpkin? Squash and French or runner beans are sown in April under cover, which means in a greenhouse or on a windowsill. You plant them out after all risk of frost, towards the end of May. Why not join in the Lambeth-wide Squash and Bean Swap? This is a Chelsea Fringe event, an offshoot of the Chelsea Flower Show, and will see Lambeth growers swapping seedlings at community gardens around the borough. It’s organised by bandstandbeds.org.uk with support from Incredible Edible Lambeth, and a great way to meet other growers of all levels of experience.
Seed potatoes can still be put in the ground and you may still be able to find them in shops, where they are likely to be chitting (putting out shoots) naturally. You can also plant in proprietry potato bags or use a recycled bin with drainage holes cut into the base. Put in a 20cm layer of compost, place your potatoes, add another 10cm. As the potatoes grow earth them up with more compost monthly, covering the leaves as you go. The plants will produce potatoes all up the stem. ‘Earlies’ such as ‘Charlotte’ are good because you can crop before blight sets in. ‘Vivaldi’ has great taste and can be harvested as early main crop or left to become late bakers.
Cultivated blackberries yield really big, juicy fruit to make rich purple pies and jams. You can freeze excess handfuls of berries as they ripen and add them to winter muesli to top up with health-giving anthocyanins. You need a wall or space where you can train wires to support. ‘Thornless Oregon’ has big open flowers that bees love to visit as well as pretty leaves.
Fiona Law is a garden designer and horticulturalist, also working on community growing projects in Lambeth.Visit vivekagardens.com. Follow @vivekagardens
