"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments"

Janet Kilburn Phillips

Everything is taking off!

Hi Everyone.

Well, I'm not sure what happened last month - I had several members messaging me to kindly point out that I'd made not one, but two mistakes in the May newsletter and I don't just mean spelling mistakes, did you notice them? The main one being the 'Gardening flow' article which didn't have a working link. My apologies. You can now find it HERE It's very interesting.

And quote of the week that I heard the other day is "If your house is clean, you're not gardening enough" That tickled me 😁

So what have we got in store for you this month.

What to sow and plant in June.

Don't forget your winter veg!

10 veg to grow in the shade

Tomato growing tips.

June's Barnes Pond Fair

And lastly, Lottie news.

🥦🍅🥒🌶🍠🌽🍓🫑🫐🍐🥕

What to sow and grow in June.

What is going on with this weather! One minute you get a lovely sunny day and then the next it's pouring down and you're thinking of putting your central heating back on. Climate weirding I say.

As with last month now is the perfect time to sow or plant your summer veg, all types of Beans, both climbing and Bush/Dwarf ones, Courgettes, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, all types of Squash and if you have the space, Sweetcorn as well.

You could also think about sowing a second lot of Lettuce, Radish, Beetroot and Carrots. This is what we call succession sowing. I have a friend who's husband was new to food growing and she asked me to pop round and have a look at his seedlings as she felt something wasn't quite right. When I got there I saw that he had sown the whole packet of Lettuce seeds in a two inch pot and there were several hundred lettuce seedlings all straining to get to the light. It's always best to sow little and often with the above veggies as you can harvest them quite quickly and it's great to have more in the pipeline to give you a continuous supply right through the summer.

It's a little late to sow things like Peppers, Aubergines, Chillies and Celeriac now because of them having such a long growing season. But if you have bought established plants from the garden centre (or myself 😉) then they can most definitely go in now.

Winter veg will see you through.

If you're like me and want to be able to harvest veggies right through the winter, now's the time to think about sowing or planting them. Don't just think of your Xmas dinner with Brussels and Parsnips as there's loads of other winter veg worth doing.

There are not just several different winter vegetables you can grow, but several different varieties you could choose. Take Kale for example. There's Curly Kale, Cavelo Nero, sometimes known as Black or Dinosaur Kale, Flat Leaved Kale, Russian and Siberian Kale, Purple Kale, Perineal Kale and the list goes on. Over 20 different varieties of Kale alone. And if you don't have much space, you can even do Baby Kale on your windowsill.

Click HERE to see the RHS's guide to growing winter veg.

Growing in the shade.

Not everything likes to be grown in full sunshine. In fact there are quite a few things you can grow in the shade. First of all it might be a good idea to define what is a shady or partially shady area of your growing space.

Full sun - 6 hours of direct sun per day or more
Part sun - 4 to 6 hours of direct sun per day, including some afternoon sun
Part shade - 4 to 6 hours of direct sun per day, mostly before midday
Full shade - less than 3 hours of direct sun per day

First on the list of veggies that you can grow in the shade is Lettuce. It will grow in full sun, but it will be prone to bolting, going to seed much earlier than when it's in a shady spot.

Radish, especially early Radish like Scarlet Globe, Crimson and Cherry Belle varieties along with herbs like Basil, Coriander and Mint like a bit of shade as well.

Other veggies that don't mind shady areas are Beetroots, Kale, Chard, Peas and Cherry varieties of Tomatoes.

🍅 Tomato growing tips 🍅

When people decide to start growing vegetables, it's usually the well loved Tomato that they start off with. There are many different varieties of Tomatoes and it's always a good idea to know what type you are growing. My three tips on growing lovely luscious Toms are plant your Tomatoes deep in your growing medium. Whether outside, in pots or in grow bags. The best time to water is in the morning and try to avoid allowing the soil to dry out. Consistent watering is the key to luscious fruit and to stop your Tomatoes splitting. It also allows them to take advantage of the nutrients in the compost. And lastly, the best time to pick your Tomatoes is in the afternoon especially if you've watered in the morning.

Barnes Pond Fair.

Saturday 1st June 2024

10.00am - 4.00pm

As with last month I will have an assortment of indoor and outdoor plants, some herbs and lots of vegetables plants and seedlings for sale.

I'll have several varieties of Tomatoes, Squashes, Cucumbers, Courgettes, Runner Beans and French Beans to name but a few.

It would be lovely to see you there even if it's just to get a bit of advice or ask a food growing question.

Lottie News!

It's so easy to get behind with things, but it's very important to not get stressed out about it. I was rather late in getting my Sweet Potato slips started and worried I didn't have enough time, but it's amazing how during the summer things always seem to catch up and turn out okay in the end.

The Broad Beans have been quite amazing this year and I've managed to harvest over 4 kilos so far. I decided to pick them on the small side this time so they are extra tender. 😋 Last time I left them a bit too late on the plants and they were a bit tough. I supposed I could have de-skinned them, but who's got time for that!

The Garlics were doing well, but the dreaded rust has got them and are now looking rather sorry for themselves. They haven't even started to produce scapes yet, so I might have to take the decision to pull them early...watch this space. The Elephant Garlic however has produced some scapes and they went very nicely in a lunchtime stir fry.

The first of my Giant Sunflowers that I do every year went in and I'm so pleased I had a few spare in the greenhouse. Why?...because the slugs got to my tallest one and it had been munched right through at the base of the stem killing it outright. It's so disheartening to see your lovingly cared for plants that you've been tending to for weeks get massacred overnight 😫

The slugs really have been relentless this year and everyone has been complaining about all the damage they've done. It's not for the faint hearted, but you have to just keep on plugging on. Keeping on top of things is the best we can do. This means trying to hunt them down at night or early in the morning, using slug pubs or many of the copper products on the market. I'm not going to be beaten and neither should you. It's a battle we're going to have to continue to deal with seeing as the future weather is only going to get warmer and wetter, the perfect climate for Gastropods unfortunately.

I picked the last of the Chard and painstakingly cut off all of the decent leaves and composted everything else. Well almost everything as the large stems that had grown very thick have been left to dry out as I couldn't get my secateurs through them! And lastly, I finally managed to get my Borlotti Beans and Black Beans in the bed with the arch. Last year I did them in big pots and they were a complete disaster. So fingers crossed this year will be good.

If you have a food gardening question you'd like to ask just pop me an email and I'll see how I can help. I don't proclaim to be an expert, but I will do my best to answer any of your questions.

In the meantime, if you know of anyone who might like to become a FG4A member do feel free to forward them this email and get them to visit the website and sign up, it's free!

Or you can always catch up with what I've been up to on Facebook or instagram.

Keep safe.

Christine x

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