Well-rotted horse manure

One of my New Year tasks was to collect a large quantity of two year old well-rotted horse manure from a neighbour.

This stuff is full of baby worms and the dark rich colour of black coffee. It probably has the same kick-start effect on the garden as coffee has on people. It is concentrated goodness which will be used sparingly. Because it is from the stable and well-rotted it has few weed seeds, perfect for the polytunnel borders.

Adding manures and compost to the polytunnel beds is always slightly problematic. Fresh stuff from my poultry is too hot and not sterile enough. The compost from my compost heaps can be good but rarely weed seed free. I tend to concentrate this in trenches where the weed seeds won't get light and germinate, or in the base of large containers for beans and courgettes. But concentrating compost in trenches doesn't spread the goodness and if you are cropping the polytunnel year round then you will soon exhaust the soil. Although I do use pelleted poultry fertiliser  to feed the plants, I noticed that the soil was beginning to lose it's colour. The outside vegetable patch was a deep brown but in the polytunnel the soil was beginning to look more grey. The organic matter in the soil was being taken up by the plants and soil life, and wasn't being replaced fast enough.

We have cattle ourselves, but they are not housed, so collecting and rotting their dung wasn't going to be easy. You can buy (and previously I have) well rotted farmyard manure in bags from the garden centre, but it is costly if you need a good quantity. Resting one of the beds after giving it a good helping of compost from the heap wasn't an attractive option, when space is a premium, and weed seeds could come through for years to come (dock seeds can persist in the soil for up to 50 years). I have got the polytunnel to a position where the weeds are not difficult to keep under control and keeping it like that is a priority. So the offer of well-rotted horse manure from the stable was too good to refuse.

How to use? The easiest way is to add to the surface around the plants if they are big enough, like my presently growing purple sprouting broccoli and kale. The worms will take it down and as you water it will also be washed into the soil. The feeding roots of most plants are close to the surface and they will take in the goodness quite easily from a surface mulch. Another way is to dig in when preparing the ground for a crop, or add to a trench or planting hole. I will avoid adding it to the bed which will have the next crop of carrots but once they are growing strongly I will add a small amount to a watering can and water it on the soil near the plants. This suits carrots, beetroot, turnips, onions etc. Gradually the organic material in the soil will build up again and this benefits everything. The soil structure retains water and nutrients better if it has a good quantity of organic matter. The soil life has more organic material available to break down and they release the nutrients making them available to the plants. Healthy plants mean a better crop and arguably a more nutritious crop.

A Happy New Year .... seed sowing starts NOW

Sorry to all you shivering in America, and soggy in southern Britain, but today was perfect in this often overlooked corner of Scotland for the start to be made to the monumental task of seed sowing.

Monumental because I have nursery and annual flower seeds to sow as well as my ever expanding range of vegetable seeds. To make an early start helps to lift the winter blues and I can begin to look forward to the light and warmth of spring. I start with the rugged seeds, those that don't mind the lack of heat. Broad beans and early peas will happily fit that bill, as will sweet pea seeds and some hardy annuals, sown early they make substantial plants and start the summer off nice and early.

Today I planted the broad beans individually in little pots, these will sit on the bottom shelf of the greenhouse staging. They will get a little heat when the heaters are on, but at present it is warm enough to keep the greenhouse heaters off. Cornflowers and marigolds are already germinating and the autumn sown sweet peas are going to be pinched back now that they have true leaves, this will encourage then to send up a number of stems and bear more flowers.

Oregon sugar snap peas will be sown next, 5 to a 9cm pot. These first pots will be planted out in the polytunnel for a crop by May. A small number of brassicas will also be sown extra early for raising in the polytunnel, there are a number of varieties now available for close cropping or small spaces. Some will crop in quite small containers if space is at a premium.

Onion seeds are also sown this month, red and yellow onions, spring onions and shallots. They may be a little more work than sets but are cheaper, rarely bolt and have always given good results. My largest seed sown 'Red Baron' onion was the size of an orange, and all in a few short months of growth from a tiny black seed!

The Brassica Patch

Balmy weather today for working in the garden, after the storms, snow and frost the ground remains remarkably warm and is very easily worked.

The black plastic in the vegetable garden needed tidying up after the strong winds. It was mostly in place but smoothing it out brought me to the vegetable garden and the fact that the brassica bed for next year still needed working. Some of the plot (used for legumes this year) had been dug over and freshly manured with straw and sawdust from the hen and goose sheds. This has been protected by plastic and needed more weights on it to ensure it stays put, but other areas were still waiting to be dug over. The weeds are enjoying this warm (for the most part) late autumn and early winter. The vegetable plot is a favoured spot for buttercup and they are growing as vigorously as if it were spring. Digging them out is very satisfying, and nice and easy with no plants in the way.

Putting fresh manure on the brassica patch has always given good results. I only put it on the ground at the beginning of the winter, and not too thick, it is strong stuff. It is then protected under plastic. By the spring much of it has been worked down into the soil by the worms and I can plant directly into the soil without further digging. Each plant is pot raised and planted deeply with a dusting of lime to sweeten the soil. The plants grow huge and healthily, and I have no qualms about bacteria if the plants are to be cooked.

However I am more cautious if I want to grown leaves for salads. Many of the salad leaves are brassicas; rocket, mizuna, red mustard etc. To keep to your rotation plan they should be grown in the brassica patch; lettuce, beetroot, chard and spinach can be grown wherever space is available as they are not usually part of any rotation group. If you are growing one of the mixed salad seed packets on offer, for cut-and-come-again, these usually include brassicas and therefore should be in the brassica patch too. In the open plot I therefore need to keep a patch manure free, which can then be dedicated to these salad varieties. Near to the path is best for ease of access. Alternatively consider sowing these in a container, which could be outside. They don't need much depth of compost because the plants usually are harvested when very small. A grow bag can be used successfully for raising cut-and-come-again salad and can be put somewhere convenient and away from slugs etc.

Is vegetable gardening a worthy occupation?

You may think what a silly question for a blog about vegetable gardening to ask but sometimes we do need to check that we are doing something for the right reasons.

When I first started vegetable gardening in Scotland it was primarily because I had a large enough garden, time, a keen interest in gardening, and the local shops had very little to offer in the way of fresh vegetables or variety. As a vegetarian that restricted the meals that I could cook. Therefore the answer was simple, grow your own or restrict your diet/travel a long way to get ingredients.

Since then we have moved to the Croft (even more space to grow) and have more mouths to feed, but supermarkets have opened up not so far away and the variety on offer is much better.

So does it continue to be a necessary occupation to grow my own vegetables? No, but....

I still get more variety by growing my own - from potatoes to salads, I grow varieties which are not marketed by the supermarkets.

It is cheaper (not counting my time), the amount I spend on seeds is tiny to the return I get from my crops and since the spring I have bought almost no vegetables from the shops.

The products are fresh, from being picked to eaten is often less than an hour, how many can say that the salad in their sandwich was picked ten minutes previously?

The taste is better, obviously fresh salad has more appeal but also tastes nicer, and as for sugar snap peas or beans, even cabbage, I would argue that they all have more flavour than any bought from a shop.

All the vegetables are chemical-free, I grew them and they didn't need any chemicals to keep the bugs off or prevent them deteriorating on their way to market.

Pride comes into it too, how much more satisfying to serve your family with food you have grown yourself.

But is this a worthy thing? Ah, now we get to morality and whether it is a good thing. In short, yes.

My 100 square metres of vegetable garden are the most productive part of the Croft, the food they produce, even when only operating for 6 months or so, is of more value than would be gained by the land being put to grazing etc.

In addition a large proportion of the food we eat has no food miles and, because most of the food I buy from the shops is dry food, I make fewer trips to the supermarket. One monthly supermarket shop for the main items, and local shops for the milk etc. Agriculture and associated transport of agricultural products and fertilizers, chemicals etc. contributes hugely to carbon dioxide emissions. Individually I cannot make an impact that would make any difference but collectively we could.

I accept that I need agribusiness for cereals and other foods I cannot grow myself, but my dependence on them is less than it might otherwise be. Often you will decide to make meals that use your homegrown ingredients in preference to reaching for commercially made products or bought-in ingredients.

We waste very little, partly because I only harvest what we want to eat, when we want it, but also because any 'waste' is put in the compost bin and then back on the soil.

Pleasure. I enjoy gardening, I enjoy growing food, I enjoy sharing the results with my family. I accept that some people don't find it appealing, I feel sorry for those who do and don't get the opportunity, and I think we all need to share the pleasure as widely as we can.

And now there's snow...

Snow in the Highlands is not unusual, but to have a snowfall in November is uncommon, especially at our level.

Today we woke to a good centimetre of the white stuff, and a fold of cattle who were eager to see us break into the hay store. A complete contrast to two days ago when Chris and I were emptying out the compost bins and spreading the lovely friable compost over the potato patch. Then the sky was blue and it was warm enough to strip down to a t-shirt.

Autumn is a good time to empty the compost bins; the contents had been quietly breaking down over the summer and were now a dark, rich, crumbly material full of organic goodness. I forked over the bed making sure I removed any stray potatoes, stones and persistent weeds (mostly docks). The worm count was tremendous, and it was nice to see how moist the soil now was after the very dry summer we have had. Then we spread the compost over the surface, and covered it with black plastic held down with tyres and old fence posts. All the time being carefully not to walk over the freshly tilled soil. Over the winter the worms will work the compost into the soil and I will have a perfectly ready bed to start growing the beans and peas in next year.

It is very satisfying knowing that you have achieved a job that leaves you gardening-ready, but the sight of plastic covered ground does make you think about the productivity of the vegetable garden.

Stormy weather..

I feel very sorry for the people of the Philippines, we are having wet and stormy weather here but it is insignificant to what they have endured.

As winter and stormy weather approaches we take sensible precautions to prevent as much damage to the polytunnels etc. as we can. When I put the first tunnel up I set it out in a south-north direction to get the sun on both sides. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of how strong the winds from the west could be at the Croft. They get funnelled down the valley and come sweeping across our land. One year we had a particularly bad storm which whipped up from nowhere and took the tunnel and a 150 year old oak tree. I managed to save much of the tunnel but it needed a new cover and re-siting.

We reorientated the tunnel to run east-west, hugging close to the bank, and exposing it end on to the wind. To further reduce the wind we built a simple slatted fence, with gaps between the uprights to allow the wind to filter through. This makes a huge difference to reducing the wind speed and also provides a sheltered area just beside the polytunnel. The second polytunnel lies in the same direction in line with the first tunnel. Now the tunnels have been up a number of years and are well embedded into the ground. Even in a strong wind they feel quite safe to work inside.

Outdoors all plastic sheets are weighted down with tyres and posts. Even bags of rocks etc. Any plants in pots are put in sheltered areas, sometimes within old fish boxes etc to stop them being blown over and rolling around. My young blueberry plants (originally planted but then the cows got to them and they needed remedial care) have been buried in their pots in part of the vegetable bed to keep them from becoming frozen solid. Most perennials are less prone to being caught by the wind because their foliage disappears over the winter. These are placed in areas of the Nursery where they won't become waterlogged or frozen to the benches.

Generally the winter isn't too bad, you expect poor weather, winds, rain, snow and ice. Problems generally start once spring is expected, then the fluctuations in weather can cause more difficulties, especially when you are nurturing young vulnerable plants. I understand many farmers in the Philippines have lost all their crops, many mature coconut and banana plantations. Recovery from that makes our vegetable gardening problems pale into insignificance, particularly when it isn't our livelihood at stake.

Keeping the greenhouse warm.

1st November and we have had a couple of cold nights on the row. Grass frost and thin ice on the water tubs.

The tender plants are in the greenhouse now, some will be allowed to go completely dry and dormant, like the dahlias, but a few will need to be kept in a frost free environment waiting for the warmer weather to return.

With the cost of heating bills very much in the news it makes sense to take various measures to reduce the costs.

The first thing I do is to reduce the internal volume that needs to be heated. As I am needing most of the staging my way of doing it is to reduce the height by creating a false ceiling with training wire and bubble wrap. It is always a relief when this is taken down in the spring (the training wires remain in place), but there is no point in heat going into the roof space. The walls of the greenhouse also get an internal skin of bubble wrap, not only does this cut down the draughts but it stops the heat going straight through the  cold glass. If you don't need all your greenhouse consider creating an internal division so that you are only heating a small area. Alternatively consider investing in one of those cheap, plastic-fabric freestanding 'greenhouses' which can be put inside the greenhouse, and then only heat that space.

The next thing is to group the plants that need protection. Try to raise them off the ground - cold air will sink and the ground will suck any heat out of the pots. On cool nights it may be enough just to put some fleece over them, but if the temperatures fall lower then you may want to ensure that any heater is placed close to those plants that really need the warmth, with the hardier ones on the edge of the heated area.

I use electricity to heat the greenhouse. I have a fan heater with various settings which I do not use all the time, and two tubular heaters which are suspended underneath the metal staging. These cost little to run and provide a gentle, non-drying background heat. They provide base heating for those plants on the top, which is perfect for propagating in the early spring, and also radiate heat to the plants on the lower shelf. On a cold night I can safely drape fleece over the benches and keep the heat in more efficiently. I do have a back up paraffin heater, but I am glad not to have had to use this as it requires frequent visits to the greenhouse during the night and is hard to regulate.

The greenhouse has a double door, and I can only insulate one side, but that is better than nothing. The main problem with all this internal insulation is that it restricts ventilation, on warm, sunny days I do try to open the door and ensure a change of air.

Of course all this only works if you do spend time checking on the plants and heating regularly. It does mean that you can't completely forget about gardening over the winter, but it won't be long before you will begin sowing seeds and a warm greenhouse will mean an early start.