Our last speaker in 2012, Mike Day, brought with him forty two years of agricultural experience. Born on a farm Mike is a country man through and through. Working for NIAB (the National Institute of Agricultural Botany), the independent, not-for-profit plant research and information centre based in Cambridgeshire, He has been conducting vegetable trials for many years and what he doesn’t know about vegetable growing just isn’t worth knowing.
Along with a superb, professional visual presentation Mike gave us many tips on the vegetable varieties to choose. I can only give you a flavour of Mike’s talk here so……………starting with Carrots – Mike reminded us that carrots used to be purple, white and yellow – orange is the newest colour! Choose ‘Chantenay‘ which still has the best flavour – they are perfect for everyone. No need to peel, quick and easy to cook and great for just munching. Try growing from seed ‘Paris Market‘ carrots in containers (32 plants to a 10″ pot is ideal). In just 12 weeks they will produce delicious, short, stubby almost round carrots. Sow your seed now – although they are just as good grown later in the year.
Celery – ‘Victoria‘ needs plenty of moisture for a successful crop, and is a slow grower so sow seeds early
Parsnips – try growing ‘Javelin‘ which produces high yields of long slender roots. It has fantastic flavour making it perfect for roasted parsnips. Its shallow crowns make it easy to wash. The long cropping period means that you can have parsnips all the way through winter and right into late spring. The ‘Countess‘ parsnip provides outstanding quality and good disease resistance with excellent taste and texture.
Lettuce – ‘Little Gem‘ or ‘Cos‘ are still the best but why not try growing mixed salad leaves from seed. – great in pots outside your back door.
Now is the time to buy your seeds and sow in your garden beds or containers or in your allotments.
Wishing you ‘Happy Gardening’ in 2013!