Gardening
Allotments
Fine fruit and veritable vegetables
Tom Petherick's expert tips on growing the best fruit and vegetables
Chicory
The creamy white, yellow-tipped "chicon" of a forced 'Witloof' chicory plant is a kitchen garden delicacy that's easy to grow. Along with a radicchio, such as 'Palla Rossa', 'Witloof', or Belgian chicory, is a winter salad staple. Both be should be sown in mid-summer for harvesting through autumn and winter.
Radicchio is sown as for lettuce, pricked out and planted out until the cold weather turns the head red, firm and ready for harvest. 'Witloof' chicory should be sown in a seed drill and thinned to 15 to 20cm apart. In late autumn, the parsnip-like roots are lifted, and the tops, which resemble cos lettuces, are removed an inch above the crown. The roots are then packed upright in big pots of soil or sand with only the crown above the soil surface.
The containers should be put into a dark, frost-free room, another bucket placed over the top for blanching and two to three weeks allowed for the heads to grow up from the crowns. The warmer the temperature (55 degrees is good), the quicker the growth, and there will be no bitterness but plenty of sweet crunch.
- Palla Rossa radicchio: very hardy, can be planted late
Varieties
- Witloof chicory: easy to grow, sow in mid-summer
Autumn raspberries
The glory of these plants is that they crop well on into late autumn and do not need support. Once finished fruiting, the plants are cut to the ground, covered with a liberal dose of well-rotted manure and left until the following season. An easier fruit crop to grow never existed.
At planting, the ground should be dug over thoroughly as this is the last chance to remove all perennial weeds. Add a bucket of compost or manure per square metre. The young plants, which are despatched from the grower in the autumn, should be planted 30 to 45 cm apart and firmed in well with the heel of the boot.
The new spring growth is the same season's fruiting cane. These autumn varieties make excellent companions for the summer fruiting varieties, extending the season and bringing a delicate and subtle flavour with them.
Varieties
- Autumn Bliss: an old favourite
- Allgold: produces yellow fruit of excellent flavour
Wall-grown peaches
If I had to choose one fruit tree to grow it would be a white peach. There is no taste from anything grown in the garden comparable to that of a warm peach off the tree. With the help of a south-facing wall or fence peaches do well in this country, especially in the south.
They can grow as freestanding trees in a sheltered garden and thrive in large containers. There is one stipulation, however: trees grown outside must be covered against the peach leaf curl fungus over the course of the winter with horticultural fleece. The covering is removed in spring for pollination.
Peaches will grow in any decent garden soil with a spadeful of organic matter added at planting and will benefit from a mulch placed around the base, a few inches away from the trunk. On no account, bury the graft union at planting.
If being trained, trees need support so firm horizontal wires 30cm apart should be in place. They are better as fans rather than espaliers as their system of pruning is the replacement method. This means that they fruit on growth made the previous season. Remember this and your tree is almost guaranteed to fruit and supply the most enviable of rewards.
Variety
- Peregrine: Very popular white peach, sweet flesh
Suppliers
- For chicories: Organic Gardening Catalogue (0845 130 1304 or www.organiccatalogue.com).
- For raspberries and peaches: Ken Muir Ltd, Honeypot Farm, Rectory Road, Weeley Heath, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex CO16 9BJ (0870 747 9111 or www.kenmuir.co.uk).
