The Horsell's Mouth Politics, pedantry and personal interests

The garden has undergone quite a transformation from last year, as I’ve been busy building raised beds following the clearance that we did last Autumn. Some of the vegetable beds from last year are now standing with flowers in them instead but they will be grassed over eventually. After a really enjoyable first year in 2009, I’m being a bit more ambitious this year, although it can feel like a third full-time job and the pace of the growing season doesn’t work around you – you have to work around it.

Early potatoes with frost damage visible

I particularly enjoy David Inns’s columns in the Woking News and Mail and I was hoping to link there but the News and Mail – now separated from the Surrey Ad group – doesn’t have a full website although its WordPress blog is a different and quite refreshing change from the staid old thing I used to have to cobble together on a Thursday morning. Anyway, this week David, who is chairman of Horsell Allotments Association, comments on the most obvious thing to any gardeners over the past fortnight – the frost!

Peas don't mind the cold

Once we’re into May, this kind of thing should be over but a late one like we had last week can damage things – including early potatoes, which he comments on and the leaves on mine went slimy and black but thankfully there’s new growth coming up. Unfortunately my tomatoes, even though they were covered, didn’t like the low temperatures last week and so I lost them but I’ve been to Wisley and got some new ones.

Like David, I’m also amazed at the things that didn’t get affected so much – my peas for example, which although you think of them as quite tender plants, seemed to not be the slightest bit bothered by the low temperatures and the asparagus slowed down a bit but there was no discolouration or sign of ill-health.

In his column, David mentions his Comfrey is flowering – Comfrey is a plant of the herb family that grows extremely deep roots and can access minerals in the sub-soil that most plants can’t reach. This makes the leaves full of superb fertilising agents and they are either used in water as a liquid feed or left to decompose in compost or on the ground itself. I have four plants and eight root clumps – my plants came from RHS Wisley and Squires Garden Centre. You might be fooled into thinking – as I was before I checked – that the two small ones are the Squires plants while the Wisley ones have shot up – actually it’s the other way around. So don’t assume the best quality stuff can’t be bought locally.

Give your rhubarb some water

Comfrey on the left from Squires, others from Wisley

My father is also a grower – when he came last time he marveled at my rhubarb and asked me what the secret was. I’ve two Timperley Early plants and three Champagnes with a Raspberry Red that I picked up from Squires in the spring. None have been forced this year as they need time to settle in. The secret to good rhubarb – also a member of the herb family – is the same as the secret of life; water, and plenty of it. Rhubarb will grow fine with just the natural watering from the rain but if you’ve got a few rhubarb plants in the back garden and it’s the only thing you grow, you’ll be amazed at how much different two litres of water a day will make.

Here’s to more sunny days and the occasional (weekday) shower.