Basic vegetables
Denis Wood
At its simplest the cropping of a kitchen garden can be reduced to: three kinds of sprouting broccoli for picking between September and April, one kind of broad bean, two sorts of peas, one variety of French bean and one variety of climbing bean for picking between June and September, one early and one main 2rop variety of potatoes from June lnd for Storing, and one kind of anion for September and for storing. To begin with the 'greens' — on well-limed ground which has also been manured three or four months before planting, sprouting broccoli is high in the vegetable league of vitamins, minerals, proteins and calories. A sequence could be, Suttons Express Corona (F1 hybrid Calabrese), early Purple Sprouting, late Purple Sprouting to carry on until April. When cooked in bundles and served with lemon juice and butter, sprouting broccoli is not really very like asparagus or sea kale as is sometimes claimed, but is much nicer than other brassicas. For the earliest crop, seed is sown' under glass in January or February and planted • out of doors in May. Seeds of main crops are sown in nursery beds in April or May and transplanted to cropping positions _
in -June or July. All the biassicas need protection from wood-pigeons with specially made and comparatively inexpensive pigeon nets.
Peas and beans are sown in that part of the garden previously occupied by the brassicas in ground strongly enriched with manure or compost. Little Marvel is still among the best of the early ones and Hyrst's Green Shaft, although, officially described as a second early, would do well as a main crop when space is restricted. The seed is sown out of doors in March. French or dwarf bean seeds are sown out of doors in their cropping positions from mid-April. For me the 'Frenchness' of French beans lies in their stringlessness and their pencil shaped pods, therefore the only one which I would choose is Sutton's Sprite. Climbing French beans are nicer than the familiar Scarlet Runners which need to be stripped of their string and trimmed. Earliest of all is pencil podded and stringless; a proportion can be left unpicked until the beans are ripe tor harvesting as haricot beans. Broad beans are sown in November and February; for February sowing a Windsor type would be best. Readers of Thompson and Morgan's (of Ipswich) catalogue will see it is claimed that by sowing seed of a certain herb between the rows black fly on the beans is avoided.
In this same section of the garden onions are grown; generally the seed is sown out of doors in March and April and progressively thinned. Seed can also be sown in good heat under glass in January or February, pricked out and then transplanted to cropping positions out of doors in April or May to produce the largest bulbs which, boiled or baked, can be a meal in themselves in hard times.
Potatoes were considered in an earlier article, with an exhortation to get them on order early.
When there is space to spare these basic groups can be added to as follows: in the first section other brassicas, cabbages, cauliflowers and malodorous Brussels sprouts for those who can endure them. With the peas in the second section leeks; Malabar is an early one and Giant Winter later. Here also lettuce, of which Webb's Wonderful is a good crisp heart but I prefer Salad Bowl which is non-hearting; spinach is also sown out of doors and thinned. Tomatoes can be grown in this same plot, raised at home in a heated greenhouse or bought as Plants in early June. Outdoor Girl is .good early one, The best tomatoes tor. all-greenhouse cultivation are Alicante and Ailsa Craig. In the third, potato, plot spare s.Pace can be given to turnips, and tor those who can bear such odious vegetables, parsnips, More agreeable are carrots of which Thompson and Morgan's new Juwarot is said t...0 have outstanding vitamin C Content, Also beetroot: we had
good results last year from Sutton's Detroit Little Ball.
Room will have to be found for parsley, slow and perverse as it is, but indispensable in a civilised kitchen. A real herb garden should be outside the kitchen door as a constant reproach to reluctant cooks.
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