Caption: Ade Sellars
Caption: Treat melons like cucumbers...
Caption: Strawberry Pineberry
Spring is the time to get sowing, growing and trying something new. Garden writer Ade Sellars shares his mix of trusted favourites and more unusual crops, with practical tips to help you make the most of the season:
Spring has sprung! So, it’s time to sow, grow and pot on. With daylight hours increasing week on week, it means we can be in our green spaces for longer. So, there’s no excuse to get out there and embrace all Mother Nature has to offer this month.
As a veg grower, I always have my yearly staples, the ‘go-to’ seeds that bring me such pleasure. I regard them as old friends, a growing relationship forged over many seasons. When they fall I prop them up, if they’re hungry I feed them, and when they need a Taylor Swift rendition I will happily appease my greenhouse ‘Swifty’ fanbase. In return they bring me joy, food and there’s never a bad critic when it comes to my singing. It’s the perfect relationship!
In my shed, I have an old apothecary cabinet. Every drawer alphabetically ordered, each holding the crème de la crème of my seeds. Centuries from now, a futuristic Indiana Jones figure will uncover these long-lost treasures from an overgrown veg bed, raising questions on ‘who was this mystic gardener?’. Joking aside, these precious seeds have been many years of tried and tested varieties, honing them down to what works for me, the kitchen garden and our palette. On this voyage of discovery, there have been wonderful successes and desperate failures. But, that is all part of the gardening journey, you are always learning, unaware at times it’s making you a better gardener.
However, I am a gardener of two halves, the other side of me is something quite different. He embraces the weirdness and the strange, yearning for individuality. He bathes in chaos and celebrates the unusual. I see him as a cross between Ziggy Stardust and Danny La Rue. A glittery trowel in one hand and feathery boa in the other. For this grower represents all the gardening kooks and flash gardening trends out there. And he is not afraid to be counted. So, when April comes around, and seed favourites are sown. I always make sure there are at least of couple surprises in there to highlight my kookiness.
Growing something different doesn’t mean you have to trail to the mountains of Tibet for the seed of the high-altitude Black Diamond Apple. Or, delve into the jungle depths of Costa Rica in search of the priceless Ruby Glow Pineapple. Start small, keep it modest, but do give it a go. And if you’re not sure what to try first, may I offer you a suggestion. So, to give you a head start, here’s a smorgasbord of oddities I’ve grown in my kitchen garden:
Strawberry Pineberry
A white fruit with red seeds, it looks like someone has reversed the look of the standard strawberry. Tasty, sweet and succulent, they hold a pineapple-like flavour. Although they are a hybrid of the Japanese white strawberry and Florida red strawberries, white strawberries aren’t something new and have been grown by the Indigenous people in Chile.
Easy to grow and winter hardy, they will thrive in beds, pots and containers and should be ready to harvest in June and July. Plant them up in a sunny protected area with Dalefoot’s Wool Compost for Vegetables and Salad and watch them thrive. Whilst the pollinators will enjoy their white flowers in spring, the later white fruit will hold no interest to birdlife, as they will think they are unripe fruit. Which means, you get to enjoy more of the fruit.
Melon
Not the most unusual fruit in grow in the UK, but as someone who grows them year on year, both indoors and outside, I still have people who don’t believe you can successfully grow them here.
I treat them as I treat the way I grow cucumbers. In April I sow two seeds into a 9cm pot filled with Dalefoot’s Wool Compost for Seeds. Once there are two seedlings, I remove the weaker one and allow the other to grow on in the greenhouse. When the last frost has passed, and plants have been hardened off, some will be planted on and grow in the greenhouse. But for the rest of the plants, they go outside into raised beds and large pots, often planting two close together. I also give them a structure so they can pull themselves up by their tendrils. Some gardeners will remove smaller fruits and pinch out shoots, but for me, all is welcome.
Loofah
Sticking with the cucumber feel, and also from the cucumber family is the loofah. Although it is edible, being high in fibre, rich in Vitamin A and packed with antioxidants, most people tend to grow it for its cleaning capabilities. Allowed to mature, this green fruit transforms into a coarse sponge which is ideal for shower time.
Like the cucumber, the loofah is a vine plant, so requires plenty of space to grow and latch onto. Originally found in tropical climates, it’s most happy grown in a greenhouse or polytunnel.
Before sowing, to help germination, try soaking the seeds in warm water for a few hours. Sow into a 9cm pot and once you have young plants, plant on. Their final growing position should have plenty of space to allow the plant to successfully grow. Also, with so much foliage, be aware of the possible onset of mildew and aphids. Therefore, greenhouses and polytunnels should have plenty of ventilation.
Samphire
Often regarded as a coastal plant, and firm favourite on menus in recent years, I can happily grow this edible plant it in my kitchen garden. However, I tend to grow it in pots, where it’s easier to dictate the growing conditions. Filling a large pot with a mixture of Dalefoot compost and plenty of sand for good drainage, I thinly sow across the surface. Lightly covering the seeds with vermiculite or compost, then place the pot into shallow water and allow it to soak from the bottom as to allow seeds to remain undisturbed. Once germination occurs, watering from this point should be with mild salty water, no more than a teaspoon at a time. If there is thick seed growth, thin out. Once plants are established, and the last frost has passed, place pots outside where they can sit in a sunny or light-shaded spot. I find the more you cut it, the more it comes back thickening the plant.
Peanuts
If you’re feeling a bit nutty, and really want to try something new, what about growing peanuts? Despite being nuts, they actually grow their nuts underground in pods and not on trees, unlike other nuts. This makes them legumes, and are related to peas and beans. Cultivated in South America since 3000BC, they are now a global favourite. If growing them from seed seems a bit much, why not buy them in plant form from online suppliers. Both plants and seed are now more readily available in the UK, so it’s well-worth giving them a go.
Again, large pots or raised beds in a sunny spot containing light, sandy soil are ideal for these plants. Plant them out in late May, they will grow to produce a striking yellow flower. Come late September onwards they should be ready to harvest.
This spring, embrace the ‘freaks and geeks’ of horticulture and give it a go. Afterall, as the legendary David Bowie once said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring”.
Ade.
BIOG
I’m Ade Sellars the ‘Good Life Gardener’, and I’m am award-winning garden writer, gardener designer, and filmmaker, with a passion for growing my own food in my kitchen garden. I’m also the garden expert presenter on both Must Have Ideas TV and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. As well as delivering gardening talks around the country, I shall be the stage host for Gardeners’ World Spring Fair on the ‘In Conversation’ Stage from the 1st-3rd May.
Website: www.adesellars.com
Instagram: adesellars
YouTube: @TheGoodLifeGardener
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ade-sellars-the-good-life-gardener-7429ba42/