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Six quick tips for summer garden growing
Summer’s here and our green-fingered expert Julie Riehl’s back to encourage you to get out your gloves and forks, and hit the garden to get ready to harvest some lovely veg.
Plant what you eat: Don’t waste space and time growing something you don’t really like. List your favourite veg and go from there.
Stay on top of your plot: Sow fast crops every two weeks in small quantities for a steady supply. I like rocket, All Year Round lettuce, French Breakfast radish and Bull’s Blood beetroot.
Propagate your herbs: Take cuttings of woody herbs like rosemary, use rooting powder and cover with a sandwich bag until new leaves appear, then transplant in the sunniest spot of your garden.
Keep your veg healthy: Harvest regularly, remove damaged leaves, take bottom leaves off tomatoes for better air circulation and keep weeding.
Protect your crop: Get ahead of swarms of black fly and aphids by spraying garlic on the tips of your plants. Use one bashed head of garlic mixed in one litre of boiling water, steep until cool and spray liberally.
Say no to bare soil: Limit weeding time by planting edible ground cover like strawberries, cress, salads, green manures and companion flowers like marigold and cornflower.
Julie is a food growing trainer for Capital Growth, part of London Food Link. Paid-up LFL supporters get a tasty 50% discount on Capital Growth food growing workshops.
Published Tuesday 1 May 2018
London Food Link: London Food Link brings together community food enterprises and projects that are working to make good food accessible to everyone in London to help create a healthy, sustainable and ethical food system for all.
