Salad Leaves for All Seasons: Organic Growing from Pot to Plot

Small is beautiful, less is more; a salad a day but not the supermarket way. This compendium of practical methods for growing a wide variety of salads throughout the year, will inspire you to grow your own, whether on a windowsill, in your garden or on the allotment. Here is all the information you need for productive, healthy and tasty salads. Learn the subtleties of salad seasons and virtues of different leaves throughout the year. And when your table is groaning with the abundance of your harvests, there are delicious and imaginative recipes from Susie, Charles wife, exploiting the fantastic flavours, colour and vitality of home-grown salad leaves

From the Back Cover
With Salad Leaves for All Seasons you can bring abundant harvest of delicious and attractive leaves to your table all year round, whatever the size of your growing space. Here is all the information you need for growing healthy plants, including:
– Details of a wide variety of salad leaves.
– Growing outdoors in winter.
– Growing micro leaves.
– Dealing with pests.
No more sprayed lettuce and supermarket imports – reap the benefits of healthy, nutritious meals from your own patio or garden. Discover the secrets of the seasons, and how to work with the weather to create a productive and healthy crop. Learn to grow salad in whatever space you have available – from a window box to an allotment.
And when your table is groaning with the fruits of your labour, delicious recipes from Susie, Charles’ wife, will help you exploit the fantastic flavours, colour and vitality of your home-grown leaves.

The price of a bag of salad leaves makes this a great option for saving money and eating better through the winter.
I’m growing claytonia, lettuce (artic king and all year round) and other leaves that can be eaten through the winter.
I’ll be growing some on my allotment but also some in my greenhouse which is closer to my kitchen! I’ve also got a cold frame where I’m starting things off.

Don’t forget you can add other things to salads too – the traditional winter veggies like cabbages, kale and leeks. Shred thinly and add, or stir fry for a warm salad! You can also sow pots of peas for pea shoots – something the trendy restaurants use a lot. You can also sow now leeks, onions, spring onions, varieties of lettuces, swiss chard, claytonia, chinese cabbages (Pak choi, mizuna etc), carrots,Corn Salad Vit, lettuce, rocket, spinach, american cress, and turnips.
If you sow some things in pots outside now you can always bring them in to a cold frame, greenhouse or even windowsill over the worst of the winter.
You can of course grow normal cress all year round on wet kitchen roll on the windowsill, or sprout seeds indoors too.

Harvesting leeks hint – slice them off just below the soil. They’ll regrow. I’ve not tried this – I’ve always pulled them out – but I will be trying this over winter to see what regrowth I get!

Bob Flowerdew books

Companion Planting: Bob’s Basics
and I can also recommend his lazy gardening book: The No-Work Garden: Getting the Most Out of Your Garden for the Least Amount of Work

I’ve read both of these and really enjoy reading the no work gardening book. It inspires you to look at the chores you do all the time and then work out how to stop having to do them! Whether it’s underplanting things to stop weeds, or just working out how to do the least work for the most reward. He advocates fruit growing as being less arduous than growing vegetables.

Amazon even sell wheelbarrows! Need a wheelbarrow – amazon have loads!


THE BRISTOL EASILOAD GREEN METAL WHEELBARROW 85 LTR / 150KG

British Made Metal Wheelbarrow finished in Green
85 litre, 120 Kg, 6 cu ft capacity
3.50 x 8 pneumatic wheel
Heavy Duty Builders Wheelbarrow
Can be stored outside

If you don’t have a shed on your allotment then you will have to leave your barrow outside. If you’re worried about it being nicked you’ll have to chain it down – but write your name or postcode and house number on it. I’ve seen them with painted handles so people can easily spot which is theirs.

Bob Flowerdew books at Amazon

In particular I love this one –
The No-Work Garden: Getting the Most Out of Your Garden for the Least Amount of Work by Bob Flowerdew and Jerry Harpur (16 Sep 2004)

It’ll get you thinking about gardening in a whole new way!
Tired of doing repetitive tasks in the garden? Bob will explain ways of changing this – giving you ideas on how to garden with less effort!

The Bob’s Basics range is worth a look – handy books –
Companion Planting: Bob’s Basics
Sowing, Planting, Watering and Feeding (Bob’s Basics)
Pruning and Tidying (Bob’s Basics)
Weeding without Chemicals (Bob’s Basics)
Composting (Bob’s Basics)
Simple, Green Pest and Disease Control (Bob’s Basics)

Bee Pollen Grains 250g

You can buy these – they are supposed to be very good for you!
Bee pollen contains the richest known source of vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, hormones, enzymes and fats, as well as significant quantities of natural antibiotics. Most of the known vitamins in pollen exist in perfect proportion, which further enhances their value.

Enjoy sprinkled on food, in smoothies and yoghurts or with fruit.

Nemaslug Slug Killer in stock at amazon

Nemaslug Slug Killer 40 sq m – same-day despatch

Uses microscopic worms (nematodes) which prey on slugs and kills them
Gives up to 6 weeks protection
Totally organic and harmless to wildlife, pets and children
Very easy to apply – just water in
Same-day first-class despatch (Mon-Fri, excl. bank holidays)

This stuff works! It’ll kill slugs in your garden soil competely for at least 6 weeks. Worth using every year as it reduces the slug population!

You get a sachet of product which you need to keep in the fridge until you use it. It has a use by date on so get moving once you get it. Read the instructions carefully and get watering it on to your garden beds. Don’t bother with lawn, just do the veg patch and flower beds.

Medium Latex Gloves – Ideal for gardening

This is the sort of gardening glove I wear! I buy a pile at once so when fingers wear out I can put a new pair on. It also pays to have a spare pair in case yours get mucky and wet! Dry them out in the shed or greenhouse.

Seamless knitted glove , Breathable back, Natural rubber coated waterproof palm

Bound to be good as it’s by John Harrison!

Easy Jams, Chutneys and Preserves

This book explains all you need to know to make your own delicious jams, jellies, marmalades, fruit butters, fruit cheeses, chutneys and pickles, including details of all the necessary equipment, how to choose the best fruit and vegetables to use, and how to make sure the jam sets properly to produce the best results. In these straitened times, more and more people are keen to save money by making jams, jellies and chutneys from the surplus of their own homegrown fruit and vegetables or from free fruit, such as blackberries, available in nearby hedgerows. Val and John Harrison show how easy it is to collect together the required ingredients and start making your own produce.

Bee
Manual: The Complete Step-by-step Guide to Keeping Bees

This is one of the books I’ve got. It’s really detailed with tons of photos and diagrams explaining everything. The book is a really useful guide to everything you need to do to manage your bees. It’s easy to read and the pictures make it a perfect book for the beginner. It is well worth the money to start you off with a clear overview and detailed look at bee keeping.

Bill Turnbull, Claire Waring, Adrian Waring

RRP: £21.99
Price: £15.39
You Save: £6.60 (30%)

Guide
to Bees & Honey: The World’s Best Selling Guide to Beekeeping

This is a really indepth book for beekeepers.

Ted Hooper

RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.09
You Save: £3.90 (30%)

The
Bad Beekeepers Club: How I stumbled into the Curious World of Bees – and became
(perhaps) a Better Person

Bill Turnbull

RRP: £8.99
Price: £5.30
You Save: £3.69 (41%)

A
Practical Manual of Beekeeping: How to Keep Bees and Develop Your Full Potential
as an Apiarist

Some photos and diagrams. This is a much more wordy book than the haynes bee manual but it’s an interesting read and he’s a fascinating bee keeper!

David Cramp

RRP: £14.99
Price: £10.49
You Save: £4.50 (30%)

Get
Started In Beekeeping: Teach Yourself

Adrian Waring, Claire Waring

I think this one has to be next on my list. Another from Adrian and Claire.

RRP: £10.99
Price: £6.04
You Save: £4.95 (45%)

Suitable both for those just considering the prospect and those who are already
fascinated beekeepers, this guide to setting up, maintaining and maximising
bees in the back garden is an indispensable and readable bible of information
and practical advice. It covers everything from bee behaviour to what to do
with honey, and balances all the background context on bee biology with the
day-to-day and seasonal practicalities of running hives in any location, in
the country or the city, and for colonies of all sizes.

Bee
Keeping: Inspiration and Practical Advice for Would-be Smallholders (Country
Living)

Andrew Davies

RRP: £6.99
Price: £5.59
You Save: £1.40 (20%)

Keeping
Bees: A Complete Practical Guide

Paul Peacock

RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.09
You Save: £3.90 (30%)

The
Complete Step-by-step Book of Beekeeping: A Practical Guide to Beekeeping, from
Setting Up a Colony to Hive Management and Harvesting the Honey, Shown in Over
400 Photographs

David Cramp

RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.09
You Save: £3.90 (30%)

Compost Turners

Dolmen
Compost Mixer and Aerator

Dolmen Designs
£18.95
Hand held tool for mixing and aerating compost.
Accelerates composting by distributing oxygen, bacteria and moisture.
Simply screw into the compost, pull and shake to mix and aerate.
Extra long (1.35m) to reach the base of any garden compost bin.
This is the longest one – it uses a different action to the others. This is
a spiral you twist in.

Darlac
DP788 Compost Aerator

Darlac
Folding arms
Easy use
Metal for strength
T Handles
£11.75

Joseph
Bentley Compost Aerator

Joseph Bentley
Designed for lifting and mixing compost during composting process
Blades at the base are hinged–they fold back when inserted in the compost,
then grip and pull up compost when lifted out
Carbon steel construction
Ash handles
Long-handled design minimises bending, thus helping to prevent back strain
£15.49

Compost
Aerator

Compost aerator
Hinges at base open to grip compost when pulled
Turning compost speeds up the process
Measures 85cm
Sorby & Hutton
£10.99