The (Bio) Char Lady

Many years ago an old French gardener told me that once the mulberry leaves start to unfurl you can be confident there will be no more frosts. Thirty years of using this as signal to plant out my tender plants has never been proven wrong. So, if there is a mulberry near you, take a close look and use it as your guide. It’s not just the recent hot weather either – the buds were swelling two weeks ago when it felt like summer would never arrive.

The autumn sown garlic really is looking wonderful – it appears, rather surprisingly, to be a crop that is enjoying the less-than-glorious weather. I’ve not previously had a great deal of luck with garlic but the GroChar seems to have given my soil the boost it needs to grow garlic well. It should keep rust at bay as well.

Despite the all too frequent chilly weather, the tomatoes are now growing properly and the first flowers are opening on the Brandywine tomatoes. This is an old American variety that is renowned for its large delicious fruit and I have been growing it for several years now. It may not be the most productive but it is definitely one of the best. I’m also trying other varieties like Cossack, San Marzano and Black Krim to see how they compare. Until the flowers set, I feed with a weak general purpose organic liquid feed and once the fruit sets I will start feeding with a high potash organic feed.

The De Monica broadbeans from Thompson & Morgan  that I sowed in February are now in full flower – pretty impressive considering the weather. This is a new variety that is the earliest to crop from a spring sowing. I sowed them in pots in GroChar seed compost and then transplanted them into the raised bed with a dusting of GroChar concentrate on the roots. It seems to have done the trick – now I just need to persuade the cat to have his afternoon snooze elsewhere (the reason for the various barricades). To stop the plants flopping I’ve made a grid of string tied to canes around the plants. Checking an earlier blog post I see that I planted them out on March 15th, so this is two months growth!

During the warm weather in March I tidied up the strawberries and gave them a top-dressing of GroChar. They obviously appreciated the attention because they are looking extremely healthy with lots of flowers promising plenty of strawberries to come.

We may be complaining about the weather, but the first early potatoes are loving it and even if it eventually dries up a bit they should be fine as they each had a dollop of GroChar under the tubers which will help the soil hold its moisture.

The Organic Plant Company has collaborated with the Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic to offer a collection of 6 rare tomato varieties – Darby pink-yellow striped, Jubilee, Noir, Pink Cherry, Small Pear-Shaped and Wladeck’s. £2.23 from each pack will go to support Garden Organic’s work. The Heritage Tomato Collection costs £16.50