Bitter, wet and wintry afternoons are of little use to the gardener who likes to get his or her hands dirty, but planning this year's veg garden is a worthwhile way to pass the dreichest of days.
Gardeners should always be open-minded when choosing crop and seed varieties. The stamina of plants was tested in 2010 and 2011 and last year was a sair fecht for everything in the garden. Only a fool would ignore the lessons of the past few years. Who knows, perhaps the warming North Atlantic has nudged the jet stream south, as some suggest, in which case foul, cool, wet and sunless summers may become the norm.
Some vegetables did better than others, so it might be worth reassessing which crops to grow. Experiences vary across the country, so you must judge for yourself which ones did well. For me, the cabbage family started off poorly in seed trays as nutrients were washed away by the incessant rain, but later on they thrived in the open ground, as did my tough old leeks.
On the other hand, potatoes almost drowned and produced a risible harvest. If I want some of the more unusual varieties, such as Mayan Gold, Highland Burgundy Red or Bonnie Dundee, I'll have to persevere, but will modify how I grow them – more on that next month.
Sun-worshipping celery and celeriac needed more warmth. Tender celeriac hates it when the temperature dips below 15C, so it struggled to produce anything worthwhile last year. It's also easy to forget how sun-dependent french beans are. Even in the most favoured spots, they were a total write-off. I'll persevere with much tougher runner beans, forget french beans, keep celery cosy beneath fleece and transfer all my courgettes to the polytunnel, where a couple did well last year.
On the same tack, sweet peppers always need the greenhouse, but they still did poorly in that warmer environment. So I'll concentrate my energies on chillies and grow more cordon tomatoes instead. Quick-growing bush tomatoes, like Red Alert, can produce wonderful sun-drenched nibbles in a baking patio, so it's the polytunnel for them this year if I want any red fruits.
Having decided which crops to grow, consider which varieties you'd like. Do you go for open-pollinated seed or F1s? We rely on millions, nay billions of insects to cross-pollinate vegetables, thereby producing crops. This leads to a much wider genetic pool where plants produce slightly, occasionally very, different fruits. This broad genetic mix has become extremely important with changing weather patterns. Open-pollinated varieties are much cheaper and you get many more seeds, but you won't have virtually identical plants, fruiting at much the same time. If that's what you want, choose F1s.
A little more than 100 years ago, American plant breeders developed F1s, initially in maize. To achieve this, one variety was only pollinated by another plant of the same variety. This in-breeding process would continue for three generations. By this time, the plants produced fewer viable seeds, but when they were crossed with another "pure line", the result was a vigorous F1 (first filial generation). You buy a tiny number of F1 seed, possibly five cucumbers, but they will all do exactly what it says on the packet, without the risk of interesting variations. If an F1 is described as quick-growing and "does well in cool , damp conditions", it's the perfect candidate for a dreich summer.
Finally, be realistic about the size of harvest you want. You'll need a decent-sized veg patch to grow maincrop peas. But if all you've got is a patio, a large container with Norli sugar peas provides enough pods to brighten up a salad. Another 45-litre pot will house several salad leaf types. Horses for courses is the message.
Visit askorganic.co.uk. Email your gardening queries to da@askorganic.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article