Huge Vitamins. Tiny Micro-Greens.
Microgreens have been around since the 1970’s, but still suprsingly few people tend to grow them. I am a recent convert I will admit. With gardens and houses getting smaller, space is at a premium. But a sunny windowsill can grow you an exiting variety of these vegetables, flowers and herbs. They have a great punchy flavour and are high in so many vitamins. Ten days is usually all that is needed before you can harvest your crop. There are many ways to use microgreens. In.
Salads, smoothies, soups, pasta, stir frys, sandwiches and as garnishes. To name but a few.
The high end supermarkets sell a limired selection, but they are very expensive.
A popular microgreen. Sprouting Pea seeds.
You can pay many hundreds of pounds for a complicated microgreens gardening setup, but the most popular is the simple easy to use setup we offer in our new Microgreens Growing Kit. For a fraction of the cost you can grow these tasty, nutritious vegetables at home.
Microgreens Growing Kit
This new addition to our growing kit range has everything you will need to grow these sprouting seeds. When you have grown the varieties we supply you can purchase more seeds from us or choose some others from our range. The cell trays we provide can be used over and over again. You will just need to top up on coir plugs which we also stock.
The kit itself consists of five varieties of microgreens. Pea,. Alfalfa. Nastertium. Sunflower and Radish. They all bring something different to the table so to speak.
Sprouting seeds Nasturtium.
The kit you will also recieve is, five large six cell sowing trays. Twenty coir plugs to sow the seeds in. Five zip tye polythene bags to aid germination, seed markers and a marker pencil. And of course full sow and grow instructions.
I hope this has inspired you to grow some of this mini superfood.
Great Gardening.
Simon. See the Microgreens Kit here.
News From The Viking Way!
Happy and a safe new year to you. We seem to be having one storm roll in after another. Doing untold amounts of damage. Gardens are being destroyed on a large scale. Again I am seeing gardeners polytunnels being ripped apart. My son and I aim to put up another tunnel this year to trial some new varieties of chillies. We are right on the edge of the Viking Way in Waddington, Lincolnshire. So it is very exposed. We have learned from bitter experience that the construction must be very secure. It is vital to think carefully about where you sight your polytunnel. If you are considering buying one for the coming season you basically have two choices. There are a couple of very reputable companies who if needed, will erect the tunnel for you. They are undoubtably very fine tunells. But they may be beyond the purse of some people. The green budget tunells are fine but they do need to be put up very securely. My son and I have put up many, and they do not budge. We made a video of how we put them up. View it here.
A polytunnel in situ.
Securing every joint.
No matter how long we have been gardening it is always great to pick up a bit of knowledge that makes you think “wow that is really clever”. Beginners and those who have been gardening for years all benefit from each others experiences. So, with that in mind every week in my blog I will be asking for tips on certain aspects of our beleoved pastime. I will ask a novice gardener to pick out the best “top tip”. The winner will recieve an £8.00 voucher to spend in our seed store AND one of our fantasic growing kits worth over £12.00. I will feature the three best tips in future blogs etc. It will be a bit of fun and benefit us all. Please leave your tips here or text them to 07713717900 or leave them at strawbalevegukman@gmail.com
Head them Top Tips and please include your emai address.
Your top tip please.
Lastly, if you visit my seeds shop we are offering a massive 30% off all seeds. Vegetable, herb and flower. That is Five times what our biggest competitor is offering. I would really appreciate your support. To visit the seeds shop use the link here.
I would love you to share this blog with your friends.
Happy gardeneing.
Simon.
Chtistmas Edition.
Hello.
I do hope that you are well and have managed to acheive all that you had planned for your garden this year. I am still re-organising and planning. I am due to take delivery of a new cover for the large polytunnell in February. Plus a new shed that will double as an office.
Their has been an increased interest in growing chilliesas can be seen by numerous chilli growing groups on social media. There is good reason for this. We use chillies in our everyday cooking more than ever before. Growing from home gives acess to wonderful flavourfull varieties. Some fiery hot and some mild and fruity. We at strawbaleveguk are due to trial some new varieties for the shop. So we will be reporting on these. One of the quickest to mature in the UK is the Quickfire. With as little as sixty five days from sowing, to first fruit maturity. Producing neat compact fruit. Typically SHU is 40,000 Why not give these a go?
We have now set up a shop on the Etsy platform. Mainly to showcase the handmade gardening gifts we intend to produce next year. The first of these that makes a great gift for Christmas or indeed any celebration is our bespoke seed box. We engrave your chosen message on the lid. Inside the box are ten packets of organic vegetable and herb seeds. Included also are seed markers and a marker pencil. And of course full sow and gro instructions.
As I say, we will be bringing new handmade gifts online. Please take a look here.
We will be introducing many new varoeties of vegetables to our shop in the coming months, so please keep an eye on our shop.
From everyone here on the Viking Way we wish you a happy Christmas. And a great new year.
Simon.
The quickfire can be bought here.
Our Etsy shop is here.
John's Spicy Pumpkin Soup.
Sow pumpkin seeds April, May. Plant out May and June. Harvest September, October. The most popular variety is the Jack-0’ lantern. It is estimated that the UK send 13 million pumpkins to landfill each year. Which when you think of it, is a real shame. As well as being carved into Halloween lanterns, pumpkins can be used in a wide range of savoury and sweet dishes, or roasted. Here is a simple, spicy recipe. Add as much curry powder as you like. I enjoy it on the hot side. It is delicous.
John’s Spicy Pumpkin Soup.Serves 4-5.
Ingredients.
Pumpkin. (size of a football). 1 large onion. 250ml water. 1 vegetable stock cube. 150ml milk. 1 tsp tumeric. Tsp Curry powder to taste. Tsp ginger. 125ml creme fraiche. Salt and black pepper to taste. Sprinkling of mature cheddar cheese. Sliced French bread.
Method.
Skin and de-seed pumpkin. Dice into cubes. Very finely chop the onions. Mix the water with the stock cube. Simmer pumpkin and onions in the water, gradually add the milk and continue simmering until soft. Add curry powder, ginger, tumeric and salt and pepper. Lastly stir in the creme fraiche. Pour into bowls, and sprinkle with cheese. Dip in french bread.
I hope you will try this and enjoy!
Hot Stuff!
Chillies are a fast, fast growing area of food. Generally, we can all grow them at home using a windowsill. They vary hugely in heat and taste. I have found the older I get the less heat I can manage. Can you become addicted to chilli?. Absolutely. In Brighton way back in the eighties, I frequented a burger bar that had perfected a homemade hot chilli sauce. It had a hint of garlic. I was totally hooked on it. Once over the initial pain on the lips and tongue it was very pleasant. Since then I have made it a mission to try the legions of sauces out there. Most are very average. So why not grow chillies and make your own?. Growing your own is also addictive, giving you the opportunity to try varieties that simply are not available from high street shops.
Pepper Habanero . Picture courtesey of Beryl Wells. Top contributor from my Lincolnshire Gardening Group Facebook page.
The habanero pictured above was grown by our top contributor in our facebook group The Lincolnshire Gardening Group Beryl Wells. Beryl says, “ I grew these chillies from seed in march. I planted in individual pots of compost, and kept them in the greenhouse, I kept them moist and they grew into great little plants. When they reached six inches tall I transfered them to larger pots, and fed with tomato feed.”
A variety to try is Apache F1. A hot chilli with no bitter aftertaste. It is sweet, hot and savoury. These won a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. With wide conical pods, this is definately one to grow, especially if you are new to “chilli-ing”.
Apache F1. A good novice variety.
Some years ago I bought a chilli growing kit online. I was very dissapointed. I thought that maybe I could do better. So i did.
As you can see our kit has everything you will need. Six varieties to grow including the Carolina Reaper, the worlds hottest chilli. Plus all the growing equipment needed. I hope you will have a go at growing a few “hotties”. Please let me know how you get on.
See the chilli growing kit here. See our chilli seeds here.
JOHNS DADS SPICY MARROW CHUTNEY.
We are coming to that time of year where the marrows dont seem to stop growing. I grow one variety. Its super reliable and a great little cropper. It is called Bush Baby F1. Wether you grow in the soil or in straw. Although they seem to love strawbales.
Marrow Bush Baby F1. In straw. ( Seeds available in store)
My best friends father was a Headmaster, and renound gardener. This is his Spicy Marrow Chutney Reciepe..
INGREDIENTS.
4lb Marrow.
1lb Brown Sugar.
1.5 lb Onions.
TSP Sugar.
3 Pints Malt Vinegar.
2 TSP Tumeric.
6 Chillies/3oz Fresh Ginger in muslin bag.
METHOD.
Skin and de-seed marrow. Dice to 1cm size. Spread on trays and sprinkle with salt. Leave overnight. Drain off in morning, Put vinegar in pan with sugar, mustard, tumeric and onions. Put muslin bag in pan for ten minutes. Add marrows and simmer for 2 hrs or until tender. When cold tranfer to clean jars when cold.
Great with cheese, crackers, crusty bread and with curries.
Enjoy.
Marrow Chutney.
Be The Envy Of The Neighourhood With A Strawbale Garden (This Summer)
A selection of strawbale gardens.
Hello. I set up my website primarily to get people interested in strawbale gardening. But other things have come into the mix. That said I have never lost my passion for this great method. I hope I can fire up your enthusiasm to give this fantastic method a try. Before we get onto strawbailing let me digress for moment and talk about topsoil. I wanted to fill out some tomatoes and went to a major DIY store to collect some. I was very, very disapointed in the quality. Full of what looked like coir and stones etc. Very little substance to it. A gardening pal told me about a make he had purchased from the range, so off we went. It is called supa-grow organic topsoil. Peatfree, British made, it is superb. Smooth, dark, heavy and great to work with. Please let me know how you find high street topsoils and composts.
Good soil is so important.
Back to strawbale gardening. More and more houses are being built with lawns, but nowhere to grow vegetables. Strange when food prices are going up and up. Strawbales will slot in anywhere, they are very versatile. Here are a couple of ideas. If you time it right you could have potatoes growing inside the bale. (pick an unusual variety like Pink Fur Apple). And then poles of beans growing vertically. Or, a strawbale with a variety of tomatos growing vertilcally and a bed of various types of lettuce. This is no waste container gardening. When the strawbale is tired it makes simply the best compost. I lay it down and grow marrows to die for. Please get in touch with any questions, I will endevour to answer them.
As far as I know there are no workshops on this method in the UK. I am in the process of planning some. This method will come across so well in that environment. The first will be held in Lincoln. Please do get in touch to express an interest.
I hope this has been of interest. Good health. Simon Gibbins.
June Strawbale Gardening Part 1.
I am about halfway through maturing the four strawbales pictured below. It is a bit late but it cannot be helped. They look very boring don’t they?. I prefer to think of them as a blank canvas. When the plants go in it will look much more interesting. First we need to prepare our canvas. I am using water, organic lawn feed and chicken manure pellets. Those who have read my previous blogs on strawbale gardening will know I have developed a seventeen day “maturing” schedule, where I add water and a nitrogen based feed in varying quantities over a seventeen day period. By the end of this time, the strawbales should be composting nicely and ready to plant and or sow into.
Remember, if you use lawn feed, make sure it does not contain weed killer. Once matured I intend to plant three pairs of Jo and Grace patio type tomatoes. They are small sweet and delicious. Also lettuce All Year Round. This variety grows really well in strawbales. Lettuce is a great companion plant to tomatoes as well.
I have one marrow planned to go in. Bush Baby. Many of you will know this is my favourite marrow. It is medium sized and a heavy cropper. I have grown this variety many times in strawbales. It is super easy to grow.
In two of the corners I will plant runner beans. My go to variety for strawbale gardening is Enorma, producing delecate white flowers, long smooth pods and is a big cropper. Part two of this blog will be planting and sowing in the four strawbales. Please subscribe to my blog and get all the news from the Viking Way.
Thanks Simon.
Strawbale Gardening e-book here.
Seed Shop here.
The Great 2023 sewage scandal! Special Report. (Copy)
Most gardeners are very concious of the environment, so I make no apologies for this my report or rant. I was a boy in 1986 and can remember swimming in the seas off of Brighton and Hove. I never thought that we would be hearing companies apologising for spilling millions of tons of waste into our river systems and seas. These companies earn billions of pound for shareholders and yet to remedy the propblem they say could take until 2030 and incurr bigger bills. Bigger bills, we have already paid once. We need this fixing and we need it done NOW. God knows what harm our fagile ecosystem is facing year after year. 2030 will not do. Swimmers, surfers, wind surfers etc should not have to be confronted with waste. Or run the risk of serious medical problems. It is just not acceptable. The water watchdog need to grow some teeth and issue mouth watering fines to all these companies. And keep doing it until the rivers and seas are clean. If they can’t do it then they need replacing with an organisation made up of all interested parties and given the powers to hit these compamies where it hurts. We owe it to future children who want to enjoy the rivers and seas safely. Please write to your MP to register your displeasure.
Thnks Simon. Viking Way. 18/05/2023
A new green way to give a gift.
Giving flowers is okay, but it is a bit old fasioned. Greeting cards are expensive for what they are. . But no matter what you do to them, they are boring. Our new venture is a fresh green way to give a gift that is truly unique. The amount of people that grow their own is going up and up. We think giving the gift of growing is far better. But our bespoke gift is far more than that and great for any occasion. For our idea think Moonpig meets Interflora. This is how it works. Visit our new website greenfingeredgifts.com. Choose what you think the recipient would love to grow. Would they like to create an oasis of fresh vegetables, a stunning flower garden, or a tasty supply of zingy hebs. Or a pleasant mix of all three. We also do speciality chilli boxe, and if the reciever has no garden, no worries, we do a window sill gift box where everything in the box can be grown indoors.
Now For The Clever Bit.
Using our website upload to us a great photo you think the lucky recipient would cherish. This will go on the front of our beautiful presentation box. By the way you have a choice of box colours. This photo will aso go on the seeds packets that you have chosen.
Thats Not All.
Think up a sparkling message. This will also go on the gift box AND on the seed packets. How cool is that. You also get to choose the font colour. Also included are seed marker labels and a marker pencil. And full sow and grow info. But should the recipient need a little more help our experts are more than willing to help via our “contact us” page. You then have a choice of us sending it for you at the agreed time, or us sending the gift to you. By now you will have realised that our gift boxes are far more than a collection of premium quality seeds. They are a lasting momento of a cherished moment in time that shows you care. When all the seeds have grown, the box looks great on a mantlepiece or mounted on a wall. We even supply a wall mounting. Please take a look at our range.
All hands on deck.
Hello. I am dismayed at the amount of sewage we are still pumping into out seas. The companies say that when we get exess rainfall they must divert some sewage into rivers and into the seas. How, with the amount of money we pay these companies are they allowed to get away with this. Surfers, and indeed anyone who goes upon the water knows just how filthy the water gets. I am sorry but there is no excuse. It is also up to us to change our habbits. Do not use wet wipes until they come up with a viable alternative. Authorities need to clamp down harder.
All hands on deck.
Changing tak. A few weeks ago we had an email from one of the UK’s largest companies. Enquiring about our Sunflower Growing Kits. But these were to be different. They wanted around 100 units. But, each box had to have enough kit in for a class of school children. Wow! This was by far our biggest order. The time was short, and as we pack everything by hand we needed to get our skates on. So, seeds and stock were ordered (all from UK companies) and we started to plan how we could achieve this. We would be using thousands of sunflower seeds and runner bean seeds. ( We encourage companion planting so all our kits contain runner bean seeds). We drafted in the help of family and friends and we did it. The lorry came and picked up the pallet and off they went to be distributed to schools all over the country. These kits are perfect as a school activity, or as a summer treat to get the children out and seeing who can grow the tallest sunflower. More inormation here.
Sunflowe Kits. Ready to go on the pallet.
Try Kohlrabi.
Kohlrabi is German for turnip-cabbage. Plant in moist soil 1.3cm deep, and one inch apart. Make a shallow hole and place one seed in each hole. Mulch around plants. Its a great vegetable for the kitchen. To prep, snip of leaf stems, trim base and top. Use potato peeler to peel like an apple. Thickly slice, chunk or cut. Great roasted, steamed, or in stir frys. Leaves can be cooked like cabbage. Try Kohlrabi slaw. More information on growing and to buy the seeds see here.
Good gardening. Simon.
Seaweed is a Great Weed.
Potatoes Love Strawbales.
Most of us love potatoes. So very versatile. I was a good way into my strawbale gardening journey before I decided to have a crack at growing them in bales. I was not convinced that they would be a success. How wrong was I? When I plant potatoes I tend to go for lesser known varieties. Ones that you do not normally see in the shops. I chose Pink Fur Apple. A small odd shaped potato with vivid red shading on the skin. Its a salad potato. And delicious.
Pink Fur Apple potatoes.
First I chitted them. For those who don’t know, this means putting them in a tray in a cool, light place for a few weeks before planting. This gets them sprouting and is supposed to speed up the growing process and give you a bigger harvest.
Potatoes chitting.
Your strawbales will already need to have been “matured”. There is a right and wrong side to plant in a strawbale. When the bale comes off the bailing machine it gets cut. We need to plant in the cut side. See below.
The correct side to plant and or sow in a strawbale.
This is one of the few times I remove the bailing twine from the strawbale. It has two lengths of twine running horizontally around it. I remove the top one to aid in planting.
Bailing twine on a strawbale.
Start by making a hole with a dibber, then start pulling out the straw. Keep the straw to one side. making the hole as deep as you can. The aim is to make the hole twice as big as you need. Depending on the variety make seven or eight holes in the bale. Now take a bucket and mix the spare straw with good quality compost. Place a good handful in each hole then the potatoes and backfill with the straw/compost mixture. Put a good layer of compost on the surface of the bale and water very well. Then just follow the harvest times on the seed potato pack. When its time to harvest simply cut the last bail twine and gently pull the strawbale apart to reveal the treasure. Use the old bale a compost, I promise you it will be first rate. For more detailed information on strawbale gardening and how to “mature” the bales please take a look at my e-book Strawbale Gardening Vol 1 here. Or my DVD entitled Strawbale Gardening the Basics here.
Making planting holes in a strawbale.
Potatoes growing happily in a bale.
I hope you have found this both interesting and informative.
Good gardening.
Simon.
Sunflowers, Fun and Learn.
Hello. Following on from my recent piece on growing sunflowers, I had many enquiries from pre schools and groups. So I will enlarge on what we do in this blog. Growing sunflowers has always been great fun for any age. But growing them is also fun and informative in a classroom environment. And with the way our food prices are heading, its a good thing to arm our young people with. Coming from a farming family I was lucky enough to see first hand the effort that goes in to put food on our plate. Most children do not get that experience. My grandchildren were the same. They started to help me in the garden and in short bursts they enjoyed it. I sent away for a Sunflower Growing Kit from an online shop and was very underwhelmed. I though to myself, “I can do better than this”. So I set about putting one together. The children loved it and we now sell it in my online seed shop.
We have now rolled it out to pre-schools, nursery school, infant schools and clubs. It really is an enjoyable experience for the kids. We go that little bit further. So if you know any organisation that you think would benefit from this kit please give them my website address. Or click here.
Thanks Simon.
Sunflower Growing Kit.
Agro, Sunflowers and Strawbales.
Council Agro.
A Gloucestershire Parish Councillor has been given a three month ban by Woodmancote Village Hall committee. This Bans her from using the village hall except for Parish Council Meetings. This was over a Facebook post Cheryl Agg made in November. The councillor wanted to know what people thought about using the village hall as a warm space for vulnerable people. It was an idea that was didcussed and found not to be appropriate. It appears there were even grants available for this. The committee said that their issue is that it is likely to cause harm to frail villagers.
Would it not be possible for the whole community to share the space on a rota basis? After all it is a village hall. So many people are too often cold with no way to keep warm. Far from stopping people from getting to warm spaces we should be opening up more venues until the weather warms up.
Steawbale Gardening For All.
Marrows In a strawbale.
As I have said before, my wife was involved in a serious car accident when she was a teenager. Her specialist at the time predicted severe back pain in older age. That prediction was very accurate. We inherited a large garden and so I cast around for a gardening method that does not require so much bending. After a long search I found an American idea. Strawbale gardening. We both tried it and got on well. This was some fifteen years ago. Since then I have experimented with strawbale gardening and adapted it for our climate. I have also taught many people this great way to grow. Due to the height of the strawbales it is ideally suited to wheelchair users. Also because you can site a strawbale garden on concrete the access around the bales is superb. I have had people that have had large gardens all their life who, for one reason or another have had to downsize to a home with maybe no garden. Again this method is very useful to them.
A strawbale system. With all round access.
A lettuce bale being used.
It is great to see so many schools including gardening into the lessons. Still not enough but the message is starting to get through that we need to equip our young people with the skill to feed themselves. Strawbale gardening is a great classroom based way to teach this. It is a very safe method. You don’t need to use any sharp tools. Plus the children’s garden can be situated on concrete/grass etc. I have grown most vegetables in straw so the choice is very wide as to what to grow. My suggestions to any teachers would be runner beans as these grow vertically, onions. tomatoes again grow up poles, potatoes, and perhaps marrows and pumpkins. A strawbale garden in full fruit looks great. If any schools are interested in setting up a strawbale garden we can help with this. Please get in touch in the first instance here.
With summer coming, it is really, keeping the children off the gaming machines is a challenge. Last year lots of parents/carers used our Sunflower Growing Kits. The kids enjoyed seeing who could grow the tallest sunflower and then drawing them. But there’s much more to them than that. Obviously they get the kids outside, always best in a group. They get three varieties to choose from including the Giant Yellow that can reach a height of nine feet. But because we like to encourage companion planting, we include some runner bean seeds. Once planted they should grow up the sunflowers. So they get to grow food as well. You start the seeds of inside in cell trays, these go in zip tie polythene bags, to aid germination. So they learn about micro climates as well. By the way everything you need is supplied, plus full instructions. This is a wonderful activity for schools, parties etc. Their is an element of supervision needed. For more information click here.
Sunflower Growing Kit. Great for children, schools, clubs and parties.
Well I hope this has been of some interest. Please would you share to others who you think might also find it useful.
Good growing.
Simon.
Straw Gold.
A well used strawbale.
The above picture may look a bit of a mess, but it is straw gold. Your strawbale garden will last one or two seasons, depending on its wear and tear. Afterwards keep it separate from your regular compost heap. It will have picked up no soil born diseases and will make first rate compost. Cut the bailing twine and you will find it comes apart in slices. If you just use a strawbale garden then use it to backfill plug plant holes etc. Otherwise dig it in or, as I do lay it on some unused earth and plant into it. I have done very well growing sweetcorn, marrow, pumpkin, courgettes etc this way. Nothing goes to waste.
Using an old strawbale.
Chilli Time!
Chilli Quickfire.
I am now hearing of many people starting off their chilli’s. They need a long growing season. I trialled the variety Quickfire last year and was very impressed. It is probably the fastest maturing pepper in the UK. Taking as little as 65 days from sowing to first maturity. Produces compact neat plants that turn red to green. With a conical shape and an upward fruiting presentation. Typical SHU is 40,000. View here.
Great gardeneing.
Simon.
What On Earth.
Welcome to new my blog.
Welcome again to my new look blog for 2023. I will be giving all the latest news on the strawbale gardening scene, as well as conventional growing. I am constantly sent recipes and most are quite delicious, so I will be passing those on. Also if a current news item gets me fired up I will give my very humble opinion on it from here on the Viking Way overlooking the beautiful Trent Valley. I hope that you will find my efforts interesting.
A word on Strawbale Gardening.
I receive a lot of mail regarding the sourcing of straw bales. It is a lot easier than you might think to get hold of them. Obviously try farms. Also farm shops, pet stores and a local Google search. Strawbale gardening is becoming very popular now. It is a great no soil, no dig, no weeding way to grow fantastic vegetables and herbs. Due to the height of the strawbales and because you can sight them on concrete this method is ideal for people with mobility issues. To find out more click here.
A large strawbale gardening system ready to plant and or sow in.
Give marrows a grow!
I truly enjoy growing marrows. They are super easy to get started. Choose a sheltered spot in full sun. Sow in the UK from mid to late April. My favourite is Marrow Bushbaby F1. A baby marrow it grows to approximately three quarters the size of a standard variety. It has distinctive stripes on the green fruit and is a prolific cropper. Use them in stuffed marrow, marrow cake, marrow chutney, and marrow curry.
Marrow Bushbaby.
If you need any further information on what you have read please get in touch with me here.
Great growing.
Simon.
Don't Get Blown Away!
Sweetcorn In the polytunnel.
Double cable tie all joints.
Not going anywhere.
The new season is fast approaching. Shop bought vegetables are going up and up. More people are turning their hand to grow your own out of sheer necessity. Even a small plot can really ease the strain on the family budget. I get a lot of questions on my Facebook pages about polytunnels. There are a couple of great British companies that will come and erect them for you. They are superb. But they are beyond some peoples budget. That said you can buy cheaper tunnels and put them up yourself. But they must be secured with the utmost care or they will tear or simply take off. I have seen it happen so often and it is very upsetting. Of course if the wind is strong enough nothing is guaranteed to stay up. But you can, with a little know how give yourself more than a fighting chance. My son and I have put a couple of budget tunnels up and they did not budge. We live on the very edge of the Viking Way in Lincolnshire and it can get very breezy. Here are a few tips. You must dig a trench and bury the plastic. Use cable ties to fasten the fabric to the frame, don’t rely on the fabric ties because they will not hold the fabric down. Invest in some anti-hotspot tape. Make sure the fabric is pulled down drum tight. We put together a u-tube video of how to erect a budget polytunnel. You can view it here. Please subscribe to my u-tube channel to see the up and coming programmes. Happy 2023 gardening.
Simon.
I Am a Chilli Head.
Chilli. Basket of Fire. Very hot, around 50,000-100,000 SHU’s.
I am and have always been a chilli head. When living in Brighton as a boy I would make regular pilgrimages to a great burger joint and order not one but to chilli burgers. Their chilli sauce recipe was a closely guarded secret but boy was it fierce. Friends used to look on in awe as I munched through these tasty treats. Teamed with lovely fresh tomatoes, lettuce, onion and gherkin. I have had a passion for them ever since. I was fascinated to start growing my own. But we are starting in the middle.
People using chillies can be trace back to 7500bc. Said to have originated in Mexico. They are so very widely used in so many dishes. Obviously curries. Also, sauces, relishes, salads, soups, jams, chutneys, chocolate, pastas, to name but a tiny few. My speciality is chilli stuffing balls. Now a firm family favourite. Chillies come in all shapes and sizes, colours and flavours. They also vary widely in hotness!
Chillies are measured by the Scoville Scale. It is the measurement of the heat of a chilli. As recorded in Scoville Heat Units or SHU’s
The Scoville Scale.
Growing chillies at home has become a massive branch of gardening. There is a massive variety of seeds to choose from. The plants of which vary in flavour, colour, and of course hotness. Shop bought chillies just do not compare to home grown. There is all manner of implements to assist the grower. Sow seeds from January-February in a warm spot indoors. Obtain a propagator if you can. If you intend to grow them completely indoors then pick a smaller variety. Please take a look in my Chilli Vault for an ever growing selection of chilli varieties to grow.
To visit the Chilli Vault please click here.
If you are new to growing chillies, then please take a look at our chilli growing kit. It has six varieties of seeds and all the equipment you will need to get growing.
To take a look at the kit please click here.
I hope this has whetted your appetite to give growing chillies a grow.
Thanks Simon.
