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Back to the soil

Ursula Buchan

Wednesday, 13th February 2008

Ursula Buchan does a spot of gardening

Moreover, there are increasing numbers of vegetable cultivars which can, and should, be eaten when young, and so suit changes which there have been in our eating habits. ‘Stereo’ broad beans have pods tender enough to eat, while mange-tout ‘Delikata’ produces edible peas, as well as pods. The dwarf, bushy runner bean ‘Hestia’ does not need support, scallopini squashes are small enough for one person to eat, and ‘mesclun’ mixes give as much variety as supermarket bags of salad leaves. Even the lack of a garden is no bar to vegetable growing now, since there are so many ‘compact’ varieties which can be grown in large pots or window boxes. If you don’t want to be bothered with growing frost-tender vegetables (tomatoes, chilli peppers, aubergines) from seed, the mail-order seed merchants will send you young plants in spring; even hardy leeks, lettuces and brassicas can be bought this way.

What is more, some vegetables are sufficiently decorative to find a place in flower borders, thus confusing insect pests and giving the vegetables the benefit of fresh soil. There is, for example, Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’, with its ribs striped red and yellow, there are purple-skinned French beans and golden vegetables in plenty: tomato ‘Sungold’; courgette ‘Goldrush’; beetroot ‘Golden Detroit’; sweet pepper ‘Golden Californian Wonder’ and climbing French bean ‘Neckar Gold’.

This talk of gold reminds me that ‘We are stardust, we are golden, and we got to get ourselves back to the garden’. Quite right, Joni; so we have. And not just because there is nothing else we can afford to do at the moment.