Post category: Vegetable Growing

 

Marjoram is one of Europe’s essential herbs, much used in southern European cookery but not so much here. It is also is the subject of some confusion. The native plant, wild marjoram, Origanum vulgare, is usually refered to as ‘oregano’ once it is in the kitchen – but this species includes quite a variable range of plants, from  both gardening and cooking points of view. Those with a Southern provenance tend to have a far stronger  flavour than our native plants.

Sweet Marjoram, also known as knotted marjoram, Origanum marjorana, is the form that seems to be the most natural accompaniment to thyme and basil in so many dishes, particularly those including tomatoes. It has a sweet, soft flavour, similar to thyme but sweeter. It blends very well with the pungency of sage for stuffings. Pot Marjoram, Origanum onites, is also widely grown for culinary use, somewhat similar to sweet marjoram, but lacking its sweetness and fine flavour.

Both pot marjoram and wild marjoram will develop into attractive large clumps quite quickly, looking good in either a herbaceous border or a herb garden and are delightfully perfumed. Sweet marjoram has a more straggly growing habit. The flowers are very attractive to bees and hoverflies. All are perennials and are easy to grow, but sweet marjoram is not hardy and will only survive a winter in a very sheltered situation or when grown under protection.

Although both pot and wild marjoram usually retain some leaves throughout an Irish winter, a supply of better quality fresh leaves during the colder months is assured by having one or two plants inside. Marjoram will grow quite well in a pot on a windowsill, but its vigorous growth will mean that after six months it should either be potted on, or planted out.

 

Propagation

 

Propagation can be achieved from seed, cuttings or division. Marjorams grow best in a sunny, open situation on well-drained fertile soil. They are almost free of significant pest or disease problems, and will require almost no attention other than to cut them back after flowering. It is advisable to lift a clump after two or three years, divide and replant.

The ornamental forms of marjoram are of little culinary interest, although golden marjoram Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’, which lends such a cheerful, sunny hue to a garden bed, has leaves of a delicate flavour and texture which are attractive as a garnish. A particularly striking visual effect can be obtained using a mass of golden marjoram and a green leaved marjoram in a herb bed – but in this case it is best to keep the plants well clipped to maintain the maximum colour contrast.

For culinary use the leaves of marjoram are stripped from the stem, and are generally best added shortly before cooking is completed. The flowers (or knots – from which sweet marjoram derives its other common name) can be used as a visual and flavoured addition to salads.

 

Garlic has become a standard item in many dishes in recent years as more people have become fans of this unique herb. Although it is used in relatively small quantities, it can significantly influence the flavour of a dish. It has excellent health enhancing properties being especially valuable for blood and heart health. It is best planted in autumn and nothing tastes as good as freshly lifted garlic.

 

Site and soil

 

Garlic likes a well-drained soil in a sunny position, like all members of the onion family. It is planted in autumn, or early spring, so that it can be exposed to a couple of months of cool weather. It is hardy, only suffering some tip dieback in very frosty times. Garlic has been cultivated for over five thousand years, its cultivation in lost in history. It does not appear as a native plant anywhere and it is thought to have been cultivated for so long that it only exists in its cultivated form. When choosing a spot for garlic, try to avoid any ground that has had onions in recent years, at least if the onions have suffered from onion white rot disease of the roots.

Before planting, the ground can have sizeable quantities of very well rotted manure or compost added. This ought to be so well rotted that it is just dark humus with little or no sign  of the plant material from which it was derived. Garlic likes quite rich feeding and although it must have well-drained soil, it likes to have a good supply of moisture and tends to stop growing if it is too dry. Garlic prefers a limy soil, as most vegetables do, and a garden on acid soil will need to be limed every few years to reduce acidity.

 

Varieties

 

Most of the garlic grown in gardens is taken from the ordinary garlic in shops, but garden centres sometimes offer garlic for planting and some of the mail order seed houses offer a range of varieties. Some of these varieties are virus-free which improves the plant’s performance. ‘Germidour’ is a virus-free variety for autumn planting. ‘Messidrome’ has large pinkish bulbs for planting in autumn or winter. ‘Sultop’ is a French garlic variety with pink cloves and it is planted in early spring. ‘White Pearl’ is considered free of viruses and eelworm, and is white-rot resistant. Although these named varieties sometimes appear, mostly garlic bulbs offered for sale are not named even though they may be one of these varieties. Elephant garlic is sometimes also offered and this is really a type of leek more than true garlic. The flavour is garlicky but milder than true garlic, but the bulbs and cloves arr much larger and it is grown in the same way.

 

Planting

 

Garlic is planted from the cloves broken out of the bulbs. A bulb might have six to twelve cloves. The bigger ones are best for planting because the smaller ones might only grow enough to make a round, undivided bulb. These are perfectly useable but the yield is low. If, however, these ‘rounds’ are kept over to the following autumn and planted, they will give very large bulbs, divided into cloves, the following year.

Decide on the number of bulbs that you would like to have – to use from July until about February. Buy enough bulbs to allow for about six cloves of planting size. They need to be spaced about twenty centimetres apart. They are often planted more closely but there is a better chance of large bulbs at the wider spacing. The rows can be thirty centimetres apart or fifty centimetres from any kind of tall shading vegetables.

Dig the soil over before planting and then pat it back firmly with the back of a spade but do not pack it tight. Plant garlic ten centimetres deep in light soil, about half that in heavier soil. The plants which flower usually produce a few, or many, small bulbils in the flower head. These can be planted and will make ‘rounds’ and bulbs in the second year. Or these can be planted in  scattered handfuls to be grown as ‘green garlic’ or garlic greens.

 

Aftercare

 

Garlic sprouts fairly quickly and the green shoots will show about ground. Their growth over the winter period will depend on the weather. Maintain complete freedom from weeds as garlic is a poor competitor, resulting in small bulbs. In spring and early summer, the plants will need watering during any dry spell of more than a few days. They need a well-drained soil but the risk is that they dry out. If this happens, the plants begin bulbing up prematurely and soon stop growing and wither.

This is a big risk with spring planting, and if spring planting is done, it is best to plant early, in February typically. The advantage of spring planting is that the bulbs have less time to spend in storage and last longer. But generally, better results come from autumn planting. Although many of the plants may produce a flower head, and these can be taken off to improve the size of the bulbs.

 

Harvesting and storage

 

When the tops of the garlic plants yellow past halfway, it is time to harvest them. This may happen prematurely because of drought or white rot disease, and the resultant bulbs will be small in both instances. Ideally, the plants should fade gradually – entering summer dormancy, then the best results are obtained. Do not water once the tops begin to yellow as this can reduce the storage quality or the bulbs. Ideally, the lifted bulbs should be of good size with intact skins, not split by over swelling. Loosen the bulbs in the soil with a fork and pull them out.

They are best not left on the soil surface as sunlight can coarser the fine flavour and dampness can cause re-sprouting which renders them useless for storing. The lifted bulbs should be placed in a warm place out of the sunlight to ‘cure’, that is to go fully dormant. The skins will dry out and the outer layer can be rubbed off to leave clean bulbs. These are then stored, being careful at all times not to bruise them, in cool place and they make last without shrivelling for as much as eight months, but this depends on variety, storage and handling. The bulbs can be braided, or simply tied in bunches or in small net bags.

Garlic greens, grown from the bulbils or small cloves, and planted in autumn or early spring, make small plants that look like scallions. These can be lifted and used, for their full garlic flavour, in stir-fries and other dishes when large enough.

 

Pests and diseases

 

The main trouble with garlic is virus disease. Since it is propagated solely by bulbs, the virus carries. Some stocks are cleaned up or relatively resistant but it is common to see streaking and discoloration in the foliage. White rot of onions affects garlic, sometimes rotting the bulbs but mostly causing root rots that affect the bulb development. Use the biggest bulbs and the biggest cloves at planting.

 

Chives are grown as flavouring, as a herb, not as a vegetable in their own right. The plant consists of slender leaves and stem and a narrow bulbous root. Allium schoenprasum is a perennial species, unlike the commonly grown leeks and onions to which it is related, being a member of the allium or onion family. In winter the top of the plants withers away but soon begins to re-emerge in late winter and early spring. Sometimes the tips of the emerging new leaves gets touched with frost. Not long after the leaves have emerged the flowers are produced  and these are decorative enough to merit growing in a flower bed or border, at the front because this is a small plant. The purple pink flowers are pretty and can be used as garnish and in salads. Native to mountainous regions across Europe and Asia, it is thought that chives have been used as a flavouring from ancient times.

 

Cooking chives

 

The mild onion flavour of chives is ideal for imparting a touch of flavour without overpowering light dishes, such as salads, soups and omelettes. It is usually added late in the cooking and it is used fresh in salads and as garnish. Like other members of the onion family, chives contain useful amounts of potassium, and flavonoids and saponins with valuable anti-oxidant and anti-cholesterol activity.

 

Growing chives

 

Site and soil

 

Chives need full sunshine and reasonably fertile, well-drained soil that does not dry out in summer. They suffer badly in drought and become prone to disease.

 

Sowing

 

Chives are extremely easy to grow from seeds and often self-sow in gardens. Sow the seed in spring or summer in a seed bed or just in a patch of ground to grow on.

 

Transplanting

 

The plants are never treated as single plants, more a clump of plants is planted out. Existing clumps can be lifted and divided in spring, or seed-sown plants can be lifted and moved to their final positions.

 

Location

 

Chives are decorative enough to use in a flower bed or border, and they have been used as decorative edging to beds in a vegetable garden or potager.

 

Harvesting

 

Picking chives is simple, just pull away a bunch of leaves of snip them off – this can be done at any time there are leaves of sufficient length but usually before flowering.

 

Trimming

 

Cut away the flower heads of chives when finished to prevent self-sowing – the cutting back will encourage some more leaf growth.

 

Troubles

 

 Chives are generally trouble-free, but they sometimes get attacked by greenflies and rust disease is quite common, the same disease as attacks leeks, though perhaps a different strain. It can cause the chives to collapse and if it occurs remove all the plant top and clear debris.

 

Decomposition of plant material is nature’s way of recycling nutrients. Decomposition is carried out by a range of creatures, such as worms and various insects, and microorganisms including fungi and bacteria. If this process is done in the presence of oxygen, the compost does not smell badly. If air is excluded, the breakdown takes place anaerobically and it smells. If the compost heap is too dry, the rate of decompostion is slowed down. If it is too wet, air is excluded, it is slowed down and it smells.

A compost heap or bin simply faciliates the natural process of decompostion. Any plant material, green or withered, begins decomposition immeditately it is taken off a living plant and this process will take place whether it is in a heap or not. Placing it in a heap helps to keep it moist and to keep it tidy and available for use when rotted.

The key to success is to have a mix of green and brown withered material. This facilitates the entry of air, whereas only green material, particuarly grass mowings, can clump together and exclude air.  It is a good idea to keep a heap of withered brown material available for mixing as the green material becomes available. It is also a good idea to have more than one, possibly three or four compost heaps on the go. One can be ready for use, one full and decomposing and one filling. 

Turning compost helps the decompostion and evens out the process through the heap of material so that it is not just composted at the centre and not at the cooler sides. Decomposing plant material heats up and this is a good sign as it helps to kill weed seeds and pests. A compost bin helps to keep the heap tidy, and moist, but can often be too small. There is no absolute need for compost additives but they can help to speed up decomposition, as can a shake of general ferlilizer. Soil can be used to cap a compost heap and keep it tidy and moist, but it tends to introduce weed seeds. 

There is no great mystery about composting … it is a natural process that happens anyway, but it can be enhanced.