Weeding the Web

Parsley and parsnips primed to grow better at home

Who doesn't love a sneak peek? One of the most exciting reveals during a visit to Mr Fothergill's trial grounds near Newmarket last week has to be Optigrow, their new primed seed for the amateur grower.

Mr Fothergill's Optigrow range includes 20 vegetable varieties

 

What is primed seed?

Primed seed is used commercially, especially for lettuces. In an interesting article on Seed Dynamics Incorporated's website, H J Hill explains:  

Priming is a water-based process that is performed on seeds to increase uniformity of germination and emergence from the soil, and thus enhance vegetable stand establishment. Priming decreases the time span between the emergence of the first and the last seedlings. Priming also increases the rate of emergence so the stand establishes itself faster. A uniform plant stand helps to ensure maximum cartons per acre at harvest. Wide ranges in seedling emergence decrease the amount of harvestable plants per acre, an undesirable situation. Why Prime Seeds?

So, given that you won't be packing boxes of veg from your garden plot, what's in it for the amateur? Well, Mr Fothergill's, which is using Swedish seed priming technology, have chosen plants that often present problematic germination - think parsley and parsnips. 

Here's what they say:

Extensive trialling of Optigrow seeds under garden conditions has consistently produced more uniform crops, better harvests and quality vegetables. There is also evidence that germination becomes possible under a wider range of conditions, allowing gardeners to sow Optigrow seeds in colder, warmer and drier conditions than the ideal.  In comparison trials nearly 80% of Optigrow-treated Carrot Amsterdam seed germinated within 50 hours from sowing, compared to 90 hours for the same percentage of standard seed.

The primed seed also enjoys increased vigour through the life of the plant, out-growing competing weeds.

Parsley seed, unprimed (top) and primed. Note the primed rows are more advanced, with true leaves clearly visible.

The demonstration trays, with lines of primed and unprimed parsley, carrots and onions showed a clear difference in the speed with which the primed seed had got away. Apparently results are even better under normal, rather than laboratory-grown, conditions; regardless of temperature and soil type, the primed seed should appear notably earlier. On top of this, the treatment seems to reduce mould growth, creating a clean germination.

 

Primed parsnip seed (right) has sprouted more quickly than the unprimed. There were shadows of mould among the unprimed seeds, but not the primed.

What's the difference between primed seed used by commercial growers and Mr Fothergill's?

The problem with primed seed produced for commercial growers is that it's not been created to have a shelf-life, which makes it useless for seed packets spending time in garden centres. Mr Fothergill's is using a patented process that has shown itself to create primed seed that's viable for two years (probably longer, but that will be the date on the packets).

The process brings seeds to the start of germination, kicking enzymes into readiness. They're then dried completely. When sowing brings them into contact with moisture, they remember the stage they were at and leap into action.

There are different methods of priming, but chemicals are often involved. A notable feature of the method used by Mr Fothergill's is that it only employs air and water in carefully controlled conditions with no chemicals involved at all.

The full Optigrow range will be available from garden centres from January 2018.

In the meantime, you might like to consider that it is possible to prime seeds yourself - to an extent. See Getting a Good Stand of Garden Spinach on the Growveg blog.

Plant Review: Honey Boat Squash

If you've ever fancied growing a giant pumpkin, Thompson and Morgan not only provide seed taken from last year's record-breaking winner of the Great Pumpkin Commonwealth's annual event, but this year have set the date to sow for you: 12th April.

Paul Hansord, T&M’s Commercial Director, who likes growing pumpkins himself apparently, revealed:  

We get so many enquiries at the giant pumpkin weigh-in and around Halloween, when people are seeing pumpkins in the shops, asking how to grow them at home, we’ve decided to set April 12^th as National Pumpkin Sowing Day 2017.

If people can buy their seeds and get ready to sow them on this date, we’ll support them with growing tips and hope that someone out there might grow a pumpkin to rival last year’s winner.

Honey Boat Squash from Dobies, part of the Rob Smith Heritage Collection. One quirk is that the stripes disappear as the stored squash ages, so you always know which to eat first.

Personally, I've never felt the urge to grow ultra big (or even big, come to that). Too much feeding, watering, nipping off flowers. So I was more than happy to receive some plug plants of Honey Boat, one of Rob Smith's Heritage Collection from Dobies, last year - part of a surprise package from them.

Honey Boat promises a size just right for two - with super sweet, with firm, deep orange flesh - and productivity better than a butternut. There was only one problem - pumpkins and squashes don't like me. With the ardour of a teenager who can't read the rebuff from that good-looking boy down the road, I keep trying, but almost without fail I get a plethora of male flowers, followed by a few sulky females which show promise and then drop off, only for the plant to realise - rather too late to grow anything larger than a grapefruit - that perhaps it ought to answer Nature's call to reproduce.

My Honey Boat squash actually came up with loads of female flowers, but nearly all of them dropped off. When I gave a rundown of my experience with the Red and Yellow Currant Tomato plants from Dobies, I was despairing of seeing any squash at all. But - hurrah! - this was too pessimistic. Full harvest from one plant (the other never came to much - my fault, as previously reported)  = two delightful little squash.

Please note that 'little'. The description that comes with Honey Boat is that each squash will feed two. Mine each offered something rather skimpy for one. However, they did taste lovely. They had sweet, dense flesh - just what you hope for. They have large seed cavities, which mean they'd be good stuffers, but I just cut them in half and roasted them with olive oil and garlic. Very popular at the Sunday lunch table, they were, even if there wasn't a huge amount to go round.

Honey Boat Squash, ready to roast

I grew the squash in a large planter, up a fence-wire support. This means you can see what's going on more easily, dead leaves are easier to pick off, and slugs and snails are less of a threat. Possibly it results in a smaller harvest but, given my track record, this for me is pretty much as good as it gets, so I'd say not.  Feeding-wise, I'd added Thompson and Morgan's Incredicrop granules. Dobies' website recommends a mostly manure-filled hole around two feet square and 18-24 inches deep, so I really should think of extra feeding next time.

Despite last year's harvest, I liked the result so much that I've saved the seeds. You see, as far as squashes go, they just can't give me the brush-off.  If you've got any tips on getting squash off to an eager start, do share them below!

Veg plant review: Egg and Chips from Thompson and Morgan

Some plants are just made to raise a sceptical eyebrow, and this year it was Egg and Chips from Thompson and Morgan that furrowed the brow. An aubergine grafted onto a potato? What's promised is an average of 4 aubergines per plant and up to 2kg of potatoes. Egg and Chips is also supposed to be so easy to grow that you barely need instructions. "More than just a novelty," say T&M.

Thompson and Morgan's own productive plant

Not what eminent horticulturalist Graham Rice said about it in the Telegraph when Egg and Chips made the list for Plant of the Year at the Chelsea Flower Show this year. "A clear winner in the gimmick department" were his exact words, and he obviously felt more than slightly dubious, saying:

Most gardeners find it hard enough to grow good aubergines – red spider mite in the greenhouse, flea beetle outside and aphids everywhere… not to mention a need for far warmer conditions than the humble spud requires. This idea is the triumph of marketing over horticulture, its sheer novelty got it on the shortlist.

Growing Egg and Chips

My plant arrived at the beginning of May, about six inches high, with a graft between potato and aubergine that needed careful handling. I planted it with no expectations. I've had barely any luck with aubergines - to the extent that I gave up trying years ago, having come to the conclusion that the reason I got no viable fruit was that I couldn't give them a glassed-in spot with enough light. This time, the plant took its chance in the garden.

Into an inverted compost sack, black face out to soak up the sun's warmth more easily, a sheltered position, and off we went.

Much to my surprise, it grew a very good-looking aubergine, about the size of my hand, and another much smaller one about five inches long. Much to my annoyance, I seem to have accidentally deleted the photo I took, so I can't show you my triumph.  

There was no problem deciding when to pick the aubergine (they parted company with the plant sometime in September when something - snails, I'm guessing, began to regard them as tasty morsels). Judging the potatoes was harder. The plant showed absolutely no sign of dying down, so I finally broke in October and turned it out of the bag. Aubergine harvest slightly disappointing in comparison with mooted average harvest. Potato harvest...?

My complete potato harvest from Thompson and Morgan's Egg and Chips plant

Yup, that's it. One very small potato.

I have to say that it tasted very nice. Apparently, many different cultivars were trialed, for several years, to get the best combination of tasty and robust veg. That bit certainly worked. Thompson and Morgan haven't revealed which cultivars they chose, and it's a shame as I wouldn't mind giving the aubergine another go. I roasted it in the oven in slices with other veg to go with the Sunday joint and itwas one of the best I've tasted.

But harvest-wise? I think we can admit to a problem. I was much better at watering this year than I was with the compost comparison potatoes I grew last year, but those harvests were bounty in comparison.

The answer to aubergines?

Might it, however, be the answer to my aubergine-growing problems? The potato plant is meant to support the aubergine better, in our cooler soils and climate, than the aubergine's own roots. Certainly, while I got less than half of the promised harvest, the harvest I got was encouraging. I might be tempted (at a moderate cost) to grow this just for the aubergines, though with the prices quoted on the T&M website (confusingly £14.99 for one, or 15.99 for two), we can safely say that won't be any time soon.

However, it's a fun plant, moderately diverting. I'm sure other people will have been more successful (such as Sandra at Greenjottings). Or possibly not (Michelle's harvest on Vegplotting was nearer mine on the aubergine front).

If you've tried out Egg and Chips this year, do comment below. Leave a link if you've blogged about it and I'll add it to the end of this post.

 

 

 

New Year - time to take a leek

This time of year is so predictable. Start of January? New Year, New You - diets, decluttering, personality refits. It's all there in the mags and newspapers, every year.

Do you find it seductive? I must admit I do, a bit. The implication is that we can do better, and will do better. Even if, not so deep down I, for one, know it's pretty much twaddle. In fact, if you want a wryly amusing rundown on why it's twaddle, you can't do better than Oliver Burkeman's recent article in The Guardian. In it, he says:

Old You is the last person you ought to trust when it comes to designing a New You... For a start, Old You doesn’t currently do any of the things he or she claims will make New You happy and fulfilled. (Would you trust a personal trainer who chain-smoked through your sessions and never worked out? Exactly.) Moreover, Old You doesn’t even seem to like himself or herself that much, otherwise a makeover wouldn’t be on the agenda. Clearly, Old You has some issues. Lastly, Old You probably has a long track record of trying and failing to implement change – and yet you’re going to trust this shifty character with your future?

Still, the desire for change remains, and testament to this is currently on my landing - the pile of old clothes which I have recently extracted from the lesser-known recesses of my drawers. It's all part of that other annual chestnut, the detox.  In fact, Dry January seems so popular now that, quite possibly, you're denying yourself alcohol as we speak. Personally, finding mass movements alarming, I surrender myself to some of the fine port and single malts that have been gathered in for Christmas delight. (Abstention, be damned! We didn't buy them just to have them languishing unloved for weeks on end.)

But the thing that makes me laugh is that, if we want to be good to ourselves, we really don't have to go for exotic diets with weird, wallet-worrying superfoods at all. Just eat seasonally. Cabbages and leeks possess loads of health benefits, are low in calories and, should you lend credence to the idea of detoxing (which, let's face it, the medical world generally thinks is a hoot), stuffed full of substances raring to go.

According to the British Leek Growers’ Association, leeks are ideal for detoxing because they contain potassium, folic acid and vitamin C. Leeks can also help reduce cholesterol levels and rid the body of uric acid (which play a part in gout and kidney stones).  They're also full of anti-oxidants and rich in iron, vitamin B6, folate and vitamin C, which should help keep winter colds and sore throats at bay. And - ta-dah! - an average serving of leeks (80g or one leek) contains a mere 17 calories.

So, here's a seasonal recipe. The seafood's useful too, as it'll contain zinc, which is also good for warding off colds and viruses.

Leek, Mussel and Prawn Hotpot

Makes : 2 servings
Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS
2 x 5ml tsp Light and mild olive oil
2 Cloves garlic, crushed
1 x 15ml tbsp Lemon grass paste
350g/ 12oz leeks, trimmed and sliced into 2cm/ ¾ “ rounds
500g/17 oz Mussels in shells, rinsed and scrubbed
250g/9oz Shell on prawns
½ L/ ¾ pt Boiling water or fish stock
75g/ 3oz Low fat soft cream cheese
Sprinkling
2 x 15ml tbsp Ground sea salt and black pepper
Fresh chopped parsley

METHOD
1. Lightly sauté the leeks, garlic and crushed lemon grass in the oil to soften. Add the mussels and prawns and cook over a medium heat for 2 – 3 minutes until the mussels open. Pour over the stock, cover and simmer for 3 minutes.
2. Drain stock and simmer until reduced by half. Stir in the cream cheese, seasonings and parsley along with the leeks and seafood. Heat until just simmering.
3. Serve with crusty bread

Nutritional Information: Approximate values per serving
Energy: 260 Kcal, Carbohydrate: 11g, Fat: 9g

Actually, the British Leek Growers website has other interesting-sounding recipes. And if you've got cranberries or Stilton languishing in the fridge after the festivities, then you'll find ideas of what to do with them too (in conjunction with leeks, of course).

I can't fathom, at the moment, how I managed to forget to sow leeks this year and am, therefore, relying on the greengrocer. Notes have been made to ensure I don't make the same mistake this year. In the meantime, for more about this veg, Emma Cooper has just posted some leek glutbusting advice. 

 

Garden Giveaway: Stacks of Flavour Strawberry Fields, from Suttons

NB This giveaway is now closed.

Some things have instant appeal. Often they're the simplest ideas, as I discovered when my salad crate from Suttons' new Stacks of Flavour range arrived.  I felt ridiculously pleased.

It's cute, nicely proportioned, solidly made and came all ready with a liner to stop soil falling out of the bottom and seeds in a range of salad leaves ready to sow. 

It's also neatly stencilled with "Helen's Salad" (blush!). Passing snails take note. And, indeed, it's possible to have your crate inscribed with a message of up to 20 characters, which is a way to make it a very personal gift.

Stacks of Flavour crates, launched today, come in three depths. Three slats deep for root veg, chillies and strawberries, two slats deep for herbs, and one slat deep for salad leaves. Each has a liner which you can cut to size (I just folded mine to shape and tucked it into place) and seeds or plants. There are seven different collections to choose from and all you need to do is add compost.

You can add to your collection by buying individual crates in a variety of sizes, with the liner but without seeds or plants, so you can expand your growing space to encompass more varieties in time with your growing confidence. You can see the full range on the Stacks of Flavour website.

They should last for a bit too, made of FSC sustainably sourced wood that's a sturdy 12mm thick, with extra pins for structural strength. The wood has been treated to last at least three years but I think I'd give them an annual application of wood preservative to prolong it further.

Growing like this is the box equivalent of square-foot gardening. Only better, in some ways. You can move things around, stack unused crates out of sight if you decide to downsize for a time, or add more growing space as it suits.  With more people having to rent, these provide an ideal solution to a portable garden.

While the crates are particularly good for people with limited garden space or who would just like to start off in a small way, it doesn't stop them being really cute and an attractive option for anyone, experienced or not, who fancies growing a bit more on the patio or using that porch space that's always gone begging. 

I love the fact that I now have a salad "bed" that's been easy to start indoors away from inclement weather and will remain out of reach of slugs. With Strawberry Fields I could segregate my varieties so they didn't get all muddled in the beds, and I could remember which plants were which.

Two Strawberry Fields crates up for grabs!

To celebrate the launch, I've got 2 prizes of Suttons' new and exclusive Stacks of Flavour ‘Strawberry Fields Collection’ worth £32 each.

Included with each are: 

• 8 plug plants of Strawberry Toscana - a unique variety with attractive pink flowers which bears a continuous supply of sweet, juicy fruit right through from July to October (and will do for many years to come).
• 1 x 3-slat crate (5.3cm x36cmx28cm high) plus liner. 
• FREE personalisation

To enter

To be in with a chance to win one of the crates, please leave a comment below. You can also enter by following me on Twitter and tweeting a link to this post (include @helengazeley in the tweet so I know you've done it).

 Do both and you'll be entered twice!

The winner will be drawn at random from all the entries.

 

Deadline for entries: noon on Thursday 26th March 2015.

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Ryan and Jan who will each soon be receiving their Strawberry Crate.

Terms and Conditions:

1. This giveaway is only available to people with a UK delivery address.

2. Entry closes at noon on Thursday 26th March.

3. The lucky winner will be notified on 26th March either via the email address used to leave a comment below, or via Twitter. If I have not heard from him or her by midnight on 4th April I will draw another winner.

3. I have two prizes of one Stacks of Flavour Strawberry Fields from Suttons to give away. No cash alternative.

4. Suttons will send it out in May, when it will be ready to plant out.

5. Anyone found using multiple Twitter accounts to enter will be disqualified.

 

 

 

No short-cuts for growing...chicory

Some veg are more labour-intensive than others. Take chicory. It turns up in the shops as uniform torpedoes of bitter, blanched crunchiness. As it's not that cheap, last year I thought I'd grow it myself.

Equipment marshalled - large, deep cardboard box; large sheet of plastic. Around November, I...

1. lined the box with the plastic.
2. Filled with soil and compost to about two thirds full.
3. Realised that the box would be staying exactly where it was (in the centre of the outhouse) for the rest of the winter as it was now the weight of a small elephant.

Then I...

1. Extracted several heads of chicory (which I'd sown in the spring) from the raised bed.
2. Cut off the leaves to within an inch of the root, excavated hole in box big enough to bury entire root.
3. Excavated again as hole so deep that sides fell in.
4. Excavated again...
5. And again...
6. Finally rammed in root and started again on two others.

By the end of December, beneath the closed lid of the box, I had something promising. The chicons didn't ever achieve that neat, folded look of the shop-bought variety (the leaves tended to be a touch twisted for some reason - possibly from the nibblings of a couple of small slugs that had found themselves transported with the soil), but, boy, were they crisp and crunchy and, above all, juicy in a way that the shop versions aren't.

Worth another go, I thought this year. Only...why the box? Why not just save myself a lot of work and slice off the top of a couple of heads in the raised bed and stick a bucket over? No effort wasted.

Come the end of December I removed said bucket and found...two stalks.
By the following week I had...nothing at all.

This week, I raised the bucket and found one small sprout with, I suspect, little hope in its heart of ever becoming a big one.

So, all I've achieved is the provision of a delicate salading for various gourmet slugs. No work involved. No chicory, either. Hmmph.

Next year, it's back to the box.

Meanwhile, see how Alex Mitchell's fared with her chicory this year.

 

 

Still time to order from Heritage Seed Library

Ah, that little packet hitting the floor under the letterbox. You can't beat it for a thrill of pleasure, can you?  My seeds from Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library arrived on Friday. The funny thing is that I know what I ordered, but still tingle with the excitement of looking through them.

Reading the HSL catalogue always takes me ages as the descriptions are full of anecdote and comment. Do I want a long-rooted beetroot, "sweet and flavoursome" described by Vilmorin-Andrieux in 1885, or do I fancy the 1992 Ukrainian - tender, easy to peel.

I went for the former, Long Blood Red, not just for the name but for the promise that it stands well and is slow to go woody. As I tend to just leave beetroot in the ground until needed, I reckon that's a safer bet.

Other choices were:

Tomato Wladek, a beefsteak variety. I love the seeds that have a story to ponder. These were donated by the neighbour of a Polish man who arrived in the UK after WW2. Fleeing the Russian occupation, one presumes.

Lettuce Bunyard's Matchless, described as "a real lettuce-lovers' lettuce". I'm guessing it has a bit more bite and texture to it.

Pea Herbie's Purple Podded - new to HSL this year. Another seed that's been passed through neighbours and family for decades, this time in Northumberland, so I'm expecting them to stand up to the vagaries of the weather.

Onion Cipolla Bianca Agostana - my first attempt at growing onions from seed. All I know is that they should be big, white, thin-skinned and not make my eyes run when slicing. I hope to be more successful with seeds than I was with sets, which gave me something the size of a shallot.

Dwarf French Bean Deuil Fin Precoce - ah, a substitution. My original choice, Bountiful, dating from the 1890s, must have run out by the time my order arrived. You can choose what you'd prefer to receive if your first choice has run out, but as I've rarely received a substitution, I usually just indicate that any would be welcome. This sounds interesting - very old French variety, particularly early. Only caveat seems to be they're best eaten young, which means I must remember to look for them regularly! 

Runner Bean David Chappell - hurrah, a runner bean. I didn't have room to order one (six packets is the limit) and this is the Lucky Dip choice - HSL always send you one unless you say no. If you know anything about David Chappell, let me know. Lucky Dip choices usually feature in the current catalogue, but this one doesn't. I'll see if I can find a past catalogue with it in.

If you're a member of HSL, there's still time to order, as the deadline is 27th February. If you don't belong to HSL, then if you join now (you can reach the catalogue through that link too) I suspect you'd still be in time to receive some seeds for this year. For a bit more information, I wrote more here.

If you've ordered seeds, do post a comment below to say what you're going to grow this year.

 

MoreVeg gives gardeners the chance to grow more varieties

With many of us mulling over our seed catalogues at the moment, are you finding yourself looking at the number of seeds in a packet and thinking, "Well, most of those will be wasted"?  Lettuces are my particular bugbear. There's no way I'm going to get through 1000 lettuce seeds before their viability falls off.

With Rachel Martin, it was cabbages. Her children were starting to rebel at the sight of yet another cabbage. Then - horrors - she lost her seed tin. "We went to buy more," she told me, " and the bill came to £80!"

So, about five years ago, she and her husband dreamt up MoreVeg, selling vegetable and other seeds in smaller numbers. They visited lots of gardens, heading straight for the vegetable patches to see how many of each veg most people actually grew. "Most only grow about 20 cabbages," she said.

This is such a simple idea, I wonder no one's thought of it before. The cost per seed may be a bit more in a MoreVeg packet, but lower prices per packet mean that you can afford to try more veg and varieties. For Rachel, growing a wider variety of cabbages created unexpected interest. Instead of groaning at the greens on their plate, her children started asking, "Which cabbage is it?"

MoreVeg started with 124 varieties and now sell over 1000. They won't be expanding the numbers much further because 1000 is quite enough to administer, says Rachel. They don't grow the seed themselves, but what she and her husband do, though, is grow and taste almost everything they sell. The only exceptions are varieties such as Sunspot Cucumber which they put on the list because of overwhelming demand. And flowers have to earn their keep - those stocked will attract bees and butterflies or have some other use.

I think a lot of us can see the point of MoreVeg. If you have a smallholding, vast quantities of individual veg seed make sense, but for the rest of us, as Rachel says, “No one sells anything in the quantities that people actually want.”

Growing Victory in the World Wars

With all the grim stories of WW1 being told at the moment, it's a relief to come across the  Infographic below that looks at a different aspect of life during the two World Wars.

It's always difficult to crowbar a full picture into this type of artwork, so I've added a few comments at the bottom. 

I'll just balance the paragraph about the soldiers' food having gone off with something I've read recently in the fascinating book about WW1, Mud, Blood and Poppycock by military historian and ex-soldier, Gordon Corrigan.

British commanders knew that, while an army mught not exactly march on its stomach, in the Napoleonic sense, men who were hungry or whose food intake lacked the ingredients essential to good health would not fight as well as men who were well fed. A balanced diet was provided, and the administrative staff took great pains to ensure that it was delivered.

A daily ration for British soldiers (note, not French - their rations were so bad that they contributed to the French army's 1917 mutinies) included:

• 18oz fresh or frozen meat
• 16oz preserved meat
• 18oz bread
• 12oz biscuit
• 4oz bacon
• 3oz cheese
• 8oz of fresh vegetables
• 2oz dried vegetables

The preserved meat was an alternative to the fresh/frozen, the biscuit was an alternative to bread, the dried veg an alternative to fresh. Gordon Corrigan adds:

Soldiers rarely went hungry except in the most extreme circumstances, such as the chaos of First Ypres of the withdrawal of spring 1918. Soldiers did not complain about the lack of food, although they did complain about its monotony.

It's not surprising If not everything worked well; it was an unprecedented situation. I think we can be proud of the national response to the need to feed ourselves.  For more about life on the land in WW2, see my review of the recently reprinted Land Girl, A Manual for Volunteers.

The Big Allotment Challenge seeks contestants - are you brave enough?

Last year, a flurry of excitement greeted the news that a Great British Bake-Off take-off would appear this year, centred on growing veg.

Well, with a series queued up for spring 2014, I can report the engine is revving for another series. Davinia Richardson, of Silver River Productions has been in touch to ask for help in their search for contestants.

Do you fancy a go? 

If so, you'll be given a patch in a walled garden in Oxfordshire and, over several months, plan, sow and grow your vegetables and flowers (the seeds are provided). Every week you'll visit your allotment and make sure all is OK. Filming starts when the growing gets going. Contestants will face challenges that test their creativity and culinary skills - jam-making and flower-arranging are mentioned - or they may, for example, have to produce their three best carrots to stay in the game.

The six-week series, fronted by Fern Britton features Jim Buttress, RHS judge (pictured, and tipped, according to the Daily Mail, as "the Paul Hollywood" of the series), floral designer Jonathan Moseley, and cookery writer Thane Prince. Each episode will, says the BBC, "reflect the growing season and what's ripe for picking at the time" and in each episode one team will "hang up their gardening gloves" and leave.

 

And, of course, there's a book. According to The Bookseller,  The Patch: The Big Allotment Challenge, with A-Z of easy veg, fruit and flowers, as well as instructions for making jam, preserves and easy flower arrangements) is due for publication this April.

One of the scarier aspects, to me, is that they're currently looking for individuals (though all the talk is of teams and Davinia explained there is space on the application form to say who you'd like to bring with you if the opportunity arises). 

I'm certainly not the only one who can see pitfalls looming large as sinkholes. Sue Garrett's post at Green Lane Allotments has gathered a chorus of experienced gardeners who admit to being too fearful to take part. 

But we're all definitely looking forward to watching. Horticulture holds its breath. Editor of Horticulture Week, Matthew Appleby has been quoted as saying that the industry is hoping this will create a "boom time" for gardening in the manner of the industry-venerated Ground Force.

Complete novices need not apply. Everyone must be an amateur grower, says Davinia, but they do need to know what they're doing. (Which makes the ad's reference to a "window box" a bit whimsical.) If you have any questions, then Davinia is happy to help. Give her a ring on 0207 907 3401. Deadline for applications is 12pm, 13th March.

So, do you fancy being the next Ruby Tandoh? (She now writes regularly in The Guardian.) Is it going to be you? Oh, go on, aim for stardom and apply.

NB More comment can be found over at Garden Clickers.