GROW YOUR OWN FOOD with DIRTY NAILS OCTOBER, 1ST WEEK SORTING OUT THE SHED Throughout the hectic months of summer a whole array of useful bits and bobs, and a fair portion of useless articles too, gets stashed in the shed. Dirty Nails has been sorting out in here this week. It is a major job for him, and one that he tackles each spring and autumn. At this time of year it is prompted by the pressing need to create a handy space for stored potatoes, onions, squashes and other veg. These all need cool, frost-free conditions, and the pleasure in cooking home-grown produce is increased enormously if he can nip out to the shed on a dark evening and lay his hands on what he wants without fighting through a jungle of clutter first.

Getting the shed in good working order calms his whole being. If something needs doing, Dirty Nails can get to it with minimum fuss when he knows where to find the appropriate tool or piece of kit. Rolls of wire, off-cuts of fleece, ropes, netting, sieves, pots and trays, bubble wrap, cloches, glass jars, fertilisers, carpet underlay, plastic bags, water carrying vessels, endless lengths of string and twine, bamboo canes, old newspapers, hoses, clothes pegs, squeezy bottles and much more, all do important jobs in the veg garden. Dirty Nails has a place for everything, and everything in its place. He aims to store it all in an accessible and obvious manner. Tools can be cleaned and hoes sharpened. Broken trowels and rakes may be put to one side for repair later. A drop of oil to the moving parts of shears and secateurs can rejuvenate them. Dried seeds of favourite flowers can be sorted into old margarine tubs and laid out on a surface for further attention another time. He keeps the floor as clear as possible, his workbench swept and ready for action.

Dirty Nails wants his shed to be a quiet, peaceful oasis. He has a selection of choice reference books to dip into, and next year’s seed catalogue to study and plan from. Connecting an electricity supply is something that Dirty Nails recommends. The combination of light, power, and order from chaos creates a beautiful space in which to potter away long evenings dreaming of what has been and what is to come.

VEGETABLE SNIPPETS: MULCHING IN THE VEG PATCH Applying a mulch to the veg patch, or areas of it, simply means using a material to cover the top layer of soil. This may be done for a number of reasons with both organic (natural) and inorganic (man-made) ‘mulches’.

The former include manure (FYM), leaf mould, compost, grass mowings, or spent soil from pots and containers. These are substances which to a greater or lesser degree (and FYM is tops in this department) bulk-up and feed the soil. They all encourage soil life, especially earthworms. These humble creatures are an absolutely essential component of healthy soil, playing a crucial role incorporating and cycling matter, as well as helping drainage via their extensive and labyrinthine tunnels. An organic mulch may be used to keep the soil warm in winter but cool in summer, prevent weeds from germinating by robbing them of the light, or conserve moisture if flopped down around a growing crop following a good soaking.

Newspaper and cardboard are considered as organic because they will rot down readily. They are especially useful when laid down underneath one of the mulches already mentioned, as a protective winter blanket.

‘Living mulches’ comprise growing a green manure to cover bare soil in gaps between cropping, or to protect the growing medium over winter from the erosive powers of wind and rain (not to be underestimated), especially on a slope. Legumes (the pea and bean family) such as clovers, lucerne (alfalfa) and field beans do a great job. They also fix atmospheric nitrogen in root nodules which is usefully exploited by the next batch of veggies grown on that piece. These, and others such as phacelia, also add a goodly supply of organic matter to soils when they are cut down and turned-in before sowing.

Non-organic mulches include black plastic sheeting which is often left in place for a year or more to kill persistent weeds such as couch-grass or dock by totally preventing light penetration. Land can be still be worked with this sheeting in place by planting seedlings (or potato tubers) through carefully cut slits. Old carpet is another favourite amongst gardeners, as a light-excluding mulch used to suppress weeds and create bare soil without strenuous digging.

NATURAL HISTORY IN THE GARDEN: GARDEN CROSS (DIADEM) SPIDER There are lots of spiders about at this time of year. Orb-web spiders are very much in evidence. The garden cross, or ‘diadem‘, is one of 40 different species in Britain. It is these little beasties that spin the classic webs which hang as if festooned with a thousand glistening pearls on a dewy autumn morning, suspended between the skeletal stems of tall herbs and grasses which the thoughtful gardener leaves uncut around the plot margins. Such silken snares are mostly made by females, who wait patiently in the centre until the vibrations of a trapped insect spur her into action and she pounces. She injects her hapless prey with a poison that paralyses the victim but does not kill it straight away. Then she wraps it in a purse of silk which keeps it fresh until she is ready to suck the body juices dry. Dirty Nails’ new book, A Vegetable Gardener’s Year (How To Books, ISBN 978-1-905862-22-1), is now available from good bookstores and www.dirtnails.co.uk , priced £12.99 Copyright, Dirty Nails September 2008