Garden Visit - Ron Crowley's - 15th of January, 2010

I am not sure I have seen a section as intensively gardened with vegetables as Ron Crowleys. There is not a blade of grass to be seen but all manner of vegetables, herbs and grains including millet, sorghum & water chestnuts which most of us had never seen growing before.

Ron has lots of tricks up his sleeve for growing seed for harvest. To stop his pumpkins cross pollinating he tapes the male flowers shut so they cannot be cross pollinated by bees. He then waits for a female flower to open at which point he takes the male and manually pollinates the female. He then shuts the female flower with tape so no foreign pollen can get in and marks that flower with a pipe cleaner. He then knows that when he harvests that particular pumpkin that the seed will be true to type and safe to grow again the following season.

As seen in the photos Ron plants his leeks in wide open holes and allows the dirt to slowly fall in around the plant. This gives a nice long white stem with less green top. Some people opt for trenches which they fill in over the season but Rons method fills inself in, saving time and effort.

Rons garden also sports a glass house made from someone elses discarded building materials and Ron chooses to keep his indoor tomatoes in pots. This way the soil does not become depleted and he does not have to worry about disease in the glass house (which is not movable). He simply makes a good brew of compost for the pots each year and keeps the plants healthy throughout the season with liquid fertiliser made from his enormous comfrey patch (see photos).

Thanks Ron for sharing all your knowlege with us and opening up your garden to inspire us all.

Sorghum and comfrey:

Leeks (left) and Millet (right):