Setting up for self-sufficiency from scratch

Broadforking a large new vegetable bed

Chatting with a friend who's just about to start working a croft has focused my mind on how I would set up our veg garden from scratch if I had to start over again and what I'd consider essential in a veg garden. We've worked these things out over several years and have implemented the suggestions below, but we could set up even quicker, with what we know now.

First of all, I'd identify the sunniest, best drained land by walking the land at diffent times in different conditions, like after heavy rain (be aware that light levels might quite different in winter, but spring to autumn levels are really the most important since that's mainly when you're growing). If it's sheltered as well - super. Otherwise hedge planting has to be top priority - put in a temporary windbreak fabric fence until the hedge is established (about three years). If it's reasonably level ground - even better, but you can work with terracing. It should also have easy access to water for watering (not so crucial in Scotland, but elsewhere it could be). If it's downhill from the house you can easily collect rainwater from your roof to water your veg.

Vegetables and herbs

Last year's squash bed

Raised beds

Part of the large herb garden

This area will eventually be totally
given over to perennial veg

Then I'd make a plan for four large vegetable beds (about 4m x 20m, scaled appropriately if you have less space) for the large crops: potatoes; onions, garlic, leeks and carrots; brassica; and a three sisters bed - courgettes and winter squashes with beans and sweetcorn (if you're lucky enough to live somewhere warm enough where these will grow outdoors - for us it's just squash). This makes it very easy to keep track of crop rotation, which can be a challenge otherwise. To minimise work I'd put down black plastic for a minimum of six months where these beds are going to go. This kills all the grass and weeds underneath and makes preparing the ground a lot easier.

If you think your ground is suitable consider no dig, in which case you can use cardboard as your base layer and top it with compost and organic matter. This uses a lot of compost, however, so think about cost implications. I'd advise trying to dig in several spots first, to see just how stony the ground is and what drainage is like. Much of our ground was very stony and drainage needed to be improved so no dig will have to wait. On the other hand, if your ground is too stony to do anything with, possibly the best way is up: making huegelkultur beds on top. That is, if it's not too windy to go upwards! We ended up making an underground huegel in a particularly wet part of ground.

In addition to the four large beds, I'd have a dozen raised beds for lettuces, salad leaves, beetroot, chard and crops that do better in raised beds such as celeriac. These beds don't have to have permanent structures; they can just be created by mounding up the soil. In this area there also needs to be space for an easy to move pea fence or trellis.

Somewhere near the house, I'd set up a herb garden with lots of perennial herbs and some annuals. This would also incorporate edible flowers, wild flowers and medicinal herbs (often the same plants!).

Next on the agenda would be an area dedicated to perennial vegetables, with some luxury crops such as globe artichokes and asparagus, some great staples such as Daubenton's kale, Good King Henry and a few varieties of perennial onions and some of those tubers that keep on coming like Jerusalem artichokes and oca.

The last of the winter crops and
the first of the spring crops

Then on to a polytunnel for extending the season. In this case, it is critical what the winter light levels are like since you'll be overwintering a lot of crops in it. Choose a very sunny levelish site with easy access to water. Our polytunnel is 20ft by 8ft, which is a great size for the home grower who doesn't want to grow vast quantities for sale but rather wants to keep growing salads and greens throughout the winter and have a wider option of veg to grow in the summer. Of course, it would be no problem to fill a larger tunnel, but it would also mean a lot more watering! A lot of things are better grown outside, such as onions, for example. And you don't have to worry about pests such as aphids as much. A 'cloudy' polytunnel cover is better than a fully transparent one since it lets plenty of light through but doesn't scorch plants in the heat. A south-facing conservatory or potting shed is very useful for pre-growing seedlings in the spring.

Fruit and nuts

When it comes to soft fruit, I'd get all my cuttings from other gardeners if possible, since they are so easy to grow from cuttings, especially currants and gooseberries. The same goes for vigorous rhubarb - a split of a plant that does well in your area is the way to go - and strawberry runners (which will need to replaced every three years to maintain vigour, easily done by taking runners from your plants in the summer after the harvest is done).

The orchard four years on

We have a dedicated soft fruit area, which could be netted over in a fruit cage arrangement (this makes harvesting easier since you can walk in and stand up). However, this hasn't been necessary so far, but it is a consideration in areas with flocks of pigeons especially. I've also made little hedges of berry bushes for most of the large veg beds and along the side of the main vegetable garden. I'd go for a huge variety of fruit, with some more unusual berries such as Siberian honeyberry (blue honeysuckle), Saskatoon berry and Chilean guava thrown into the mix to extend the fruit season. I'd rather err on the side of too many plants; that way, the birds can have some and there should still be enough left for you.

When it comes to fruit trees, I'd again err on the side of too many. We've ended up with eleven apple trees, two pears, two plums, two mirabelles, two mulberries, three cherries and one quince. It's crucial to get the pollination groups right, especially if you're in a remote area with no other fruit trees around! The one thing I would change next time is to make sure to have a couple of apple trees with apples that store really well; usually these are the late-fruiting varieties. We only went by flavour in our selection so none of our apples store particularly well without processing them.

Edible hedging around the veg garden

Other than planting an orchard, I'd also recommend incorporating edible plants into your hedging schemes. For example: crab apples, wild pear, wild plum, rosa rugosa (for rose hips), elder (for berries and blossom), hazel nuts, hawthorn (for berries), blackthorn (for sloes), sea buckthorn (for berries - this is quite a vigorous plant though, which can be invasive in some areas), guelder rose (for bark, anti-cramp medicine), willow (for wands and bark - natural aspirin - and as one of the best wildlife plants in the UK), tilia/linden (for leaves and flowers) and beech (for young leaves).

If I lived in a climate where they'd crop, I'd also plant lots of nut trees such as walnut, cobnuts and sweet chestnut. Now this is a really long-term proposition! Sadly, although they grow well enough here they only rarely produce a usable crop, with the one exception of hazelnuts - but we've yet to harvest a single nut from our 10+-year-old trees. In the meantime, we're going have a go at growing tiger nuts instead.

Following a programme like this will give a high degree of food self-sufficiency in just a few years, without needing to sacrifice interest and variety in the diet.

Growing in the polytunnel through the seasons

Polytunnel in early June

We have now had our 20ft x 8ft polytunnel for 14 months and have done a lot of experimenting with different crops. Since space is at a premium we don't bother growing anything in the tunnel that will happily grow outside such as onions, potatoes and brassicas (and lettuce in summer) or that won't be significantly faster inside than out, such as carrots. Here's what works for us to keep the polytunnel productive all year round:

Permanent residents

Grapevine

The grapevine freshly planted

Because grapes in Scotland is too amazing not to! The roots are planted outside the tunnel and the vine is inside. This makes watering easy (i.e. not generally necessary) and will hopefully give us sweeter grapes.

Lemon verbena

This delicious tea herb (which is also great in gin & tonic) doesn't really work outside here but loves it in the polytunnel. It dies back over winter but sprouts again the following spring.

Summer crops

In the summer, about half the polytunnel is given over to tomatoes since we are in an area prone to potato blight and thus have to grow our tomatoes in containers inside.

Polytunnel in May

Tomatoes

The first summer I squeezed 30 of them in, but this year we've scaled back to 17 plants since it is nice to have a variety of things. Some are very early tomatoes (Matina) to start the season as early as possible and then it's a mix of cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes and normal size heirloom tomatoes in different colours (though black definitely seems tastiest).

Herbs that like it hot

Several varieties of basil, which is a good companion plant to tomatoes, and some lemongrass.

Courgette Latino, harvested in late May

Courgette

An early one, sown in mid March, that is planted out into the polytunnel in late April and gets to stay there, plus a couple of early sown ones that get planted outside in early May with protection.

Cucumbers

We keep our varieties of cucumbers apart and the tunnel is home to the Crystal Lemon cucumbers that look like lemons when they are ripe.

Oriental leaves

Successional sowings of komatsuna and pak choi.

Peppers and chillies

Any leftover plants that don't fit into the conservatory.

Experimental crops

Anything that needs the extra heat. This year, it's chickpeas.

Beans

Since it's too windy here for climbing beans (at least above hedge height), we've planted some in the polytunnel, in a spot vacated by early spring salad leaves such as red mustard and pak choi. In July, we'll also sow some dwarf French beans for a late crop.

Overwintering crops

A nice bowl of early broad beans

Broad beans Aquadulce

Sown in the first week in November, the indoor plants beat the outdoor plants by a good three weeks. We had broad beans from mid May onwards. Definitely worth having three or four broad bean plants in the polytunnel!

Peas Douce Provence

Also sown in the first week in November, the peas suffered quite a few casualties, but the remaining plants had peas from April onwards - just enough for a delicious little snack every other day. Next time we'll put these in the middle of the polytunnel to give them a better chance of making it.

Lettuces Valdor and Winter Density

Sown in September and October, these hardy lettuce types were ready to harvest in March. Quite a few were devoured by slugs so beer traps will have a permanent home in the polytunnel next winter. We'll increase the number of lettuces this year since they are all going to be eaten long before the tomatoes can be planted out. Might as well fill the tunnel over the winter!

Hardy salad leaves

Sown in September, hardy salad leaves such as rocket, mizuna, pak choi, red mustard gave us lovely fresh salad in the winter months. The rocket even self-seeded inside the tunnel so that we had a continuous supply throughout the winter.

Early spring crops

Early Wonder beetroot, harvested in early May

Beetroot Early Wonder/Boltardy

Sown in early February and planted out into the polytunnel in March, these were a good three weeks ahead of the outdoor beetroots. The ones we sowed in November bolted so starting them early in the year seems to be the better option and not any slower.

Pak choi

Sown in late February, early pak choi does a lot better under cover and is ready to eat in early May.

Lettuce

The first sowing of lettuces such as Salad Bowl Red, Merveille des Quatre Saisons and Little Gem also goes into the polytunnel, but it's not usually long into spring before the lettuces prefer the cooler outside conditions.

It took us a couple of years to decide on getting a polytunnel in the first place. Having got one, the question of course becomes, "Why didn't we do this sooner?". The increased range of growing options is nice, but the biggest plus is definitely the closing up of the 'hungry gap', when winter crops run out before new season ones are ready, that comes in late spring with outdoor-only growing.

P-P-P-Put up a polytunnel!

Back when it was shiny and new.

We're now just over a year into our experience of polytunnel growing. Definitely a success. Very happy that we decided to go for one. It extends the growing season considerably for a number of crops, and expands the range of growing possibilities.

If you're a grower of veg living some place with lots of wind or short summers and long winters, a polytunnel is a great option.

Polytunnel vs greenhouse (or glass house) is a classic debate. What it really boils down to is cost. To cover a given area, the polytunnel comes in a lot cheaper, even if you go (as you should) for the highest spec you can afford.

The chosen spot.

Before even getting to the tunnel, selection of a site is key. A bit of shelter is helpful, if available, but direct sun is probably more important. The ground doesn't have to be exactly level, but shouldn't be too far off, and there has to be sufficient space on all sides to work when putting the thing up.

Choose a tunnel

As usual, we did quite a lot of research before selecting a tunnel. There are a lot of options out there. For us, strength was right at the top of the desirable qualities list, as we knew it would have to stand up to some very strong winds here, particularly through the winter. That helped to narrow the field for a start. A good rummage around through gardener's forums etc. online soon flagged up some brands to forget about and a few to look more closely at.

Putting it up.

This leads directly into the nitty gritty of what the tunnel is made from and how it's anchored and, again, there's considerable variability on these points. Gauge of steel used and tube diameter of the hoops, how many sections they come in, what cross members are used, anchoring system, thickness of cover plastic - all affect the strength, durability and, of course, cost of the unit.

Cost, naturally, came next on our list of considerations. We're always looking for value, but will pay what we have to, to get good quality. There's no point in 'saving' a third on something that will only last a quarter as long.

Securing the cover to the frame.

Our final criterion was ease of erection. There are quite a few different systems for securing the cover to the frame, some more, some less user-friendly. Getting the cover on really snugly is a critical determinant of its lifespan, so we wanted to go for one that would give us the best chance of getting it right on the first attempt.

Put it up

Our chosen tunnel is 20 x 8 feet, with screw anchors at each hoop base and a clever wire-clamp system for securing the cover to the frame. We put it up over 2 days, the frame on the first and the cover on the second. It's a huge sheet of plastic, so it's vital to do this on a windless day!

The first critical step, and one that was surprisingly tricky, is getting the positions of the anchor points correct, so that all four corners are exactly 90° square. It's really important to get this right, so mark it out with stakes and string, then check and re-check using the Pythagorean 3-4-5 method on each corner. For those whose geometry might be a little rusty, the length of the sides of a right angle triangle are always in the proportions of 3-4-5.

Finally: the door.

Putting anti-hotspot tape over the steel frame everywhere it will contact the plastic is a simple way to extend the life of the cover: don't skip this out.

Make sure you have as many helpers on hand as necessary to get the cover on nice and tight. The design we chose was okay for two people to put up - one to hold the plastic while the other did the clamping - but I've heard that other types, such as the traditional trench-fixing, are better done with at least three.

So, two day's effort to finish putting up our very first polytunnel - not bad. The second would obviously be easier with the experience, but I'm in no particular hurry to do it again.

The finished article fits in nicely.

I must confess that there was a certain amount of trepidation in the air when the first of the big winter gales struck, but that tunnel is rock solid and has so far stood it all without complaint. Well, almost without complaint. The one thing that couldn't quite take it is the velcro fastening on the vent panel cover at the back end of the tunnel (visible in the photo above). No matter how firmly we press that on, it will blow off with a strong wind pressing against it. My solution has been to screw a couple of 'storm boards' into the aluminium frame across the vent. It does the job, but that fastening seems to me to be the one design flaw in the whole setup. Perhaps a zip fastener would have been a better bet.

Next time: Growing in the tunnel
Extend your growing season and range.