Gardening scheme is hotbed of action

8:22am Thursday 10th April 2008

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A GROUP of horticulturalists is using a medieval technique to make their vegetables grow faster.

Participants in the Cellar Project, which helps people with mental health problems, have developed a hotbed to help their lettuces, radishes and carrots soar in size.

Jack First - who has over 20 years of horticultural experience behind him - is helping the group, which uses allotments at Marley, in Keighley.

He explained that by allowing a bed of manure to naturally heat the soil on which the vegetables grow, he was creating a fermentation which helped crops to grow faster than normal at this time of year.

He said: "The radishes are harvested first, they grow very quickly, and then that allows room for the lettuce and carrots to develop.

"They are sitting on a goldmine of nutrients.

"What is interesting about this is that in West Yorkshire there is a lot of horse manure and that doesn't get used, so more people should put it to good use like this. If you were doing it outside you would be just thinking about doing the sowing now."

Mr First has an adjacent bed of vegetables that were planted at the same time but just using normal garden soil which are a lot less developed than those on the hotbed.

He and the Cellar Project participants can even use the heat from the hotbed to get hot water to wash their hands after gardening.

Ronald Wilcock, who travels to the Marley allotments from Thornton, in Bradford, said he learned something new every week when he visited the project.

He said: "We dig a lot too and that keeps you warm on the cold days."

Shaun Gelannan, from Fagley, in Bradford, said he enjoyed planting potatoes, tomatoes and carrots the most because they were the easiest and you could eat them afterwards.

He said: "In the winter time we make bird feed and coconut seeds for the birds as well."

The produce from the allotments is used for the catering side of the Cellar Project - remaining produce then goes for sale in its health shop.