BEN CHACKO reports on fears at TUC Congress that the provisions in the legislation are liable to be watered down even further
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Asparagus: a prized perennial
From seed to sumptuous spears, MAT COWARD offers advice to gardeners with less-than-ideal conditions
Simon Hibbs (left) and Paul McGuffie at New Farm Produce Ltd in Lichfield, Staffordshire
CHRIS HOOFE calls for support for GMB’s Potters’ Pledge campaign, aimed at making sure the historic pottery industry based in Stoke-on-Trent is supported over cheap, low-quality imports and counterfeits
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Artists should not be consigned to a life of precarious working – they deserve dignity and proper workers’ rights, argues ZITA HOLBOURNE
THE best time to plant an asparagus bed is three years ago, the old saying has it, because the wait is about that long before you get a full crop. The good news is that once it starts cropping it should keep going at full strength for at least a decade, and can still be productive 20 years on.
In Britain it is traditional to stop cutting asparagus around June 21, giving the plants the rest of the year to recover their strength ready for next season. You get around six to eight weeks of harvest annually, starting in April, at a time when the garden isn’t producing much else except puddles. I think it’s that, as much as the supermarket price, which makes asparagus seem so luxurious, more so perhaps than anything else on the vegetable patch.
I’ve planted a few asparagus beds over the years, and some have been great successes while others have been equally impressive failures. Unfortunately, the rules don’t always help.
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