Spring looks like it has finally arrived
but more
importantly for us growers, the soil temperature has reached a reasonable
level and we are now playing catch up to get vegetables, fruit, herbs
and flowers sown or planted.
However, I am just going to sound a word of caution here. Don’t
go mad and throw all your seeds into the ground, as there are still some
reports of frosts coming later this week. I recommend making good use of window
sills, greenhouses etc to protect seeds and seedlings; or if you prefer
to sow straight into the ground, then you may want to wait a while.
If you have sown seeds in trays or pots then don’t forget to water them. It sounds obvious, but it is easy to forget and can dry out pretty quickly, especially if they are just in the little pots – I have put a reminder on my phone!
My sweet peas and marigolds are doing brilliantly. I am now
putting them out during the day (if it is warm), but being sure to bring them
in at night. Marigolds are fantastic companion plants and I will be planting
these alongside my potatoes and squash as well as in my flower bed.
In fact when it comes to companion planting, marigolds
definitely rock! They keep the soil free of bad nematodes and have rather a
strong aroma which discourages harmful insects, including whitefly. You can
also use the leaves to make a spray.
Take some leaves and crushed stems and add to a bucket of
water, leave to stand and just stir every so often. After seven days,
sieve the liquid to get rid of the plant material. I dilute the liquid with the
same amount of water, mixed with some soft soap and use this to spray on my
potatoes and tomatoes to try to prevent blight. There are different varieties
of marigolds and the Mexican ones are not happy bed fellows for beans and
brassicas.
Speaking of brassicas, most of mine were sown a couple of
weeks ago and are settling in well in the new greenhouse. I open the front of
this up, if is a warm day, but am sure to zip it up at night to keep them snug.
This weekend was a very exciting one, as I managed to plant
my spuds! Touch wood, that since having an allotment for the last couple of
years, I have had some really good crops of potatoes that have lasted right
through the winter.
My seed potatoes are from the organic gardening catalogue
and I have found the Robinta, Orla and Desiree varieties to be a nice
combination. I haven’t tried planting new potatoes and would welcome any
feedback/suggestions on this.
I tend to order my seed potatoes in January and put them in
egg boxes on a window sill to chit, before planting them from mid-March or
April, depending on the weather. By the way, chitting is the process which
encourages the seed potato to sprout before planting. Your seed potatoes will
have a blunt end with some ‘eyes’ on it. This end should be stood up in the egg
trays and the shoots will take about 6 weeks to develop.
Now digging a potato trench can sound a bit daunting, but
don’t worry it does not need to be something from the Somme! You are aiming
for it to be about 3 – 5inches deep (or about a spade depth). Leave about 30 cm
between each row. Place the seed potatoes gently in the bottom of the trench
(with the shoots pointing up), then cover them lightly with soil. The exact spacings and timings are affected
by whether your potatoes are ‘earlies’, ‘mids’ or ‘lates’.
As the shoots appear you need to earth up the soil so that
the shoots are just covered and keep doing this. You will end up with a ridge
about 15cm high when it comes to harvesting the potatoes. It is important to do
this and to keep the potatoes covered. If they are exposed to sunlight then
they will turn green and you certainly don’t want to be eating them.
The other key task achieved over the weekend was sowing my
parsnips. You really want these to go in situ as they don’t like to be moved.
The finer the soil, the better as this means the root can grow unchecked and
therefore nice and straight! I had dug the bed a few times and finished it off
by raking.
I have to confess that this is not my favourite job, as I
find it rather monotonous and it is only when I look at an un-raked bed that I
really see any benefit. However, there is no denying that it gives a nice fine
tilth to the top which no doubt, the seeds appreciate.
I planted two seeds at around 15cm intervals, about 1.5cm
deep in rows that were 30cm apart. Don’t forget to label your rows, as it is
very handy for knowing where to water, before the leaves start to appear.
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