Market Garden
Harvesting and preparing - Bill Hudson continues his advice on seasonal tasks in the vegetable and fruit garden
January
Cold January is a quiet time in the vegetable and fruit garden, but there is harvesting and preparation for the new year to be done. Some winter vegetables should continue to be harvested namely Brussel sprouts, leeks, swedes, parsnips and turnips. Parsnips are particularly hardy but other root crops should either be protected by covering up with straw or garden compost. Root vegetables can be stored in a shed or used fresh in the kitchen.
Clear remaining old crops from the vegetable plot.
In the south and mild parts of the country broad beans can be sown in pots or plug trays and germinated in a cold greenhouse or cold frame.
For large onions which need a long growing season sow now in a heated propagator for planting out in March.
February
Finish cultivations and weeding if not done so already. February is a good month to do a pH test to check if you have acid soil. Lime can be raked in if the pH test indicates too high an acid reading. This will leave a two month interval before sowing and planting out.
If you are fortunate enough to have light sandy soils or benefit from a south-facing aspect sowings can be made of some early vegetables like broad beans, peas, radish, carrots and parsnips under cloches that have prewarmed the soil. Onion sets and garlic cloves can also be planted out in early soils.
If growing spring cabbages they will benefit from a high nitrogen feed. Pelleted poultry manure is ideal.
Seed potatoes can be purchased to get them to "chit". Stand them upright in seed trays or egg cartons in a light frost free place.
To grow early greenhouse tomatoes seed needs to be sown mid to late February. Sow in a heated propagator or warm place at approximately 18-21 degrees C.
Fruit garden: Autumn-fruiting raspberry canes if not already cut back need pruning hard back to the ground, and ideally mulched with garden compost.
Bare-rooted cane fruit such as raspberries, and blackcurrants, which are still available for sale can be planted if weather conditions allow. It is vital to prepare the ground well and put in support of post and wire before planting. Posts with at least three wires is normal. Apply a general-purpose fertiliser to top and soft fruit or fish blood and bone at approximately 100g/sq m.
Strawberries can be produced at least 3-4 weeks early if they are covered in February with plastic or glass cloches. Rhubarb can be forced by placing a plastic dustbin over the crown to encourage early shoots in the dark.
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
