Page 40 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2022/23

Seasonal jobs
DEREK BROOKS FNVS
January
The most important job this month is to carry on preparing the ground for this year’s crops. You may, of course, have started it before Christmas but you need to get it finished as soon as you can. Clear all finished crops, putting the material on the compost heap providing that it is not diseased. Fork over the ground removing all weeds if you can, particularly perennial ones; or dig using a spade to bury any weeds and organic matter.
I have mentioned crop rotation in these notes each year, but I am doing so again because I think it is important. Crops are grouped together in the same bed that need the same conditions, for example root crops, apart from potatoes and onions don’t want manure. I test the pH of each bed every year this measures the acidity or alkalinity of the soil. I have a digital pH metre, but you can buy cheaper ones in
a garden centre. pH 7 is neutral, anything below 7 is acid and above 7 is alkaline. Most crops are happy with a reading of 6.5 to 7.0 but potatoes like it lower which helps to prevent scab disease and brassicas (cabbages and cauliflowers etc.) like it higher to prevent club root. To raise the pH, I add limestone. As a rule, 12 oz. per square yard (350gms per square metre) raises the
value by one unit, (i.e. from 6 to 7), but this varies with soil type, and more is needed on clay soils and less on sandy soils.
I grow onions, leeks and shallots on the same bed each year and also runner beans, but all other crops are grown in a four-year rotation. Plot 1 is for potatoes, but I grow marrows along one edge. Plot 2 is for root crops other than potatoes. This plot does not get manured. Plot 3 is for brassicas (cabbages etc.). Plot 4 is for other crops apart from those mentioned. I call it the “others” bed. This includes broad beans, French beans (dwarf and climbing), peas, sweet corn and squashes. You do not, of course, need to organise your crop rotation exactly as I do but please have some kind of organised system.
Salad crops such as lettuce and radish are not included in the crop rotation. They are just grown anywhere there is room as they don’t occupy the ground for very long, often between the rows of runner beans. All the veg beds except the root crop bed get manure forked into the soil. On the allotment, apart from the veg, I grow spray Chrysanths, dahlias, gladioli and annual flowers. These beds also get manure except the bed for annuals.
For runner beans I dig out two parallel trenches about a metre apart, a spades
New roses planted
depth and a spades width. I fork over
the base then add a thick layer of green material, such as vegetable waste, dahlia tops and spent annuals before replacing the soil. I also grow sweet peas in the same trenches. If any bed that is manured also needs limestone, I add this first then wait
a month or so for it to do its job before adding the manure.
Assuming you have done all this, and the ground is prepared, what can we plant, also assuming the ground is neither frozen nor too wet? (I rarely have my ground ready so early). Rhubarb can be planted. It does not come into the crop rotation plan because
it is a permanent planting, so you need a separate bed for it. Fork in some manure or compost before planting. Plant the roots so that the buds are just below the surface and firm them in.
Garlic can also be planted now you can order some from seed companies or you
Manure barrowed onto veg plots
Apple tree pruned
40 Simply Vegetables