Page 43 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2022/23

Leeks bought from supplier and potted up
better to leave them till next month before boxing them up. Cuttings of dahlia and Chrysanths are taken the same way but I will write about this when the time comes.
Before we leave the subject of flowers it is a good time to cut back perennials to give them time to re-grow for the coming season and it helps to keep the plants compact.
March
I hope you have got your ground prepared because there are now several seeds that can be sown outdoors now that the soil is warming up. Rake the
soil as fine as you can and rake in some general fertiliser such as fish, blood,
and bone. Make drills in the soil with a stick, or your finger and sow the seeds thinly along the drills. When the seeds germinate, they will need thinning out in stages to their final positions. Seeds that are best sown like this are radish, salsify, scorzonera and salad onions. Carrots and parsnips can also be sown like this but because they tend to fork in heavy or stony soils, I make bore holes for carrots and fill them with sieved soil or compost or grow them in buckets filled with compost. I grow long varieties of carrots in large drums filled with compost or in tubes made from builder’s damp proof material filled with compost and this is the way I grow parsnips.
Lettuce, beetroot, Pak choi, endive, rocket and spinach can also be sown in drills as described above but I think they are better sown in cell trays, a few seeds in each and thinned to one when they germinate.
Brassicas (cabbage, cauliflowers etc.) can be sown in drills but I prefer to sow these in small pots 3 or 4 seeds in each,
Now for a few jobs in the fruit garden. Autumn fruiting raspberries can still be pruned as I described last month. Fruit trees can be given a mulch, just spread a layer of rotted manure, compost or similar organic matter round them to a depth of
2 to4 inches (5 to 10cm). Also tidy up the strawberry bed by removing dead or dying leaves.
Dahlia tubers boxed up on warming bench
In the vegetable garden, spring cabbages will benefit from a feed use one that is high in nitrogen to promote new growth. Give perennial vegetable crops such as rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes and asparagus a mulch of manure or compost again to a depth of 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm).
Another job I do at this time of year is to sort all my canes as I use a lot throughout the growing season. I temporarily clear one side of my larger greenhouse and sort them in there. I examine each one to see that they are still sound and sort them into their different sizes then tie them into bundles.
This is also the time when seed potatoes are in the shops and garden centres. You need to stand them in trays or egg cartons and put them in a light position to start them growing. I put mine on a top shelf
in the greenhouse. This process is called “chitting”.
Almost empty allotment
thinned to one when they germinate Broad beans can be sown as I said last
month and also peas. I mentioned varieties of broad beans in January but for peas, choose a round seeded variety such as Douce de Provence because they are hardier than wrinkled seeded varieties. They can be sown direct in the bed 2 / 3 inches (5 / 7 cm.) apart or you can start them in pots in the greenhouse as I do.
Tomatoes, cucumbers peppers aubergines and celery can still be sown in a heated greenhouse or propagator.
I also said last month that most half hardy flowers were sown in March, and
I explained how to sow them. The list is endless but just to name a few that I grow every year, cosmos, marigolds, rudbeckia, nicotiana, stocks, nemesia and ageratum.
Hardy annual flower seeds can be
sown direct in the beds where they are
to flower. Rake the soil as fine as you can and rake in some general fertiliser. They can either be sown in drills as I have described above for some vegetables or broadcast which means sowing them thinly all over the surface and raking the seeds
in. However, I prefer to sow them in trays
in the greenhouse as I do for half hardy annuals. Examples are calendula, annual
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