Page 34 - Simply Veg 1 2024

Seasonal jobs
KEY TO SUPPLIERS
D – Dobies
S – Suttons
B – Browns
F – Fothergills
R – Robinsons Sh – Shelleys M – Marshalls
January 2024
I usually advise you to start preparing the ground for this year’s crops in the autumn by removing finished crops and forking over vacant ground. If you leave the ground roughly dug, the winter frost will help to break it down. If you haven’t already done this, you will need to carry on with it this month and finish it as soon as you can, providing the ground isn’t frozen or too wet as it often is at this time of year.
Finished crops can go on the compost heap unless they are diseased. As you fork over the soil, remove as many weeds as you can, particularly perennial ones. I don’t put these on the compost, though. They go into the council refuse bin.
In these notes, I emphasise things that
I consider important. I therefore make no apologies for mentioning crop rotation again. Many plant diseases attack just
one particular type of crop, clubroot for example. Rotation helps to prevent a build up of disease. Also, different crops take up different nutrients from the soil, so rotation ensures that the beds are not deficient in
a particular element. Crops are grouped together that require similar treatment. I use a four year rotation (1) potatoes, (2) other root crops, (3) brassicas, (4) others. This last bed includes dwarf French beans, broad beans, courgettes, and sweet corn. Crops that I don’t include in the rotation are rhubarb, onions, leeks, and runner beans which all have their own beds, also salad crops because they are planted anywhere
there is room, often between other crops. For runner beans, I dig out two parallel
trenches, a metre apart ,a spades depth and a spades width. I fork over the base then add a thick layer of green material before replacing the soil. When digging out the first trench, the soil is left alongside it. Then, the soil from the second trench goes into the first trench and the soil from the first trench goes into the second one.
If you have any manure, fork it into the soil on any of the beds
except the root crop bed because manure causes carrots and parsnips to fork.
Another useful thing to
do is to test the pH value
of the beds this must
be done before you put
on any manure. I have a
digital pH meter, but you
can buy cheap testing
kits from garden centres. pH measures the acidity or alkalinity of the soil, pH 7 being neutral, anything below 7 being acid and anything above 7 being alkaline. Most crops are happy with a value of between
6 and 7. Potatoes like it lower because
it prevents scab. Brassicas, for example cabbages and cauliflowers, like higher to prevent club root. If you want to increase the pH value, add limestone but you
need to leave it for a month to do its job before adding manure. As a general rule, 12 ounces of limestone per square yard
increases the value by one unit, i.e. from 7 to 8.
If you have cleared any beds but don’t intend planting anything for a while, you can cover them with a weed membrane
or black plastic to prevent nutrients being washed out of the soil and also to stop any weeds appearing.
It is too early to sow any seeds outside, but if you have a heated greenhouse, preferably with a propagator, you can
sow onions and leeks in trays. Use a good quality seed or multipurpose compost, made level
and sow the seeds thinly over the surface and cover lightly with sieved compost. When the seeds germinate, transfer the seedlings into small pots or cell trays.
Providing that the outdoor beds have been prepared,
shallots, garlic and rhubarb can be planted. However, I prefer to plant shallots and garlic in small pots in the greenhouse and plant them out later. They don’t need extra heat so just leave them on the greenhouse staging or on a shelf. Rhubarb is a permanent crop so prepare the ground by digging in organic matter such as manure. If you have congested clumps of rhubarb, they can be divided and re-planted now. You can force rhubarb this month if you want an early crop. Dig up a few clumps and plant them in large pots or boxes. Cover them with an upturned bucket filled with straw and put them somewhere warm.
We are, of course, in the middle of the planting season for fruit trees and bushes which can be planted any time during
the dormant season, from November to March. If you haven’t ordered any they are widely available in garden centres. Fruit trees are grafted onto a rootstock which determines the eventual height of the tree. This information should be on the label
so choose the one that suits the position where you want to plant it. You can see the union where the tree is grafted onto the rootstock. Dig a hole large enough to take the roots and put the tree in so that the union is just above the surface of the soil, the tree should be at the same depth as at the nursery or in the pot. You may
Finished crops can go on the compost heap unless they are diseased
Spreading manure over the beds
34 Simply Vegetables
DEREK BROOKS FNVS