Page 32 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2024/25

March
I hope you have your beds prepared and weed free because there are several seeds that can be sown now that the soil is warming up. Whatever you sow, rake in some general fertiliser such as fish, blood and bone first and rake the soil as fine as you can.
I don’t sow my broad beans till May, but you can sow them now if you want an early crop. You could warm the soil up more with cloches if you wish. Sow the seeds 2 inches (5 cm.) deep about 8 inches (20 cm.) apart in rows which can be the same distance apart. I always sow a few in pots to fill gaps if any don’t germinate.
Peas can be sown the same way but choose a round seeded variety like Douce de Provence or Meteor, both of which are readily available. They can be sown closer than broad beans, about 6 inches (15 cm.) apart and 5 cm. deep.
Most other vegetable seeds can be sown in drills. Make a drill in a straight line along the bed half an inch (12 mm.) deep with
the end of a cane or your finger. Sow the seeds thinly along the drill and cover with soil. When the seeds germinate, they need thinning in stages until they ‘re in their
final positions. This applies to brassicas (cabbage, cauliflowers, sprouts, turnips, swedes, radish, kohl rabi), other salad crops (lettuce, endive, rocket, spinach and salad onions) and carrots.
However, I prefer to sow cabbages, cauliflowers and sprouts in 3-inch (7.5 cm.) pots, 3 or 4 seeds in each and thinned to one when they germinate. This also applies to salad crops, but I sow them in cell trays.
I make tubes about a metre tall using builders damp proof material clipped together and filled with compost to sow parsnips and long carrots. The tubes
are stood in buckets. I also have three 80-gallon drums filled with old compost in which I make bore holes and fill these with new sieved compost to sow long carrots. I grow stump carrots either in large buckets or in bore holes in the ground filled with sieved compost.
I said last month that there were some half hardy annual flowers that benefit from an early sowing and I described the method I use. However, the majority are sown this month so if you have any to
Cane structure
sow, please refer to the notes I wrote in February. I still think they are better being put in a propagator if you have one but if you haven’t, they will still grow if left on the staging but will obviously
broadcast and rake it in, or you can sow
it in drills as I have described for some vegetables. However, I prefer to sow them in trays in the greenhouse like I have
take longer. Some that I always sow this month are cosmos, marigolds, ageratum, nemesia, nicotiana and rudbeckia but there are many more.
If you have some ground prepared, raked finely and weed free, hardy annual flower seeds can be sown. You can sow the seeds
I don’t sow my sweet peas till April, but they can be sown now if you want early flowers
described for half-hardy types, but they don’t need to go in a propagator,
just leave the trays on
the staging. Flowers we are thinking about here include calendula, lavatera, cornflower and alyssum.
I don’t sow my sweet peas till April, but they can be sown now if you want early flowers. They can be
sown direct where they are to flower, but you need a trellis or a structure of canes in place first up which they can grow. I have told you before that I grow them on the same structure of canes as my runner beans. I have two rows of 8-foot (2.4 m) canes 3 feet (0.9 metres) apart with the individual canes 9 inches (23 cm.) apart tied to horizontal canes along the top, shorter canes between the two rows at the top and diagonal canes to strengthen the structure. I don’t sow my seed direct,
32 Simply Vegetables