This is the month where I plan to catch up with all the structural work that I haven’t got around to yet. I have been examining my raised beds and repairing or replacing the rotten edge boards, mending the shed from the rat attack, topping up the wood chippings on the paths and cleaning the greenhouse glass. I have been picking different types of Kale – black, curly and Uncle Bert’s (a heritage variety), savoy cabbages and parsnips. My leeks were a disaster last year as many bolted and then the later ones didn’t take off.
On the growing side, I have started to cut back the autumn raspberries and will prune my currants and apple tree and put a bucket over one of my rhubarb plants to get the early forced rhubarb, although the warmer winter weather means that the rhubarb is much more advanced than usual. I have made a start on digging out the couch grass and ground elder from my fruit cage, and when that is done I have an old strawberry bed to clear and dig over. I planted a new strawberry bed last autumn and the transplanted plants look fine.
My few seed potatoes from the earlier potato trials – a mira/ valor cross are ready to be chitted. In the greenhouse I have sweet peas a few inches high, and I have sown some sweet peppers, hot wax peppers and jalapenos, a few tomatoes and some trays of broad beans on my propagator.
I have sorted out my seeds into the months in which they need to be sown and I have started to think about the crop rotation and my growing plan for this year, so it feels like I am getting organised! The compost order has come to the allotment now so I have a mix of West Riding Organic seeds and potting composts and some of Dalefoot, vegetable, tomato and double strength, bags. So roll on March and the main sowing period begins.
Val