JULY PLANTING PLAN

GET an early start for Christmas. No, not with Christmas shopping, but with your Christmas menu! With winter still very much in control, it seems a bit premature to be thinking about summer crops but that’s what some gardeners are doing. For those wanting to enjoy tomatoes for Christmas dinner, planning (if not planting) starts now. To get a jump-start on tomatoes, sow seeds now and rear seedlings in a warm, brightly lit position indoors or in a glasshouse.

These early tomatoes need a lot of cosseting and transplanting into larger pots, before it is safe to plant them outside, as there are still months of cold winds, frost and probably a dash of snow between now and spring.

The best options for an early crop are varieties that are quick to mature such as ‘San Marzano’, which takes around 65-75 days from sowing to ripening its first fruit.

There are other gardeners who set their sights not on tomatoes but on homegrown roast spuds for Christmas. For these dedicated gardeners, August is planting time in frost-free locations. Get a head start by ‘chitting’ the potato tubers indoors. Chitting is done by encouraging shoots to form before the seed potatoes are planted. Set seed potatoes (the small tubers used to grow virus-free plants) in an egg carton in a warm, bright spot and wait for shoots to appear.

Late frosts can damage top growth on potatoes but, so long as it isn’t too severe, the plants can survive to grow to harvest.