Keep an eye on soil temperatures

With September 1 comes the expectation of spring. Don’t let your enthusiasm overrule good sense by planting temperaturesensitive vegetables too early. Watch soil temperatures closely and when these rise to over 10 degrees, growth and germination is more assured.

■ New season’s potatoes are available now. Select the type you want: waxy or non-waxy. Waxy hold together when boiled and non-waxy are good for mashing, chips, roasting and stuffing. Place in a warm dry area protected from frost to encourage sprouting, before planting when frosts have ceased.

■ Time to plant the first round of the salad garden: lettuces, radishes, spring onions, baby carrots, spinach. Herbs such as parsley, chives and coriander can be planted now. Use of a plastic cloche or microclima cloth gives a valuable head start and frost protection to young crops.

■ Don’t let cover crops flower and seed — slash down if not ready to dig in yet. Give a heavy dressing of lime and dig these in as soon as the soil has dried out enough that compaction won’t result from being dug over.

■ There is still time to get strawberry plants in and enjoy fresh berries by December. Blueberry, raspberry, loganberry, guava, cranberries and mulberry plants are all in store now ready to make that berry patch a nirvana of taste and colour.

■ Think about fruit trees: has your orchard got a gap? Now is the time to fill it with something you and the family can enjoy.

■ If you have a greenhouse and have only been using it for the odd early tomato, now is the time it should be getting used to start seedlings, tomatoes and all the early herbs and salad vegetables. ■ Slug populations are at an all-time high at the moment. Use of slug pellets around new seedlings and emerging new perennial shoots like delphiniums is a must. Traps of a little yeast in a saucer of water are also effective for those wishing to avoid poisons near the food.

Flower Garden

■ Plantings of poppies and other cottage-type flowers will fill a gap before the summer perennials take over.

■ Daphne and Wintersweet are flowering now. Cut and enjoy the scent in the house and consider it the tidy up prune for the year. If you have none consider planting some. They are all in store now.

■ Get new roses planted and sprayed with Yates Super Shield ready for the new season. ■ Check for slug damage on emerging perennial shoots.