Homegrown tomatoes worth the effort

This traps the humidity to speed up sprouting. Place the trays or pots in a warm spot, such as inside a hot water cupboard. As soon as you see signs of germination, remove the plastic and move the pots into a brightly lit location indoors, such as a sunny windowsill. They need as much natural light as possible or they’ll grow tall and spindly (leggy). Once they are 3-5cm tall, move them under a cloche or to a tunnelhouse for better light. The seedlings will need repotting into larger pots of potting mix after a month. They will be ready to transplant at Labour Weekend. established strawberry beds. Weed (carefully) around your plants. Do this with a hand-held trowel or fork rather than a push hoe or spade, as strawberries have wide spreading roots that are easily damaged when you’re yanking out competing weeds. Once the weeds are all cleared, lightly water in fertiliser. You can use any general purpose NPK fertiliser, as strawberries are vigorous growers with a general hunger for nitrogen as well as the potassium in a specialist fruit fertiliser such as Daltons Strawberry Fert or a tomato fertiliser. The final step is to lay mulch or straw over the bare soil around your plants to suppress weed growth and keep the developing fruit clear of the soil. Later, when the fruit is ripe, it will be less susceptible to rotting on the undersides or getting grey mould if it isn’t sitting on damp spring soil. Get your bird covers sorted now too. Plastic netting does the trick. both of these crops and mulch them well to stop another rash of weed seeds germinating in spring. No weeds also means no place for slugs and snails to hide, while mulching also helps insulate the soil, warming it up just a notch. tunnel to cut the growing time from plot to plate.