WHAT TO DO IN THE GARDEN THIS WEEK
Pot up crops in large containers
nless you covered your garden beds with a plastic grow tunnel or cloche, any residual summer warmth will be long gone by now. nd cold, wet soil equals slow germination and seedling growth, so there’s little point planting out punnets or sowing direct between une and mid ugust, as the plants just sit there and sulk.
It’s far more productive to plant filler crops in containers instead. Not only is a bucket filled with potting mix a couple of degrees warmer than the ground it sits on, it’s also quicker to drain after heavy rain and portable, so you can move your potted crops under shelter when bad weather is forecast . lant a punnet of seedlings per bucket.
ecommended crops to plant now include perennial rocket sow or transplant baby beets and baby carrots spinach and silver be et including erpetual’ alltypesofkale bokchoyandkailan. eep your potted crops in the sunniest, warmest corner of your plot. hen growing crops in containers on a covered balcony or deck, feed with liquid fertiliser diluted in warm water.
Plant spuds under cover
otatoes hate frost and can’t be grown outdoors in winter but indoors, it’ s another story Ifyouhavea glasshouse or tunnelhouse, you can plant them now for an early spring crop of gourmet baby potatoes.
It’s best to plant winter potatoes in large buckets of garden soil, or in big piles of pea straw or hay mixed with compost. ake a cm mound and simply bury the seed potatoes in the middle of it. eep moist, but not saturated, and expect to see the first leafy shoots emerge within a month. armth is key, so don’t let the green tops touch the glasshouse panes or a tunnel’s plastic sheeting as they can get frosted.
In my frost free uckland garden, I’m growing potatoes in tall terracotta planters lined up along a north facing brick wall. o space out the harvest, I’m planting two chitted ocket’ seed spuds in a new pot every two weeks if you try this, plant one seed potato per litres of potting mix .
Earthing up as the shoots form is fiddly in a confined planter so I don’t bother. I place the seed potato on about cm of potting mix and then fill the pot to about cm below the rim, sprinkling in a handful of potato fertiliser as I go. s the planters are under the eaves, I’ll need to make sure they get watered, but judging by the driving rain we’ve had recently this won’t be a problem.
ocket’ is an early variety that matures in days. ith luck I’ll be unearthing new potatoes from early ugust onwards.
Give your tools some TLC
hen it’s too wet or cold to venture outside, take the time to clean sharpen and repair your tools. he good news is that it’s not hard and there are plenty of helpful how to videos online.
If spades, trowels and forks are very dirty and clogged with mud, scrape off the worst with a hand trowel or similar and give them a rinse with the hose. If they are made from stainless steel, just let them dry in the air. If they are made of a metal that rusts, dry in the sun or with an old towel and rub over with an oily rag. If the handles are wooden and not sealed with polyurethane varnish, dry and rub over with linseed oil on a rag. I certainly don’t do this every time I garden – only if they are really mucky or I won’t be using them for a while.
I don’t sharpen my secateurs every time I use them. If necessary, I give the blade a rub with a small diamond file. It’s small enough to fit between the blades without taking the secateurs apart. bout once a year I take my secateurs apart for a thorough clean and sharpen with a whetstone.
Spades can be sharpened with a hand file or an angle grinder. It’s easiest if you can put the spade handle in a vice, so you have both hands free to hold the angle grinder. ou can do the job with a hand file – it just takes more effort and time. I keep my smaller tools hand trowel, Niwashi, hand fork, weed knife in a bucket of oily sand to keep them clean and sharp. se river sand not sea sand which is salty and will rust non stainless steel blades . ou can buy river sand from garden centres and hardware stores. I used a light motoring oil purchased from the garage, but you may be able to get some used oil from a mechanic. ecide where you want the bucket to live before you put the sand in as it will be very heavy when it’s full, so you won’t want to move it. I brush soil off the tools before putting them in. obs such as sharpening chainsaws and servicing power tools, are best done by professionals.