Plan ahead for bigger harvests
amounts of nutrients.
If you’re starting a new plot or creating raised vegetable beds, prepare the ground thoroughly, digging to break up compacted soil and weed thoroughly. Then add bulky organic matter before planting season starts. It may be better to do this in spring, using compost as a surface mulch.
If you have an existing vegetable plot, dig it over each winter, inverting lumps of soil to bury annual weeds, but leave the clods intact. Frost and rain will break them down and leave a crumbly soil by spring. On light, sandy soils, wait until spring before digging. Sandy soils may also need liming regularly to give them a neutral pH. If in doubt, buy a soil tester to test the pH of your soil.
The four-year rotation is a good technique which is easy to plan. Divide your plot into four separate sections if you have space, and then operate a four-year rotation on each. What to do this week
Order or buy seeds of plants that need to be sown in mid and late winter to ensure they get the long growing season they need.
Plant brightly coloured winter stems such as dogwood, willow and rubus, to give your garden a boost.
Prune winter-flowering shrubs over three years old after flowering.
Keep Christmas hyacinths cool or the leaves will grow quickly and obscure the scented flowers.
Remove mummified fruit from apple trees but don’t add them to your compost bin or they could spread disease.
Continue to plant bare-root hedging.
Harvest winter brassicas including Brussels sprouts and sprouting broccoli.
Continue winter digging if the soil isn’t too hard, but stay off clay soil until the weather is dry.
If your acer needs pruning, do it now while it is dormant to stop the wounds bleeding sap and weakening the plant.
Take hardwood cuttings of willow, buddleia and dogwood to increase your stock.