View from the Vegetable Patch
Dig in! The time is ripe to start preparing for the growing season ahead, whatever space you have
If you want to get serious about raising your own fruit and veg, then the good news is that we are at the very start of the growing season.
Over the coming weeks I’ll be bringing you practical suggestions for things that you can do to make the most of any available outdoor space you have. If you have a greenhouse or conservatory then now is the time to clear the shelves of clutter and start production, because the added warmth and protection that glass can provide will allow you to germinate tomatoes, courgettes and other crops that need heat to get them going.
But even without such a space there is a wide range of food, including carrots and oriental greens, that you can sow outdoors now without the need for heat and you don’t even need a vegetable plot, any patch of soil in good sunlight will do, so think about squeezing crops in amongst flowers in your borders or filling flowerpots, window boxes and even old wheelbarrows with compost and turning them into raised beds. Whatever you are using, the first step is to clear the soil of weeds, dig it over to break up lumps and then, using a rake, work the surface into a fine tilth, adding a sprinkling of general purpose fertiliser if you can get your hands on it.
Cover this with cloches or old compost bags for a week to give the soil a chance to warm up, then create “drills” and sow the seed directly into these, covering lightly with soil, then watering.
To give your seeds the best start, cover the row with cloches – these can be made from clear plastic bottles, with both ends cut off and slit down the length of one side then pegged out.
And you’ll need to do something about slugs. Beer traps, grit barriers, rows of copper coins (slugs react badly to copper), will all reduce their predations. Weed regularly and when the seedlings appear, thin them out to the distance recommended on the seed packet. You can use the seedlings that you remove as ‘mini-greens’, sprinkling them as a topping over scrambled egg or adding them to sandwiches.
If you are growing in containers, choose dwarf varieties of carrot, such as ‘Rondo’, which is shaped like a golf ball and can be grown in less depth of soil than normal varieties, and make sure you don’t let anything dry out.
Pots and other containers can lose water more quickly than soil, so keep an eye on them even during rainy spells.