Freshen up for tasty veg

For those who want to enjoy the freshest leafy salads, spring onions, radishes, or baby carrots, now’s the time to get cracking.

Before sowing the seeds, make sure your ground is in perfect condition for rapid growth. Check that the soil is dry enough and ready to work before you prepare your seedbeds. If the topsoil crumbles easily, it’s ready.

Light or sandy loams are usually ready first. Heavy soils will take longer.

When your ground has worked down into a crumbly, weed-free seedbed, start sowing. Begin with large seeds, such as broad beans and peas. radishes and brassicas can be next. French and runner beans are barely hardy. Sow those later in spring, or start them in a greenhouse for planting out later.

Fine seeds, such as carrots and onions, will germinate more evenly if sown into a fine seedbed.

If your soil needs to dry a little more, sow those later. Carrots and spring onions can be planted any time from now until late July.

Heavy soils with a high clay content are easily damaged. So, if your ground is heavy, leave well alone for now. Composting such land every year will make even the stiffest soils more workable.

In most soils, weed seeds will have been germinating for some time.

Hoe those out now, while they’re still small.