Terry Walton is getting ready for spring
Heavy frosts have benefited the soil and soon it’s time to start growing!
The frosty weather has left us again and we return to mild, damp conditions. Oh, what a difference those two weeks of night-time frosts made to the soil that had been turned over. The large clods have become crumbly and, as the gentle rain falls, they’re breaking down into fine particles. This is the advantage of tilling the soil and exposing large areas of it – a fine soil structure will be left to aid seed sowing in the not too distant future.
The areas of turned-in green manure also benefited from the frosty conditions by ‘killing’ off those few shoots of grass that reappeared after turning it in. This will continue to rot down over the next few weeks and leave the ground in good shape ready to plant this season’s crop and give it a flying start.
On our allotment we’ve a store shed that caters for all the members’ needs. In addition to the blood, fish and bone, which is (excuse the pun) the backbone of the organic growers’ fertiliser, the store sells superphosphate, sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of potash and the general fertiliser, Growmore. It’s the work of the more scientific gardener to use these to supply the feeding needs of various types of crops.
It was a month ago when I sowed broad beans in their plastic bags on a warm windowsill. These soon sent out ‘tails’ to show they’d germinated, and were planted in polystyrene cups in my warm greenhouse. These then seemed lost for two weeks before their little green shoots popped through the surface. They’re now growing on well and the advantage of this method is that every cup has a bean growing in it.
My onion sets have arrived too, though it’s far too early to plant these out on the plot. So, on a cool day the decision was made to steal a march on nature and plant 20 of these sets in polystyrene cups. Filling them with good compost, one set per cup was planted just below the surface. These will be planted out in late March when, hopefully, they’ll have a good root system and a healthy green top. This will help stop the birds pulling them out.
The rest of the sets will, however, be planted straight in the ground at the end of March in my traditional way.