View from theP Vegetable atch
All change: Now is the time to tidy up your vegetable plot and plant crops for next year
September is a good time for a clear-up on the vegetable plot, lifting all spent top growth and adding it to the compost heap.
Maincrop carrots can be lifted now and stored, with their tops cut off, in deep boxes with a light covering of sand between each layer of roots.
Once you’ve cleared some space you can concentrate on planting out spring cabbages, setting them on 25cm high ridges if the garden is damp or low-lying.
You can also sow more carrots to follow on from those that have just been lifted, covering them with cloches to help prevent winter losses. Sow some parsley in the same way and, if you grow bay, then take cuttings too and bring these on in a shady place under glass.
If you’ve been growing crops in containers, then don’t discard the compost when you remove the last of the veg. You’ll need to add some fresh compost in order to perk it up again, but spent compost is ideal for growing bulbs as these don’t need additional nutrients. Everything they need for their first year’s flowering is already contained in the bulb, so using old compost is a good way of cheering up the vegetable plot in early spring.
If you plan on keeping the bulbs for future years, then a dressing of bone meal in early spring, followed by applications of liquid feed once the foliage appears and then regularly until they fade, will allow the bulbs to regain their strength.
Old compost can also be used as a mulch or a top dressing, but always check first that it contains nothing that might harm plants, such as vine weevil larvae.
If areas of your vegetable plot are going to lie bare over the winter, then you might want to cover them with something to prevent weeds from seeding themselves into the soil. Horticultural fleece is good for this, but it does contain plastic, so cardboard might be a better alternative and by the end of the winter it may have broken down enough to simply be forked into the soil.