Greetings!
Welcome to all new members,I hope you have had a good week gardening. It has been wonderful weather for the plants with a good mixture of sun and rain. I would love any feedback from you as to how the newsletter could be improved or things that you want to know. I could develop a 'question and answer' section if that is something that you wanted.
I will be setting up an archive next week, so that it becomes possible to view previous issues.
Friends are often asking me what they need to do in the garden right now to GROW THEIR OWN VEG, what can you plant now? There has been a great revival of interest in growing your own veg in the last few years, and yet it can all seem very complicated and be hard to find simple advice to help you GROW YOUR OWN.
I will send out this email every week or so to let you know what to do this week and what you could be eating in the months ahead.
|
What to do this week
Earthing up potatoes
When your potatoes have reached this size you need to 'earth them up'. This means pulling the soil up into a ridge with a rake, see picture below.
Their are two advantages to this, it will help to protect the delicate growth from late frost damage and encourage the potatoes to develop more tubers on their stems increasing the eventual yield.
Sowing peas
Now is the perfect time to sow peas. I personally grow mange tout and sugar snap peas rather than ordinary peas. These varieties are more expensive to buy, wonderful when freshly picked for salads or stir frys and growing them yourself saves food air miles as they are not imported from Kenya or elsewhere.
You will need to make a shallow trench about six inches wide and two inches deep, this can easily be done with the flat of a spade or a hoe. Water the trench and then sow your peas in a double row in the trench, about 10 seeds to the foot or 2 inches apart. Then cover the seeds with the soil you scraped out of the trench and press the soil down gently with the back of a rake.
You will probably need to protect the seeds from mice and birds. I build a chicken wire tunnel to cover the row which works well to keep birds off. Putting holly leaves at the end of the tunnel is supposed to deter mice, but I find the birds are more of a problem. Another option is to soak the peas overnight, in cold water, before sowing; they will then germinate more quickly and so are less likely to be eaten by mice.
Once the peas come up you will need to provide sticks or netting for them to climb up. If you live in a rural area you can probably buy or cut your own pea sticks, otherwise you will need to use chicken wire or plastic pea netting.
|
What you could be eating now
This week I have been finishing off salads which overwintered in my unheated greenhouse:
American Land Cress and Lettuce.
Sorrel, Chives, Parsley, Rhubarb and Rainbow chard from the garden and nettle soup.
Don't forget to do some indoor gardening, at this time of year when there is not so much in the garden - grow your own seed sprouts for salads and stir frys.
|
