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Joyce Russell

Undercover

Welcome to a new gardening year. It’s time to turn the page on the year gone by, with all its rain and shortage of sun and look forward to the year that’s still to come. Get the seeds ordered; get the ground prepared; wash down the glass and the polythene and keep fingers crossed that 2009 might be the best one yet.

Hot tip for the month


Joyce hard at work

As the days start to lengthen over the next few weeks, any bit of extra heat will help seedlings and over-wintered plants to leap ahead. You don’t have to spend on heaters and push up the fuel bills. Try filling a barrel with water in a corner of the greenhouse – it will heat up on any sunny day and will release heat slowly at night. Or, make a pile of fresh strawy manure in a corner of the polytunnel. It will release plenty of heat for days, and even weeks if you stir it around from time to time.

Not too early to sow

● Early varieties of aubergine to ensure a good summer crop (see page 14-15)

● A few early carrots in a pot of compost

● The earliest varieties of potatoes; if you don’t want to grow a lot, just try one in a bucket and cover the foliage if there’s a chance of hard frost

● Salad leaves in all shapes and forms

● Tomatoes if you can provide continuous heat

● Summer lettuce varieties – they do well from an early sowing

Remember the peas

If you sowed ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ in pots in November they will be a few inches tall by now. This is no problem, but it is time to get them planted out. The nutrients in the compost will be exhausted and growth will stop if the young plants don’t get a chance to root into the soil. Try not to disturb roots when planting and make sure there is plenty of moisture-retaining compost dug in the trench where you plant. Scatter lime on the surface if soil is acid – it will help repel slugs as well as provide the correct pH for legumes.

If you didn’t get round to sowing peas so far, it is still worth sowing a few sugar snaps under cover early in January. They will get well ahead of outdoor sowings and should crop just three weeks later than the November-sown ones.

Spring cabbages

These will put on a growth spurt from now on and even late October or November plantings will start to grow well. Mulch round plants to keep in moisture and provide a nutrient boost, but watch out for slugs, which can hide among the young leaves.

Joyce hard at work

Sprouting broccoli

What a joy it is to get this splendid crop for a few extra months! Growing a couple of plants under cover extends the season and produces the earliest crops of the year. The first central spears can appear in January. They are never quite as robust, or plentiful as later ones, but they taste delicious all the same. I like to leave the first spears to grow big enough to see where the next buds are growing, before I cut. Use a knife or scissors so you don’t damage the plant.

Strawberry time

Plants brought indoors at the beginning of January should ripen fruit in early May. Choose the sunniest spot there is, in order to grow the juiciest strawberries. I like to sit the pots on a layer of manure. The roots don’t reach this until plants are growing well, but by then they appreciate the extra feed. Trim off any discoloured leaves and any premature flowers that have blackened at the centre. Keep pots pretty dry for a couple of weeks until new growth starts.

For much more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!