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Undercover

Harvest

Winter salads (chicories, oriental greens, lambs lettuce, claytonia, spring onions), spinach, chard, parsley.

Under-cover tools

As overwintered crops need clearing, weeds start to grow, and the soil needs cultivating, it helps to have the right tools to hand. Ordinary garden tools will do, but for working in the confined space of a greenhouse or tunnel, short-handled versions can sometimes be useful. You are less likely to knock other crops or worse, put handles through the glass or plastic.

I use an ordinary small rake with half a handle, and do much of my under-cover hoeing with an old onion hoe, but look in tool catalogues and garden centres for specialized versions. For preparing beds, my favourite tool is a ‘spork’, which saves having to find room for both a spade and fork. It is light, but plenty strong enough for indoor digging and chopping, and the parallel slits in the blade allow you to ease up and riddle the soil of weeds, just as you would with a fork.

Spud planting

Plant early potatoes in polytunnel beds this month for a crop that can be dug at least a month before those outdoors – at a time when new potatoes in the shops are at their most expensive. Choose fairly small seed potatoes, and space them closely, as you will be harvesting them before they need earthing up or room to spread. I put mine about 30-40cm (12-15in) apart each way.

Potatoes belong to the same family (solanaceae) as tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, so should be kept with them in your crop rotation. Don’t plant them where these crops grew last year or will follow next year. If this means you can’t accommodate them in the beds, grow a few in pots instead (see greenhouse tips).

Plenty of air

Open greenhouse vents and polytunnels doors (and side vents if you have them) for at least a few hours every day, unless it is exceptionally cold and windy. Stale, humid air encourages fungal diseases. Keep hardy crops and salads as cool as you can in mild spells, otherwise the high temperatures combined with February’s low light levels will make the plants grow lank and weak.

Extra heat

Aubergines, chillies and peppers need a long growing season, so benefit from a late February sowing – but they do need extra heat to germinate (18-20C/64-68F), and the young plants also need to be kept warm (ideally over 10C/50F) and in good light. They are slow growing, so don’t need much space. Tomatoes are quicker to grow – if you haven’t got much heated space, just start off a couple of plants of an early variety now for first pickings, and delay sowing the rest until March.

Rather than heating the whole greenhouse, I use a small propagator for germination (but the airing cupboard would do) and a heated mat in the greenhouse for growing plants on. The latter can be covered with cloches or fleece at night, and during cold snaps.

Soil warming

Mild February weather should be warm enough for hardy crops such as lettuces, carrots, brassicas and sugar peas to germinate in polytunnel beds, or in pots or modules in a cold greenhouse. (Sugar peas give much better value for space under cover than podding peas, and crop earlier.)

However, you can help these early sowings along by warming the soil or compost with a covering of clear plastic; put it in place a week or two before you sow – this works better than black plastic as it traps the heat. Replace it after sowing, but remove it at the first signs of shoots emerging otherwise seedlings could scorch.
 

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

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