Jobs for the Month
Jobs for the month: June 2012
3 May 2012
Lift first early spuds - The first of the early potatoes can be lifted this month for your first taste of outdoor grown new tubers. Take care when lifting not to spear the tubers – use a fork with wide spaced tines if you have one (of course a potato fork is ideal), and insert it into the ground a good 30cm (12in) from the crown of the plant. If the majority of tubers are still quite small, you may decide to just lift what you need for a taster and to leave the rest for another few weeks to ‘fatten up’.
Jobs for the month: May 2012
5 April 2012.
Come Armageddon I’m pretty sure one of the species to pull through will be flea beetles. These small, dastardly, hopping beetles with two yellow stripes down their backs are the ones responsible for the tiny holes in your brassica leaves; they appear from nowhere at the first sniff of a host and take a lot of killing. They are at their worst in hot weather and can consume emerging brassicas before you even see them break the surface, and they make a real mess of salads...
Jobs for the month: April 2012
1 March 2012.
Sow tomatoes - March and April are the months when most of us are best advised to sow tomatoes. Any earlier and they tend to stretch due to the lower light levels and the first truss of fruit is often lost as a result. If plants do stretch, it is better to throw them away and to start again than to persevere with them.
Jobs for the month: March 2012
2 February 2012.
Five minute fixes with Guy Watson, founder of Riverford Organic Farms - For keen gardeners, with the days lengthening, the sun climbing and soil temperatures rising, the call to plant and sow will be becoming overwhelming. Unless you are blessed with light (sandy) and well-drained soil, I would urge you leave the spade, fork, rake and certainly the rotavator in the shed until the soil is dry enough to crumble easily. If it moulds into a ball or worm or sticks to your boots it is probably too wet. Gently digging over, especially if you can avoid walking on dug ground, will open the soil up and aid drying, but don’t force a seed bed until it is dry enough.
Jobs for the month: February 2012
5 January 2012.
Sow beetroot - Sowing anything outside this early in the season is a risk for most of us and impossible for many. However, if you have a cool greenhouse you can start to sow some early crops in trays or pots ready for planting out once the weather and soil conditions improve.
Jobs for the month: January 2012
1 December 2011.
Plant and force rhubarb - Rhubarb is a very hardy crop that thrives on the cold. It is one of the first to be ready to harvest in the season, the strong shoots emerging from January onwards with the first harvests usually beginning in March. Give plants a generous mulch of straw, leafmould, garden compost or well-rotted manure now to encourage them. However, plants can be coaxed to produce early sticks by forcing – either in the ground or by lifting and placing under the greenhouse bench or in a shed.
Jobs for the month: December 2011
3 November 2011.
Here come the first really hard frosts in these parts (North East Somerset) and that means it’s the perfect time for some real comfort food like bangers and mash. The perfect accompaniment is the humble cabbage or a handful of Brussels sprouts which should be ready by now. Winter cabbages such as the classic ‘January King’ types and the tough but tasty ‘Tundra’ will cope with all the winter can throw at them and are brilliant for cutting just when you fancy a spot of heart-warming colcannon with your sausages.
Jobs for the month: November 2011
6 October 2011.
Choose your digging tools - Digging is a strenuous job, but can be made much easier with a good fork and spade.
Jobs for the month: October 2011
1 September 2011.
Plant spring cabbages
If you sowed some spring cabbages back in July/August they should be ready for planting about now. This will give them time to establish roots before the onset of winter.
Jobs for the month: September 2011
3 August 2011.
It’s time to sow hardy overwintering crops
There are several useful hardy crops that can be sown now for overwintering to give you early harvests in the spring. These include, claytonia (winter purslane, miner’s lettuce) and corn salad (lamb’s lettuce) such as ‘Louviers’, ‘Cavallo and ‘Vit’. Also winter spinach such as ‘Polar Bear F1’ and ‘Crocodile F1’. Choose a variety such as those mentioned which have a good resistance to downy mildew and which are slow to bolt.
Current Issue: June 2012
Edible crops for little plots
Expert advice for growing your own fruit and vegetables
WIN over £1758 worth of products*
Including the new KÄRCHER Window Vac
Plus... Grow strawberries with Toby Buckland... Bob Flowerdew answers your gardening queries... Leeks and dwarf beans made easy with advice from Joe Maiden and Andrew Tokely...
PLUS:
• Next issue on sale: 1st June 2012
