Category Archives: Hints & Tips

JANUARY

  • Plan this years planting, rotating crops to get good growth and prevent disease.
  • Continue to harvest remaining crops like sprouts, cabbage, kale, leeks and parsnips keeping the brassicas netted to protect from pigeons. Remove yellowing leaves to stop fungal diseases taking hold.
  • Finish digging clear beds and spread manure where required.
  • Clean greenhouses, polytunnels, pots and trays in readiness for the coming season.
  • Mid month, start chitting early crop seed potatoes in trays somewhere light, cool but frost-free.
  • Sow summer brassicas and spinach on a sunny window sill to plant out in February.
  • Sow Aubergines and chillies under cover in a heated propagator or on a sunny window sill from late in the month.
  • Prune fruit bushes: Blackcurrants-remove 1/3 of the old, weak or damaged stems to ground level.
    Gooseberries, redcurrants and whitecurrants-remove low-lying and dead wood and prune LAST years growth of the main stems back by half. Prune side shoots back to 3 buds.
  • Apple and pear trees – prune to control their size and shape, but do not prune out more than 20% of the crown in any one winter.
  • Grape vines- prune by mid January.
  • Apply winter washes to fruit trees to control overwintering pests.
  • Clear out bird boxes and give them a rinse.
  • Keep bird feeders topped up.

FEBRUARY

  • Chit mid and late crop seed potatoes in trays in a light, cool but frost-free location.
  • Cover seedbeds with cloches to warm the soil in preparation for early veg crops.
  • Apply lime where brassicas are to be grown at a rate of 270g(8oz) per sq. mtr (yard).
  • To reduce the possibility of Club-root infection. Calcified seaweed is a natural alternative that can be forked in a week before planting at a rate of 140g(4oz) per sq. mtr (yard).
  • If the weather is suitable, sow outdoors:- Broad beans, Peas, Spring garlic, Spinach.
  • Plant Jerusalem artichokes.
  • In a greenhouse or cold frame, sow:- Cabbages, Early leeks, Early lettuce, Radishes.
  • In a heated propagator or on a sunny window sill, sow:- Celeriac, Mustard and cress, Sweet peppers and chillies, Aubergines, Tomatoes (at the end of the month).
  • Continue harvesting any crops.
  • Plant out summer brassicas and spinach in late Feb.
  • Prune Autumn raspberries, cutting all canes down to the ground.
  • Top-dress all fruit trees and bushes with sulphate of potash and mulch with well-rotted manure or compost keeping it away from the trunk/stems.
  • Avoid turning the compost heap until mid-spring as it could contain hibernating small mammals, frogs and insects.

AUGUST

  • Keep on picking!
  • Keep harvesting crops like French and Runner beans and Courgettes to prevent them getting too big and to encourage new growth.
  • Harvest 2nd early potatoes.
  • Harvest main crop potatoes towards the end of the month once the foliage dies down. If blight appears, remove the foliage.
  • Onions, shallots and garlic-pull up when tops are dry and dry fully before storing indoors in the cool.
  • Harvest sweetcorn when a grain exudes a milky juice when tested with a fingernail.
  • Plant out winter brassicas (broccoli, cabbage and kale).
  • Sow perpetual spinach and Swiss chard.
  • Make last sowing of carrots and beetroot early in the month.
  • Sow parsley and divide chives.
  • Harvest early apples and pears.
  • Harvest plums and blackberries as they ripen.
  • Summer prune trained fruit trees (fans, cordons and espaliers).
  • Prune plum and damson trees after fruiting.
  • Water as necessary.

USING OLD PALLETS

Some people wish to make items from pallets, but there are certain marks which denote treatment stamps on old pallets that you need to be aware of:-
HT. = Heat treated. This pallet has been heat treated to eliminate parasites and insects.
KD = Kiln Dried These pallets have been heated in a kiln to kill off any wood pests. Kiln drying also eliminates fungal growth.
MB. = Methyl Bromide. These pallets have been treated with highly toxic pesticide .You should never use pallets for craftwork and you should never burn these or put into a wood burner.
Lastly do not use pallets stained bright colours as they usually belong to rental companies and you can be fined by that company if you use them for your projects.

Water availability in winter

At this time of the year when there is a likely hood of freezing, the water troughs are often tuned off and empted. Members with Polly tunnels should always make sure that they have their own supply of water available.