Although you wouldn’t really know it where we live, spring is beginning to settle upon us. The days are longer, the fruit trees are blossoming, and even with all the wind, cold, super late frosts, the earth is beginning to shrug off its long slumber.
Around the Garden
Keep warming up that soil!
If you’re like us, you’re probably still holding off from planting some crops, as the soil is still not warm enough. We’ve been using plastic to warm up our soil, but it’s still quite ready. Still, if you haven’t been using cloches or plastic and your soil is still too cold for planting, it’s not too late to get on it. Even a week under a cloche or plastic can help dry out the soil and raise its temperature. Also, remember to remove winter mulch from the tops of your beds to allow the sun to directly warm the soil. (And if you haven’t yet bought a soil thermometer, years like this one where the cold lingers should be enough to get you down to your local garden store. Remember, you could be wasting a lot of seed and time planting if you don’t check your soil temperature first!)
Protect your crops from wind.
Wind for us is becoming more and more of an issue, so much so that we’re now installing windbreaks around crops. Last year we lost all of our beans lost because the wind just kept battering them. This year looks to be the same, so we’re taking time this month to put in a 1m high windbreak.
Keep an eye on slugs.
These slimy critters thrive in cold, damp weather and, en masse, can zero out a set of new seedlings in one night.
Direct Sow
Even with our colder than usual temperatures, there’s still plenty of crops that will do well being sown right now—especially root crops and all your leafy greens.
Outdoors, it’s time to sow
- Carrots
- Peas
- Broad beans
- Spinach
- Beetroot
- Swiss chard
- Lettuce
- Summer cauliflower
- Kohl rabi
- Leeks
- Radishes
- Turnips
- Spring onions
- Pickle onions
It’s also time to plant the rest of your onion sets, shallots and asparagus crowns.
If you’re planting second early and maincrop potatoes, now’s the time for them as well.
Start Inside
- Chicory, celery, and endive. These germinate best indoors. You can harden them off next month and plant out in June.
- Courgettes, pumpkins and all other squashes. These are best started off in peat or paper pots so that you can plant out the entire container when it comes time to transplant.
- These also need peat/paper pots.
- Sweet Corn. With our shorter growing season it’s helpful to get a jump on sweet corn. Starting them off indoors can give you a full month jump on the season!
- Tomatoes and Peppers. If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to get some tomatoes and peppers started.
What do you think? Have any other ideas for what to plant at this time? Let us know! And if there are any varieties you’d like us to try out, we’re all ears. (Remember, we only market varieties we’ve grown successfully ourselves!)