Heligan Gardens
Sowing Seeds
February can be a month of deadlines, the main one is making sure one is fully prepared for the spring season. It can mean lots to do but doing this work now, will save time later and mean that nothing is missed out.
The first task is have I ordered all the seeds that I need for the coming season?
It’s not always easy because it’s not just a case of making sure I’ve gathered all the seeds for spring sowing but enough for the successional sowing throughout the summer and autumn.
So planning is the crucial thing. I tend to use a seed-sowing calendar, which I have pieced together over the years to include all of the staple vegetables, leeks, onions, lettuce etc but also to include new varieties, new types as well as new vegetables. The calendar or planner is rewritten each year with hopefully enough room for any slight alterations. Changes are more often than not frequent, as it’s all too easy to be tempted by another new packet of seeds that I have happened upon in some seed merchant or garden centre.
Most of the planning for seed sowing has taken place through the dark winter nights, surrounded by seed catalogues, but more often now with the laptop.
Oh, the gardens and vegetables that could be grown in acres of garden in the imagination, where time and energies are limitless.
Any gardening is all about timing, not just sowing the right seed at the right time in the perfect conditions but the right job or task carried out under the correct weather conditions.
February can be a dry month if the wind turns to the East so finish off any digging should the weather permit. If the weather is reasonably dry and frosty, leave heavy soils exposed - the frosts will kill pests and improve soil structure by the continual freezing and thawing of soil water. Improve drainage of heavy soils by working in lots of organic matter.
If, on the other hand, the weather fronts roll in from the south west bringing rain, it is well worth spending time checking that tools and other garden sundries are prepared for the coming season.
Spades and hoes should be sharpened with a file or grinder; this might sound strange but a sharpened, clean, well oiled spade cuts through the soil better than a blunt rust one. The hoe is fundamentally a cutting tool, so the sharper the better. When gardening on wet soils work from a plank of wood, rather than treading on the bed, to avoid compacting the soil.
So, to reap the rewards next summer, it is a case of winter pain for summer’s gain.
Last year, I had some success in growing hardy annuals amongst the vegetables, cornflowers with the onions and pot marigolds with the carrots to help fend off carrot root fly, so this year I am dedicating a large part of the plot to the growing of cut flowers.
Some allotment purists would discount the idea, as they believe that - “if you can’t eat it, it’s a waste of time and space growing it”.
I feel that being able to take a bunch of flowers cut fresh from the plot home or as a present when visiting friends just cannot be beaten.
Tasks for February
✿ Prepare vegetable seed beds, and sow some vegetables under cover
✿ Chit potato tubers
✿ Protect blossom on apricots, nectarines and peaches
✿ Net fruit and vegetable crops to keep the birds off
✿ Prune winter-flowering shrubs that have finished flowering
✿ Divide bulbs such as snowdrops, and plant those that need planting ‘in the green’
✿ Prune wisteria
✿ Prune hardy evergreen hedges and renovate overgrown deciduous hedges
✿ Prune conservatory climbers
✿ Cut back deciduous grasses left uncut over the winter
✿ Sow seed indoors for early crops e.g. lettuces, summer brassicas (e.g.cabbages and cauliflowers), spinach, salad onions and turnips.
✿ Apply a top dressing of sulphate of potash to all fruits and nuts
✿ Ensure tree stakes and ties are firm and sound.
First Published February 2011 By The Dart
