Garden Gnome Spring
A summary of spring tasks:
PREPARATION: Set seed potatoes to chit in a light cool place (north facing windowsill in a cool room is ideal). In gardens and allotments, complete any essential structural repairs, clear overgrown corners, wash pots and seed trays and tidy everything.
VEG BEDS: Harvest last of winter crops and put all debris in newly emptied compost bins, with twiggy material from the previous heap (and any more you might have laying around) on the bottom; add organic matter to soil (spread compost and cover with cardboard), mulch where and when appropriate, dig in green manures 1 month before sowing; rake seedbeds smooth; warm soil with cloches or plastic sheeting, hoe as weeds appear; apply seaweed meal or other organic fertilizer 2 weeks before sowing. Carrots and parsnips don’t want organic matter – it will make them fork.
OUTDOORS IN GENERAL: All new plantings of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials need regular watering during dry spells right through till the autumn. Tidy the beds, cutting away all dead, damaged and diseased stuff. Trim back or hard prune winter flowering shrubs as appropriate; trim evergreens and shrubs with grey foliage. Lift and divide crowded herbaceous perennials every three years and move any that are in the wrong place. Put stakes in place for those that grow tall and tie in the shoots of climbing plants. Weed, feed and mulch. Deadhead daffodils (don’t tie the foliage in knots) and feed the foliage two or three times over the subsequent weeks until it starts to die back.
SOWING & PLANTING: Plant early spuds and onion sets from mid March; maincrop spuds and red onion sets from early to mid April. Under cloches from late March: beetroot, broad beans, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, leeks and peas. In modules in the greenhouse: lettuce, rainbow chard, spinach and summer cabbage. March in heat: tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, celery, and celeriac. April in heat: French and runner beans, courgettes and squash. French beans can also be sown direct under cloches in April.
By and large, anything that can be sown under cloches can be sown in the open a few weeks later, assuming we don’t have a repeat of last year’s unseasonal snow…
FERTILITY : Scatter seaweed meal at a couple of handfuls per m2; fresh seaweed can be used as a mulch or dug in (wash the salt off or gather it after rain). Seaweed concentrate is diluted and watered in or used as a foliar spray. Cut and steep comfrey and nettles now to use in the same way over the next couple of months. Organic chicken manure pellets give a boost to leafy crops as they are high in nitrogen, but too much nitrogen can produce lush growth more vulnerable to pests and disease; slower more robust growth is hardier and healthier. If you are just starting and haven’t had a chance to add much organic matter extra fertilisers may be of use initially and a regular application around fruit trees and bushes at this time of year is beneficial.
OUR ENEMIES: Slugs and snails are greedy little blighters and will happily polish off a whole row of tiny tender plants overnight. There aren’t many effective deterrents - I find it best to use organically acceptable slug pellets: Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer with Ferramol, available from B&Q.
Start cabbages in modules in the greenhouse as they too are very vulnerable to birds and molluscs, and indeed will need life-long protection from birds and butterflies, so get one of those netting tunnels if brassicas are your delight.
REMEMBER: In our excitement we need to remember a few ground rules: don’t work or walk on the soil if it’s frozen or too wet - frosts can occur as late as early May. Nothing much will grow if the temperature doesn’t get above 7C, and seeds will rot in cold wet soil. Warm the earth by putting cloches in place for a couple of weeks before starting sowing.