[Connor]

The growing season is about to start soon.... what jobs are there to do in the veg patch and polytunnels?

[doganjo]

The boring ones - cleaning and tidying! 

[Fleecewife]

It depends how you left it in the autumn.  Mine still has to be weeded and rotavated/dug, but I'm on a light soil so I don't leave the surface exposed in the wet months.  What type of soil do you have?  If it's clay then it's worth digging it roughly and leaving the clods to be broken down by the frost.  Manure should really have been dug in in the autumn but it's not too late to do it now, if you have good well rotted stuff, or if you do no-dig then cover the surface with a good layer of mulch.


There are a few seeds you can sow already if you want early crops. Chillies are worth getting started early indoors or in a heated propagator, possibly tomatoes too depending on your local climate and last expected frost.  Salads and salad leaves can go in, and spring planting garlic.  Broad beans can go in but are best in pots initially at this time of years - best either sown in Nov or wait til March and they will soon catch up.  Cauliflowers and early Brussels sprouts can be started off either in a seed bed or modules

In the tunnel, I'm not doing anything yet.  The soil is clear and I have strawberry plants for summer growing and winter brassicas cropping now.  We will have plenty more frosts here yet so I don't fall into the trap of getting everything planted at the first false spring - it will end in tears 

You can cover bits of your outdoor soil with clear polythene which will help the soil to warm up.  It will also encourage weed seeds to germinate ie creating a 'false seed bed', so you can hoe off those seedlings before you put in your crops and fewer weeds will emerge later.

I'm sure there's plenty more you can be doing.  I still have my seeds to order, but as I have enough of most things left from last year I only need a few packets such as parsnips, which need fresh seed each year.

[Connor]

All sounds good before the winter started i put my chickens on all my veg patch and broke the soil up soi have a layer of manure mixed into the soil. I also emptied my compost bin and put the compost onto of a patch that didn't have chickens then i put carpet on top to stop pests digging in it. I have a few seeds that will be sown in March time also have to keep turning my straw pile each week to help it rot down quicker!!

[cloddopper]

I have very few weeds in my 36 inch high raised beds save for some couch grass and a bit of creping buttercup .  I hope to zap them with round up jelly applied with a small artists paint brush this week end as it's the forecast that it will be cold and dry .
 
I've also got to sort out the problem that's arisen when the builders put my greenhouse on a cast concrete slab that they cast.  The slab has settled tremendously , using a cheapie laser level , I found that there is one corner almost 40 mm lower than the rest.
No wonder the glass does not sit true in the channels. Every time it rains hard there is at least 3 mm of water standing inside on the floor slab .  It's turned grotty green this last 8 weeks so I'll bleach , scrub and aqua vac it clean & dry before i start undoing the skirt anchors & levelling things up.
 Once It's set level I'll run  a fillet of mortar round the skirt and when it's dry lay a new paving slab floor inside this time making sure its true at the edges sloping very slightly to the middle to decent central drainage channel running directly outside so I can clean , sluice down and disinfect it in the future .

 On the seed front I have a massive seed sowing planner on eXcel that prints out on A3 sheets . I'll check to see what dry stored seeds I still have and as to which are viable then take a trip to a garden centre and buy any new or replacements for the coming season /year.

 I took the plastic Daleks of four full finished compost bins to let it weather a bit . If it's fine next week I hope to inoculate five of the beds for this years  greedy feeders.

On the seed sowing , by the end of next week if all is well I should have a slack handful of seeds started in my thermostatically controlled  heated bed that also has two massive LED grow lights . With oith teh propagrion bed i doubt I could contemplate getting any plants growing .

 Outside:-
Due to the almost 9 weeks of daily rain the brassica are suffering with big blotches of black mould ..I stripped off the affected leaves this afternoon and also  took off lots of " blown " sprouts . the parsnips are still with us....  just .
Swedes are doing well so are the leeks and celery " stumplings " .

 In a couple of weeks we hope that the builder can start digging the footings for the additional raised bed's brick work and get started adding a second story to the old redundant brick built BBQ stand so I can finish it off as a hot and cold smoker by the end of April this year .

 The four new compost Dalek piles might also get the first base layer of 6 inches or so of good honest stinky  pig muck and a foot of straw  from the lambing sheds by the end of January ( my pal has a large small holding and has plenty to spare ) .

[HesterF]

I hope to zap them with round up jelly applied with a small artists paint brush this week end as it's the forecast that it will be cold and dry

Are you sure it won't be too cold? I'm waiting to zap weeds so I can clear a fence line for hedge planting (trees ordered and coming end March) and have been informed by reliable sources (garden centre, farmer, mother) that weedkilling is completely pointless at this time of year. Mind you, maybe it depends on the type of weedkiller but for systemics (and I think the Round-Up gel is one?), I think they plant has to be actively growing to ensure the active ingredients move through them to the roots.

H

[cloddopper]

Well the data said apply in the growing season ,  it's warm enough for them to have grown four inches or more since mid November.

With the Round Up ,  I think that all you need is around 12 hrs of dry and 3 to 5 hrs. of sunlight light and your home and dry so to speak .

 I seem to remember reading that if the temp is 10 oC or above it's ok to use Round Up.

[HesterF]

Yep, 10 deg is what I had in my head too - no idea where it came from - but that's why I thought cold might not be good for it - November was still warm (and my weeds have all found quite a bit of time to grow). I think we hit 10 degrees last week so now I'm kicking myself I didn't act on it as the forecast is all much colder (but not cold enough to treat the bees - I'm hard to please!)

[cloddopper]

The first two weeks of February are traditionally our worst UK winter weather ,
so we may have to wait till around 17 Feb before things dry off and warm up enough ..it's pee'd down all day here in stair rods . fine soaking sea rain and strong mizzle.