Potatoes chitting
Bottle cloches make
good plant protectors
In your vegetable garden in February
Grow Your Own and help beat the Credit Crunch!
This month early spring flowering bulbs such as snowdrops and some varieties of daffodils will start to flower; an indicator that the gardener must start to prepare for the sowing season ahead. Stock up with clean pots and fresh seed compost.
Now is a good time to cultivate and prepare all those seed beds for the coming growing season and finish off any major digging and weeding that needs to be done. Get ready for spring by sowing a few early vegetable varieties now both outdoors and under cover and working out your rotation for this year's crops.
Things to do in the vegetable garden this month
Get organised: Once the growing season starts, it is nice to have all the necessary equipment to hand. This is a good time of year to:
- collect plastic bottles and make bottle cloches
- buy plant labels, gather together supports such as pea sticks for climbing plants and other essentials
- check fleece, netting and other crop covers for holes and buy more if they are in tatters
- scrub seed trays, modules and pots with hot soapy water or with Citrox disinfectant (available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue)
Buy your seed potatoes now if you haven't already got them. Store the tubers in a light, cool (10°C), frost-free spot and leave them to sprout. This is known as chitting. Egg boxes make good chitting trays. Make sure you put the tubers with the 'eye' end - where the sprouts will grow from - upwards.
Garden Organic members can browse our potato factsheets:- Growing potatoes
- No-dig gardening
- Potato pests and diseases
Non-members please call 024-7630-8215 for a copy.
Rhubarb is usually eaten as a fruit, but it is technically a vegetable. Rhubarb plants can be 'forced' in January and early February to produce a crop of delicious, slim, pale pink stems. Cover established plants with a large up turned bucket (at least 45cm/18in high), purpose-made clay forcing pot or even an empty plastic compost bin. This is to keep the growing shoots in the dark. Stems should be ready to pull in 3-4 weeks. Slip in a slug trap, if there is room, to protect the tender stems.
Looking after your soil
Digging in Grazing Rye
Start to dig in overwintered green manures such as grazing rye and winter tares. Remember not to follow rye with a direct sown, small seeded crop such as carrots or parsnips as the decomposing rye foliage can temporarily inhibit germination. Leafy crops such as cabbages and spinach beet do well after tares, thriving on the nitrogen released as the foliage and root nodules decompose.
It's easier to dig in a well grown green manure if you cut down the top foliage and leave it to wilt for a few days first.'Top dress' overwintered crops, such as autumn planted onions, broad beans and spring cabbage, to give spring growth a boost. Use a good rich garden compost or chicken manure pellets.
Feed the soil
What you feed your vegetable plots with will depend on what you are going to grow next, what was there last, and the basic fertility of your soil. Root crops and legumes (peas and beans) should thrive without any additional feeding.Garden Organic members can browse our factsheet on crop rotation for how to plan for fertility and which crops to follow on. Non-members please call 024-7630-3517 and select option 5 to request a copy.
Well-rotted strawy manure
ready to dig-in- Other crops may benefit from a dressing of manure, well rotted compost or an organic fertiliser. Fertilisers don't help improve soil structure - on poorer soils it helps if, at the same time, you can add a low fertility soil improver, such as leafmould or try the Organic Gardening Catalogue for a proprietary soil improver product. Use compost at a rate of up to 2 shovels full per square metre, manure at half that rate.
See our advisory note on Managing your soil, for digging tips, types of soil improvers and fertilisers.
Compost trenchCompost trench: Continue to add raw vegetable kitchen waste to your compost trench. The trench should be one spade deep, preferably where your runner beans will grow this year. Cover the waste with soil, as soon as you add it, to prevent foxes or other animals from scavenging.
Lots more advice about planning for the new year here
Sowing and Planting
Growing conditions can vary dramatically across the country, and also even within a locality. If you are new to growing and are unsure about exactly what to do when, try asking other vegetable growers nearby. And be guided by the weather and soil conditions.
Sowing outdoors
- If the soil and growing conditions are right, now is the time to start sowing the earliest vegetable crops. If the grass has started to grow, that's a good sign that the soil is around 5-6°C - warm enough to allow the hardiest seeds to germinate and grow. If you have a heavy clay soil that is slow to warm, wait a few weeks. Seeds sown in too cold or wet a soil are unlikely to thrive.
To help the soil warm up more quickly, pull back any organic mulches, then cover with cloches or sheets of clear or black plastic. Put these in place a couple of weeks before sowing.
-
Sow broad beans
Garlic drying
Broad beans: Not only are broad beans one of the most nutritious vegetables you can eat, but they also add nitrogen to the soil, benefiting following crops. When the soil conditions are right, varieties like ‘Imperial Green Longpod’ or ‘Super Aquadulce’, both available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue, are suitable to sow outdoors.
- Parsnips: If the soil has warmed up towards the end of February then try sowing parsnips. In more exposed and northern areas it might be best to wait until March or later. The variety ‘Avonresister’ is an early maturing variety and has very good resistance to canker, and ‘Gladiator F1’ is the worlds' first hybrid parsnip producing a heavy crop. Other crops that can be sown directly in the soil are salad onions ‘White Lisbon’ or ‘Purplette’ for example.
Planting outdoors
- Garlic: It is your last chance to plant garlic. Printanor is recommended for late winter and early spring planting. An article on garlic growing appeared in the Autumn issue (169) of The Organic Way magazine. You can download the garlic article here - (PDF 118Kb)
- Shallots: An easy crop to grow. Each bulb will divide to produce a clump of 5-6 shallots. ‘Longor’ is suitable for early February sowing or try ‘Red Sun’ in March, both are available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. Apply a low-to-medium soil improver (garden compost), if the soil was not improved from a previous crop.
- Jerusalem Artichokes: The fibrous root system of this vegetable makes it an ideal crop to grow to break up uncultivated ground. Above ground, tall stems provide good cover for birds and amphibians, crowd out weeds, and provide a temporary windbreak. Orders for the variety ‘Fuseau’ must be received before February 28th from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.
Chinese artichokes- Chinese Artichokes: Also known as Crosnes du Japon. A hardy perennial vegetable. The tubers are favoured for their pleasantly mild flavour and can be eaten raw or cooked. An easy vegetable to grow. Prefers a fertile, moisture retentive soil – add garden compost and well-rotted leafmould. Harvest once the foliage is killed off by winter frost. Lift only when needed, covering the rest of the crop with a thick mulch of straw or hay. Orders for Chinese Artichoke tubers must be received before February 28th from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
Direct sowing under cover
Hardy crops that are usually grown outdoors can be sown under cloches or in the soil beds of a greenhouse or polytunnel. They will romp ahead and give welcome fresh produce at a lean time of year.
The following crops are suitable to sow under cover
Sow lettuce under
cover
- Lettuce - loose-leaf or seedling varieties are best
- Carrots
- Radish
- Rocket
- Baby beetroot - use an early variety, resistant to bolting
- Spinach
- Salad onions
- Peas - mangetout or sugar snap are best
- Potatoes - compact early varieties
- Turnips
Unless your greenhouse or polytunnel is frost free you will need to protect these crops if a frost is forecast. Horticultural fleece, in single, or double or even triple layers works well. Keep a few pieces, cut to suitable lengths, on hand.
Sowing in trays and modules to transplant
Raising plants to transplant outdoors (or under cloches or in a greenhouse/polytunnel) gives you a head start on the season. It is simple to provide extra warmth for a few pots and trays - in a warm room, or on a heated bench for example. But remember - the seedlings that appear will also need some warmth - and good light levels.
Sow in trays and modules
- Baby beetroot (M)
- Kohlrabi (M)
- Early cabbage
- Early cauliflower
- Bulb onions
- Spring onions
If you are new to growing from seed, check out the information on (beginner's guide to growing from seed)- Globe artichoke, tomato, asparagus, celeriac, celery, lettuce and onions can be sown in a heated propagator this month.
Sowing in containers
Vegetables suitable for container growing (minimum 45cm depth and width) in February are: Broad beans (‘Witkiem Manita’ or ‘Green Windsor’), carrots (Nantes or Amsterdam groups), loose leaf lettuce (try ‘Amorina’, ‘Aruba’ or ‘Belize’), salad onions and spinach (‘Giant Winter’ or ‘Matador’). Keep watered and cover with fleece if frost is forecast.
Pest and disease watch
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Potato blight
Remember to keep turning
your compost heap Dig up any 'volunteer' potato plants growing from tubers left in last year, as soon as you see them. They could be carrying potato blight.
See our factsheet on Potato blight for more informationBury stems and stumps of overwintered brassicas as soon as they have finished cropping. Bury them in a compost heap, or in a trench in the ground. This will help reduce the population of mealy aphids and whitefly which otherwise would simply move on to your spring planted crops.
Clear up any plant debris, and remove diseased leaves from overwintered crops; put them on the compost heap.
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