Mid March 2018 stocky seedlings no hardening off, broad beans & onions, potatoes later planting, stored cabbage & onion

As the weather goes from cold to mild to cold again, one thing is constant, soil. Undisturbed, compost-mulched ground helps plants to maintain health and grow whenever conditions allow.

Soon it will be all-go and we shall reap the benefit of how it’s easy and quick to plant into the surface compost, even when slightly lumpy. I sow carrots in a tilth with more lumps than perhaps diggers are used to, see this video about sowing into surface compost.

Homeacres on the second day of spring, 2nd March

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Curly kale looked wizened when frozen but has recovered well

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View west side 2nd March, spinach is under the nets

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Same view 16th March

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Leggy seedlings

This happens when light is short, nothing else. Seedlings are rushing upwards to find more light, as when growing on windowsills (which are brilliant for germination, less for growing on).

For example I had this question “We already have every available kitchen surface covered with sprouting seedtrays. Our seedlings usually look much leggier than your own stocky specimens”.

After germinating seeds in warmth, I grow seedlings cooler, and in full light. Seeds we sow in February grow as cold- and frost-resistant: peas, lettuce, spinach, onions, coriander do not die in cold, and survive freezing. To grow into sturdy plants, they need full light.

If long-stemmed now and growing in seed trays or small cells, you can prick or pot them deep and bury as much of the stem as is possible. Again when planting out, set them deeper so the stem is not waving around.

I prick out veg that grow best as singles, or are slow to germinate, or whose seeds are so tiny that sowing into modules is difficult.

Pricking out seedlings of lettuce, cotyledon stage is quickest

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On left are pricked seedlings of coriander, cabbage and dill

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Tray sown brassicas to prick out, and multisown turnips

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When to plant out? save time with no hardening off!!

There are many possible answers, depending on size of module, compost used and how firm it is, the outdoor temperature, light available and stockiness of seedlings, and having fleece/row cover available. Do buy 30gsm not 17gsm and you can plant small seedlings, as long as you have kept beds slug free, with a compost mulch only and no rotting wood nearby.

Planting into surface compost, no dig, sees small seedlings establish rapidly. Laying fleece over avoids any need to harden off: we save so much time in this way.

These module trays spent their first week on a windowsill, where the constant house temperature speeds germination

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Homeacres propagation, seedlings start over the hotbed then move to a bench or this temporary pallet, unheated greenhouse

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The multisown radish and turnips in this photo were in the ground a few hours later, and fleeced over, Seed tray front right gave 1,000 lettuce seedlings

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Size of plantings - they can be small

Josh, who helps here 3 days a week, is planting multisown peas for pea shoots which we sowed 3 weeks earlier

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Then we covered the new planting with fleece, for the next 4-6 weeks

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Frost resistant salads

Mustards, claytonia, corn salad, land cress and spinach are amazing in cold weather.

The salads in these photos were sown in modules September, then planted 24th October after we cleared climbing beans. We have kept mesh over them (on hoops) against rabbits, and to protect from cold winds.

Mesh is less warm than fleece, and less likely to tear in winter gales and snow. Four times we have rolled back this mesh cover in order to pick leaves, with so far 5.6kg saleable leaves  from this area of 7.5m2/80ft2.

Salad bed 3rd March as snow started melting…

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I pulled snow off the mesh cover…

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and found these plants under the mesh

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Fleece on tunnel salads

Before the cold weather of late February-early March, we laid fleece over most salad plants in tunnel and greenhouse. This does not necessarily increase survival chances, but gives bigger harvests in cold yet bright weather.

Look at the colour and size difference of Grenoble Red lettuce. I rolled up the fleece on 4th March and am using it again outside, on new plantings - see peas below.

After ten days of frosty weather. It froze inside the polytunnel

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3rd March after I removed the covers

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Along one edge the fleece had rolled back

The exposed lettuce Grenoble Red are fine but bronzed!

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Photo check of tunnel salads

The difference of ten days. We missed a week of picking when leavess were all frozen (even under the covers) but it's back to normal now, with weekly harvests.

2nd March and snow that blew in after a door panel blew out

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Same view ten days later, harvests continue

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Broad beans

They are hardy plants which resist a lot of cold. However if more than 10-15cm/4-6in tall when frost is severe, their stems may be damaged and leaves may blacken at the edges. Smaller plants are more hardy.

I sow in most winter months, in modules so that mice and birds cannot eat the seeds. Best harvests come from sowing before the end of April, and now is ideal. Fleece or mesh covers are good for young plants against pests and wind.

14th January, I had covered the beans too late and upon removing the fleece…

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I found the the November sowing had been very damaged before the cover went on

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After replanting in January, this is 3rd March

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And 13th March after removing the mesh

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Spring onions and stored onions

Bulb onions from last summer come into their own now, if well stored. Some of mine have kept in a cold frame, others are still good in bunches in the conservatory.

They will be usable until over-wintered spring onion plants grow big, by late April or early May. I sow White Lisbon spring onions in late August, for planting mid September. Main reason for the mesh is in case of rabbits: onions are hardy to frost, so you can plant modules of multi-sown onions now.

However sets are part-grown onions and risk bolting/flowering if sown too early, I would wait until late March, before planting sets, even mid April for sets of red onion.

Of the many ways to store onions, this is a nice way to use an otherwise empty cold frame

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After trimming the onions: they were multisown a year earlier, harvested7 months ago

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Exciting times

I was in Surrey on 14th March to give a talk to the NVS: it was their largest audience to date with a lot of interest in no dig. The bonus for my journey was proximity to RHS Wisley where Sheila Das, the gardens manager, has been working to develop new approaches in the food gardens.

One change has been the adoption and trialling of no dig, such that the Edibles garden looks completely different to when I was there two years ago, all the beds mulched with composted stable manure. There is a dig/no dig trial too.

Up on the large area of student plots is another experiment: each student has half of their plot mulched with Wisley compost, the other half dug with the compost incorporated. A great learning experience for them, and huge interest for visitors.

Pavlina, Ed and Emily in the Edibles garden, by the trial

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This is the new area of student plots and community gardens too

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Audience assembling for my talk in East Horsley

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Storing veg

This red cabbage is Granat, sown last May and planted 21st June after clearing broad beans. I cut this one in late November and kept it simply in a crate in the brick lean-to (annexe) to my house, where it’s cool and damp. 14 weeks later I peeled off five outer leaves going mouldy, to reveal this lovely head of 4.3kg/9lb.

Steph used it to make great dishes for the latest day courses.

Granat cabbage harvested 15 weeks earlier

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Stored veg are alive, this one is growing babies

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Steph converts the veg into amazing dishes for course lunches

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Myths and misunderstandings

For asparagus, lay a 4-6in/10-15cm mulch of compost and plant crowns in that.

Be sure to buy an F1/all male variety, they cost more and are worth it.

“Kent asparagus” is worth checking for crowns.

Plant soon, by mid April.

I would avoid polythene, hoeing/raking small weeds can do it.

Potato planting, when and how

I received this question:

“As I live in Devon where the climate ( normally!) is a bit warmer than further North; I wondered when I can plant potatoes using the no dig method with straw?”

The question wrongly implies that no dig and straw are synonymous. They are not, and in Devon's damp climate, this man will be encouraging slugs!

When to plant potatoes depends on last-frost date, not warmth: you may be in a warm valley which also traps cold air at night, as in much of the Somerset Levels, around Exeter and Benson near the river Thames in Oxfordshire, to name a few places. If unsure, ask locals for their opinion on last frost date. Here it is mid May, on average: I plant first early potatoes in late March, or early April this year, and second earlies mid April. There is no rush, leave your seed potatoes in light so their shoots/chits are stocky.

Potatoes chitting, these are first early Swift

Planting potatoes in early April, using a towel to bury the seed

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Hotbed maintenance

In three weeks we went from 70C at 30cm/1ft in to 55C, plus the heap had sunk by a third, so I decided to add some fresh stable manure.

We took out a barrow of the three week old manure first, then added the fresh, then the older back on top. This is an attempt to filter and reduce the ammonia gases which can singe leaves. They happen mostly if the straw is well wetted with urine, less otherwise. Brassica leaves are especially susceptible and we lost some salad picking in the greenhouse, even though I ventilated.

1 temporary removal of top layer of 3 week old manure

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2 fresh stable manure being added to maintain heat and height

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3 bed retopped and 24in/60cm higher, for now

Job opportunity

Hanford School, near Blandford Forum, is advertising for a 3/4 time post of gardener to work mainly in the walled garden growing fruit, flowers and veg. for the school kitchen in, potentially, 2 acres.

There’s an opportunity to run a gardening enterprise alongside as there’s plenty of space, 3 large greenhouses with heating, well water and a heap of stable manure.

They want a forward thinking gardener who is passionate about sustainability as well as interested in education. Email office@hanfordschool.co.uk with your details: they say "The gardens have not been organically managed but it’s time for change!"

Walled garden at Hansford Scholl, S Dorset

In the greenhouse, Hansford School

Winter leeks, Hansford School walled garden