Christmas 07 Newsletter
>Gardening Tips
December
This is the month to enjoy eating lettuces, peas and baby carrots, all going well.You can keep sowing lettuces, carrots, mesclun, rocket and coriander to eat before winter. Rocket and coriander will bolt in hot weather, so plant them close together and eat them when they’re really young. Shade cloth over coriander will keep it leafier for longer. Leeks can be planted now to eat in autumn and winter.
If you want bigger tomatoes and tidier plants, you can pick out the sideshoots of your tomatoes (the little shoots which spring up in the crack between the main branches and the stalk).
Weeding and mulching are big for this month. Peastraw, lucerne, spoilt hay or even dried grass clippings can be used to mulch. Mulching will keep the soil moist and plants much happier while the sun shines.
Liquid manure gives leafy plants a good boost in the summer. To make your own, get a large bucket or bin with a lid, and fill it with water. Tie some manure in a permeable bag (muslin or old stocking), and drop it into the water. Leave for two to four weeks. To use, dilute to the colour of old tea and water around roots of plants. Don’t spray it onto edible leaves (like spinach or lettuce), because of the risk of disease.
January/February
Keep mulching and weeding, and eating. Weeds can be cut off or hoed off at ground level. Worms will eat the roots below the surface. But watch out for invasive weeds like couch which will keep growing from the roots.Choose some of the strongest plants to collect seed from (so long as they’re not hybrids), and let them go to seed.
Time to get winter veggies planted and growing well before it gets colder.
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