Once we hit July the focus will switch over to preserving as much of the harvest as possible for the winter months; we don't buy in much veg beyond the potatoes and onions which I struggle to grow, so if the harvest or my ability to preserve it fails, then we could be reduced to a very limited winter diet. This is partly choice; we eat seasonally and also try not to buy food that has covered great distances, bananas and the occasional pineapple excepted. Consequently we don't eat warm climate veggies such as tomatoes, peppers or courgettes right through the year. This keeps our small housekeeping budget in check, reduces our carbon footprint and makes the first freshly picked tomato all the more sweet!
Seed Sowing During the first half of February I will be sowing some more peas and broad beans, as well as some radicchio in the little poly tunnel. In the final week will come the first big block of sowing, the chilli peppers. We have just 16 varieties this year, but they will fill a blog post all of their own a little later.
Hedge Cutting Beyond seed sowing, we will finish cutting the hedges around the perimeter; most of our hedges are little more than self sown or regenerated scrub, so a mixture of bramble, blackthorn, wild rose and proto-trees like ash, willow, birch and lovely field maple. Given that we have deer and boar-filled forest on one side, a dense thick boundary is fundamental. Last year we had to resort to an electric fence and I really don't want to have to do that again.
This year will probably be a lost cause for keeping the deer out; the house next door changed hands, the new owner lives elsewhere and asked someone to come and tidy up what was a pretty scruffy farm. Tidying up was done by digging up or scrubbing out every single bush and shrub, felling all the trees and pulling down all the outbuildings. It was all piled into a heap and set fire alight! The fire burned and then smouldered for the best part of a month and the whole area is now a sea of mud, twisted metal and rubble. Alas, the regenerated scrub/hedge between us was also partly demolished in this cavalier attitude to land management.
Prunings will be shredded and either used as mulch on hedges, trees and shrubs, or added to the compost heap. In the same way that minced meat goes off much faster than the same weight in a single piece, so shredded plant material composts more quickly.
Clearing & Mulching As we eat our way through the leeks, brassicas and parsnips I'll fork over the empty spaces to remove the mole and vole tunnels (the voles have been quite destructive this winter, but we've had worse) and then top with garden compost.
Planting If the month is warm and dry (it is forecast to hit the mid twenties in the next few days, which is worrying) I'll be planting out perennial plants, roses and shrubs that should have gone in the ground in the autumn, but the the torrential rain throughout November made planting impossible.
Organising! With a full schedule in my own garden, plus a busy time working in those of our clients it is important to plan my time. I have a spreadsheet (I love spreadsheets!) containing all the information of what I need to sow, when and how. I can then easily sort out the seeds each week from the big store into the 'to sow this week' box and write the labels while I'm cooking dinner in the evening. Planning and organising takes so much longer than the actual sowing!
Enjoy the Garden! Take time to walk around the garden, look closely at your plants and enjoy the slow returning to life of early spring.
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