‘vegetable garden planting’ Articles

How to vegetable garden in January, garden ideas for the month of the year when the weather can be dark, bleak and cold. Let us be honest, the inclement weather of winter gardening does not encourage us to do much in the vegetable garden.

The garden soil may be frozen or too wet to work and is best left alone and preferably not even walked on. Instead of working with your spade revisit your vegetable garden design perhaps incorporating a raised bed garden especially if your garden is too heavy to work or has sandy soil that does not hold water and nutrients. A raised bed vegetable garden involves planning, preparation and work in the first year but all that work pays for itself in the subsequent years.

Revisit your vegetable garden layout and rotation system to ensure the same crops are not grown in the same beds year after year which will help prevent disease build-up.

It is not too late to order garden seeds so take out your seed catalogues and choose the vegetable seed varieties that you intend to grow and put in that order.

As part of your disease prevention plan clear up any remaining crops that are now over.

Should the ground be workable incorporate as much compost and / or well rotted manure as you have available when digging over your vegetable plot.

Remember that slugs, snails and mice will still be looking for a feast so be vigilant around any growing or stored vegetables.

Brussels Sprouts

Carry on harvesting Brussels Sprouts and remember that they do not just have to be boiled or steamed, there are many ways to cook sprouts.

It pays to stake or earth up Brussels sprouts to prevent wind rock or the danger of them being blown over. There is nothing worse than going down to the vegetable garden or garden allotment and seeing Sprouts lying on the ground getting full of soil and grit not to mention being chewed by slugs.

To prevent the spread of grey mould and brassica downy mildew remove yellowing leaves.

Unless you are growing an F1 hybrid that matuers at the same rate along the haulm pick the largest sprouts from low down first.

Rhubarb

Should rhubarb be in the fruit or vegetable gardening section? Whatever your preference January is the time to start forcing rhubarb by placing a large container over the crown to encourage the fresh shoots to grow. Excluding light by use of a bucket, dustbin or made for purpose forcing jar will mean that you will be eating delicious young rhubarb much earlier in the year.

One more thing you can do for extra warmth is to put manure or straw over the top.

Chicory and seakale can be forced using the same method.

Broad Beans

Sow broad beans in January in pots and put them in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse to have broad beans ready to plant out in spring. Protect from mice.

Onions

If growing onions from seed rather than sets (small bulbs) sow now in a heated propagator and they will be ready to plant out in March. Remember that onions grown from seed need a long season to reach maturity.

Growing Potatoes

Order seed potatoes from a reliable source that can guarantee virus free stock.

Vegetable Plants to Harvest

A selection of vegetable plants that can still be harvested in January include:

• Brussels Sprouts
• Parsnips
• Celeriac
• Sprouting Broccoli
• Turnips
• Leeks
• Swedes
• Jerusalem Artichokes

Warm Your Soil for Early Sowings

Polythene sheet and bought or homemade tunnel cloches and are perfect to cover the soil in preparation for early sowings of Lettuce, Radish, Peas, Broad Beans, Spinach, Salad Onions.

Stored Vegetables

Place mice controls near stored vegetables.

Regularly check stored vegetables and remove any rotting or mouldy specimens.

Vegetable Seeds to Sow in January

The thought of vegetable planting brings optimistic thoughts of the warmer and longer days to come. Vegetable garden planting time can be closer than you imagine by starting vegetable garden seeds in January for planting out in February.

Here are some suggestions of vegetable garden seeds that can be sown under cover in January:

• Lettuce
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Radish
• Spinach
• Salad Onions
• Turnip

Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

If you intend to grow your vegetables using the raised bed vegetable gardening method, January is not too late to start or complete the build of your raised beds.

See also:

How to Vegetable Garden in December

How to Vegetable Garden in February

Vegetable garden planting time has arrived at last. After all the hard work the fun bit begins. Did you say what hard work? If you did it can only mean that you have moved into a home with a vegetable plot already prepared, taken over an existing garden allotment or you are annoyingly young and fit!

Before your vegetable garden planting begins, as part of learning how to vegetable garden you have hopefully thought about the vegetable garden layout and prepared the ground by double digging if using the raised be or deep-bed method and have worked in a good quantity of organic material such as well rotten manure or compost. 

The step before actual planting and sowing is working your soil into a good tilth. To quote Wikipedia, good tilth is a term referring to soil that has the proper structure and nutrients to grow healthy crops. To achieve a good tilth you may have to break up lumps of earth and a good way to do this is by using the back of a garden fork. Swing the fork from side to side and strike the earth and you will find that the large clumps break up into workable crumbs. Then rake over the surface to level it, further break up the lumps of soil and remove large surface stones. 

Do not be in a rush to sow or plant but wait until the ground has warmed up sufficiently. A good way to judge is to look for signs of weed seeds germinating. 

To sow seed make a groove in the soil which is known as a drill. The depth of the drill should be just deep enough to cover the seed to about twice its diameter or if the seed is very small as shallow as you can make it to just cover the seed. For peas, rather than making the groove with a cane or the edge of a hoe, use a spade to make a shallow but wide trench so that the seeds can be broadcast (scattered) rather than in a regimented row. 

Carefully water the bottom of the drill, avoiding washing the drawn back soil into the drill. If the soil is very dry repeat this process as many times as required, letting the excess water drain away before sowing the seed. 

Sow the seed thinly; do not be tempted to sow thickly because the seed is very small. You can of course thin out the germinated seedlings and some varieties will successfully transplant to reduce wastage but some vegetable seedlings do object to being moved. A good method to use when sowing very fine seed is to firstly mix the seed into a cup that contains fine grained dry sand (not builder’s sand as this is too heavy) and then sow this mix into your drill. Draw the dry soil over to cover your seeds using your garden rake or, in the case of a shallow drill, your fingers. Gently pat down over the filled drill with the back of your garden rake or your hand to make sure the seed is in contact with the soil. If your soil is heavy clay it may be better to backfill the drill with potting compost. Do not be tempted to water the filled drill at this time as there is a danger that the top surface will form a hard crust that the young seedlings may find hard to penetrate. 

If you have purposely sown seeds thickly into a seed bed to be planted out into a fresh plot there are a couple of rules to remember. As a general rule the young plants should be carefully lifted so that neither the roots nor stem is damaged and then be planted to the same level as they were in their original home. There are exceptions to this rule such as leeks which when pencil thick make a hole with a dibber so that the leek drops in deeper than they were originally. Cabbages are buried to a depth of the lowest leaves but do not transplant until five true leaves have formed. You need to limit the shock of being moved as much as possible and it helps if you water well before and after transplanting. 

To get a head start seeds can be sown under cover and be raised in trays or pots. For small seed use a tray of good proprietary compost. Fill to about two thirds, water with a watering can fitted with a fine rose and allow to drain. Sow the seed thinly on the surface and cover with sieved compost or alternatively use Vermiculite. The latter is good in that it is lightweight, does not form a hard crust over the seed and lets in light. Many new to gardening assume that seed needs to be buried so that no light is allowed to reach but this is not the case. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, gently grip the seedlings by the leaves and “prick out” into trays of compost to grow on to planting size. Pricking out is just a term that means taking out seedlings that inevitably will be growing too close together and spacing them out in new compost. You will learn the best number of a variety to put in a seed tray by experience but if you start with 5 along the length and 4 across the width resulting in 20 plants to a tray you will not go far wrong. 

For large seed such as Broad Beans or Runner Beans sow these directly into individual pots. Two beans can be sown to a pot as insurance in case one does not germinate. 

If sowing very early you will need to give your seed warmth to get then to germinate and will need to provide warmth and shelter until the conditions outside are suitable for the plants to be put out. Do not take young plants from their cosy growing conditions and put them straight out into the soil as they will get a shock that they will not recover from or will suffer a setback. Do not be impatient; wait until the risk of frost has well and truly passed. 

Hopefully you will have kept your seed packets for reference or taken note of the wording on the packet so that you can plant out at the recommended distances apart. If using a raised bed and deep-bed method you will be able to plant closer than the recommended distances. 

Vegetable garden planting time is an exciting time and one that gives the gardener optimism and something to look forward to, all those tasty fresh vegetables that have only travelled a short distance from your garden to the kitchen.