How to garden in 2012

It is a good question and I don’t really know tha answer but there are a couple of things you can do to succeed.
You can start everything in pots, even beetroot can be sown in small modules and then planted out later without disturbing their roots. I used the opposite method and started everything outside, except the obvious tomatoes and peppers, but this year it just does not work. I started my beans in small pots, just one seed in a pot, and now they are getting ready for the outside world, the cold, the wind and the rain.

Delay your sowings, or sow some species again if you have failed. Beetroot particularly is just a sad sight this year with sporadic germination and no growth for almost a month. I always try to get ahead and sow my root veggies very early so they come up and grow ‘naturally’ as the weather warms up but this year this method di not work at all. I will have to resow all of them, beetroot, carrot, parsnip and hamburg parsley.

You can still sow all of the above root vegetables in June. Runner bean and french bean and all the squash seeds still can be planted too in June; you will just have a later harvest, well unless it starts snowing in August you never know and the harvest might not be that late as my squashes outside not doing very well, they look cold and battered.

Sow some fast veg like spinach, rocket, baby leaf lettuce, pak choi, radish, these are all much quicker than beetroot or carrot for example. Lesson learned for me this year, I will make sure next year I start everything inside the greenhouse in small modules and pots.

And don’t forget about slugs and snails, I did only for a few days and they went into my greenhouse causing damage on chillies, yes chillies; looks like there are so many of them that they eat anything, well preferably the things you try to grow. Reports actually show that there are 10 times more slugs and snails around than an average year thanks to the wet spring.

And get a small polytunnel or greenhouse to grow especially tomatoes in for the future, it does really worth the money if you are serious about veg growing. My tomatoes, which I planted in the greenhouse border about a month ago, are double in size compare to the outside ones and they are outside only the past 7 days, okay that sounds like a bit of exaggeration but it is true I promise! How are you coping this year?

See also  Allotment Sunday

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