If you are itching to get out in the garden, there are a few things that you can plant over the next few weeks.
Other than those listed below, we would urge you not to get too carried away with planting until spring really is in full swing – planting out veg plants, herb plants and others too early can so often lead to failed crops. All it takes is a late frost, a strong chilly wind or a super cold night and they can be lost. We find May to be the very best month for planting out plug plants, although we do expect to begin shipping spring veg plants from mid to late April onwards.
Onion & Shallot Sets
Best planted in February and March, these little bulbs can simply be pushed into well prepared soil around 10-15cm apart to grow through spring and summer for a wholesome harvest once the leaves start to turn yellow (usually mid-late summer when planting sets)
Bare-Rooted Fruit Trees
Ideally you would get bare-rooted fruit trees planted before the end of this month, so do be quick to place your order now if you haven’t already done so. They are best planted whilst still dormant during winter, and for those living further south, the sooner the better.
If you have ordered fruit trees already, do try and plant out as soon as they arrive if you can.
Bare-Rooted Soft Fruit
Again, these will do best planted out whilst still dormant, so be quick to order and plant them out. We still have a couple of weeks to go before things start to really being waking up for spring, so there is just time.
Seed Potatoes
We are now shipping seed potatoes so that you can start chitting them at home before planting out in March/April. Chitting them is easy – just pop them in an egg carton tray on a windowsill to encourage them to produce shoots. It’ll help to give them a headstart when you plant them out.
It is well worth warming the soil while the seed potatoes are chitting – just lay cardboard or black polythene (there are lots of sustainable alternatives now available from garden centres/websites) over a patch of well dug soil. By the time it comes to planting time, the soil will be a little warmer than if it was left uncovered, and that’ll help things move quickly once planted.