It’s midway through February and I have just about got through all the allotment activities I listed for January. What a busy month it has been so far, the year seems to be flying by already.
On Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending the Garden Press Event in London, which was truly incredible, so many wonderful writers to meet and fantastic companies launching their latest products and plants. Some of which really got me excited and a little giddy including Heinz tomato plants and tiger nuts! A full blog about the event is coming very soon.
Today I popped out into the garden to start sowing my broad beans into pots and noticed that some of the tulips I planted in a galvanised container are already popping up to say hello through the soil. Spring is certainly coming and I can’t blooming wait!
I will be doing a whole blog dedicated to sowing broad beans shortly, so if you haven’t sown yours yet and are a little unsure then don’t panic. I am going to start some in pots and also sow a row direct, then compare the difference so will cover both methods. My current Instagram story for the next 24 hours shows you by video just how easy it really is to grow your own.
For now though, I want to share my next list of activities I want to achieve over the coming weeks and have added a few extras which may help too.
- Start warming up the soil for sowing broad beans direct by placing cloches out over the desired beds
- Harvest the last of my brussels sprouts and kale
- Start sowing indoors: tomatoes, peppers, chillies, early variety aubergines, broad beans, salad leaves, early variety beetroot and leeks
Tip: Crops such as tomatoes, peppers, chillies and aubergines require a constant warm temperature to germinate and guarantee success so I recommend you use a heated propagator. If you don’t have one don’t worry, either wait until later in the year to start sowing or treat yourself to one in most good garden centres or online. You can usually pick one up for £15+ - Start chitting your potatoes on the windowsill to enable strong chits to form before planting. I use old egg cartons then position the seed potatoes so the end with the most chits is facing upwards
- Cut down autumn raspberry canes if you haven’t already and give them a good layer of mulch
- Build my DIY fruit cage thanks to some netting and bamboo from Grow It
- Position my two slot together raised beds ready for some upcoming activities which will be revealed in the coming months
- Start sowing flowers such as early sowing varieties of helianthus aka sunflowers and sweet peas indoors
- Plant fruit canes; I have two Lubera Raspberry Salmonberry ‘Olympic Double’ to get planted.
- Finally, if you missed my monthly allotment radio chat at the beginning of the month discussing jobs for the month and latest on the plot, catch up here and zoom to 1:10:00.
I’m going to stop there as I’m pretty sure that list will keep both you and I very busy now and into March.
Would love to know what else you are planning to do on your plots and gardens over the next month, so please comment below and share your plans.
Chat soon x
You’ve been busy! We are planning to turn an IBC into a giant potato planter, and plan to experiment with straw bale gardening too. All exciting plans!
How exciting, would love to know how they go! Ps. what’s an IBC?
One of those big water containers that replaces a water butt. We got loads free last year so thought it was worth a try, especially since there’s also a local source of free compost to fill it. 😊 Last year’s potatoes suffered because of the heavy rain.
Wow, that’s definitely worth a try! Let me know how it goes and good work getting them for free!
Nice to meet you in person on Thursday! It was a fun event. Glad you got home ok with all of those bags 🙂
My tip for you is that it is way too early to sow sunflowers – unless you have a lot of indoor space or live somewhere warmer than England. The right time depends on the last frost date for your area. I’ll be sowing mine towards the end of April or early May (for somerset, I’ll be looking at the weather forecasts!). They shoot up then and make really sturdy little plants that can go out when they want to, rather than becoming all leggy indoors.
I’m sowing about 10 different varieties this year, different sizes and colours, some for height and others as cutting flowers. for myself and also at work for Hauser & Wirth, where I grow them in the squash beds.
Was lovely to meet you properly too. I loved the event and my nerves disappeared quite quickly luckily. I literally couldn’t walk with all my bags and am still feeling it now but was worth it.
Thank you for the tip, with all my plans and uni work they probably won’t get done until March. I have a few varieties but not much indoor space so will probably stick with one for this year. What are your 10?
I’ll let you know later as I’m at Charles’ , we have our first gardening course of the year today!
It can be a bit daunting when things are new but as I’m sure you have realised gardeners are almost always really friendly and helpful, wanting to share their experiences and knowledge and find out new ideas too.
How exciting, hope it goes well!
Yes, almost every gardener I have met has been really helpful and friendly which definitely helps. Enjoy the course today!
I am going to sow onion seeds for red onions and compare their growth and storage with sets. The sets seem to bolt quickly on my sandy soil.
Good idea, I did that last year and the ones from seed did much better than sets. Let me know how it goes 😊
I’m hoping that signs of spring in your part of the world means it will be cooling down here in Australia soon. It has been a long and terribly hot summer for us. Great for the garden though because we’ve had enough water to keep up with demand so plenty of tomatoes and chillies and other summery goodies.
Hi again Annabelle! Lovely to meet you and chat at Thursday’s event, it was an excellent day out. My shoulders were aching when I got home from carrying heavy bags! I’m starting off sweet peas this weekend too (I should have done this in November!) but will be sowing sunflowers as micro greens first (the shoots are delicious in salads) then wait to sow direct outside. It feels good to be starting some seeds off, doesn’t it!
Hi! It was a brilliant day wasn’t it?! My shoulders are still feeling it, certainly won’t be taking as much next year. They can post things out instead so will do that.
I need to do my sweet peas! Enjoy sowing, it definitely gets me excited for Spring again. It’s not far away now!
Looks like you have a busy time ahead, not a small list!
My over wintering broads looked a bit tired after the snow so I’ll feed those this week.
I was tempted to start the tomatoes but as i’ll be putting them outside they will get a bit leggy, managed to stop myself, for a couple of weeks anyway. Chillies are in…check
Look forward to the broads blog
Dicky
http://dickysfarm.blogspot.co.uk
Good work! Yes, I have lots to get done, slowly working my way through the list.
A good, informative, post. I’m happy to have started plotting again. I’ll be spending some of next week preparing the areas where I’ll be sowing broad beans and planting onion sets hopefully early next month. xx
Thank you! It’s great the weather is now warming up and we all get excited again. Me too. Which onion sets you trying? My ones from seed did better than sets last year but windowsill space is the problem. Happy plotting x
You’re welcome. It sure is. Good for you. I always grow Sturon onion sets which generally grow and store well. I don’t have any space to grow from seed otherwise I’d try Red Baron. Thanks, and you too. xx
Sunflowers!
Magic Roundabout F1 – Mr Fothergill
Sunrich Lime F1 – Nicky’s Nursery
Sunzilla – Real Seeds
China Cat – Real Seeds
Copper Queen – Nicky’s Nursery
Mr Fothergill’s mixed (they were free!)
Gelbe Riesen – Lidl
Sinfonie Mix – Lidl
Herbstschonheit – Lidl
Still to arrive….
Mongolian giant
Russian giant
Many of these will grow outside an art gallery, hence the enthusiasm for very tall ones! They looked amazing last year.
Re onions, why not try sowing in modules (several seeds per module) and planting them out in little clumps – not my idea, this is Charles Dowding’s.
Im concwntrating on planting all my new aquisitions! My new garden needs a lot of work doing to get it back into order some things may go entirely but im feeling so optimistic 🙂
Great post! Look forward to reading how those jobs go. Our to do list for February on our new plot:
Weeding
Weeding
More weeding
🙄
Sandra
Hi Sandra, thank you very much! Will keep you updated on my progress getting through the list, will certainly keep me busy as well the weeding!