In the garden: Work on spuds and rhubarb in your veg patch

How can this be the last Saturday in February?

The month always flies by after a lengthy start to the year in January, but this year seemed even faster than usual.

It has been a seasonally cold month, which will hopefully bode well for the spring ahead.

There is plenty to be done in the garden right now, and getting the window of weather to do it in is the challenge. The ground is very wet underfoot and more harm that good is achieved if you’re working on saturated soil.

Choose instead to complete jobs indoors on the wet days, or do work that can be done from a path or access route so that the soil is not compacted, which will take some time to recover from.

Sorting seeds, pots and seed trays in preparation for sowing in another month will lay the groundwork for an organised spring this year.

It’s too early to sow the seeds of most vegetables as we still have some cold and wet weather to get through before the soil starts to warm up. Onions and celeriac are in on a heated bench, and perhaps there will be thoughts of sowing some tomato and chilli seeds soon, but apart from that, hold off for more clement weather.

The seeds of the first early potatoes can be chitted in a light, warm, frost-free environment such as a sunroom, shed window, or porch, ideally, in temperatures of about 10 degrees Celsius, and watch the tuber eyes develop over a week or two.

Ideally, we want to see the start of growth of the eyes getting to about 2.5cm, not long straggly and weak shoots, so make sure the temperature is not too high.

If they are arranged in egg boxes, it keeps them upright, and it can be beneficial to spray them with a diluted solution of Maxicrop seaweed plant growth stimulant every few days once the eyes start to grow, to encourage root formation.

Early potatoes can be harvested about 90 days after planting, and having the shoots already activated will give the tubers an added advantage. The first earlies can be planted indoors before the end of February and into the start of March to get a really early crop.

Now is a good time to consider the annual wash of the inside of the polytunnel or glasshouse, using cider vinegar diluted at a rate of 1:10 with water. This will keep any fungal diseases at bay, and keep the plastic or glass clean and transparent so that it is transmitting as much light from the sun as possible.

If it becomes very dirty, this can affect photosynthesis during the growing season as light is a limiting factor for the process.

The outside may also need some attention, and using an old sheet or bath towel with a rope attached to each side, and then a person each side of the polytunnel shimmying up and down, you can remove any green algal growth that has developed over the winter months.

Taking pictures of this process before and after can reveal just how dirty the plastic had become!

There is plenty of pruning to complete, with apple and pear trees in need of a winter strip-down. Remove the 3 Ds first - dead, diseased and damaged branches - and then reduce the height to the framework, removing last year’s top growth to keep trees at a harvestable height, where fruits can be picked without a ladder ideally.

Rhubarb is a great perennial plant to have in the kitchen garden at this time of year, as it bravely pushes up through the soil, presenting its cheerful pinky stems full of spring flavour.

Using a rhubarb forcer or a large bucket or bin, it can be ‘forced’ to produce sweeter stems with the exclusion of any light, and these are a real delicacy at this time of the year. One of the first harvests of the year, that is for sure.

There is not much else to be harvested in the kitchen garden, save a few brussels sprouts, kale, and the promise of some purple sprouting broccoli in a few weeks.

Preparation is underway for the growing year ahead, with green manures or mulches covering the soil. Cardboard makes for a great mulch and is ideal over annual weeks to return them to the soil and reveal clean earth to plant into after a few months.

If applied now, then there is ample time for any weeds to be consumed by the soil beneath, saving weeding, walking on the soil causing compaction, and recycling some cardboard into the deal.

A mulch of seaweed or garden mulch on top will keep the cardboard in place and add an additional layer of nutrition to the soil.

If tasks like this are completed now in plenty of time, it will save a lot of work later in the springtime.

Plant of the Week

It has been a cold week and plants are responding accordingly, with a reluctance to make an appearance above the surface of the soil for the most part.

This is why winter flowering shrubs and spring flowering bulbs are so important at this time of the year.

Plants performing in February need to be tough and able to withstand all weathers. The beautifully scented flowers of hyacinths are all of this, and they are emerging and standing strong, emitting a potent perfume that fills the chilly winter days.

They come in a range of colours and can be grown indoors for earlier flowering. Once they have finished flowering indoors, it is worth planting these bulbs out into the garden where they will flower a little later outside next year.

Plant them in full sun and a free-draining soil for best results.