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Time flies as always.
We're now into February, after a horrendous winter,
and while it's still pretty unpleasant outside at least it's warmed
up and the days are getting longer.
Seeds have been sown in the glasshouse, some early
lettuce, pak choi and other greens for planting out into polytunnels
in March, as well as starting off some peppers and tomatoes, which
won't be planted until April and even then they'll need covering
with fleece to keep them warmer in the tunnels.
Outdoors not much is happening, a few snowdrops
are flowering and daffodils are pushing up. The pigeons are still
eating off any new growth on most of the brassicas, we're going
to have to net as much as possible next year, although with the
winds we get we'll be pulling the netting out of hedges most weeks.
We've got a gas gun (loud bangs) and a distress call loudspeaker
(waste of money) running in a bid to deter them, but due to neighbours
can't run either at regular enough settings to make much effect.
I've started a bit of cultivation in the fields, just to break
the soil and start breaking down the crop debris so that we can
get clean beds for planting this year's crops. It's still at least
six weeks until we plant anything outside - broad beans, onions,
spring greens, calabrese, potatoes, carrots and parsnips go in
in March, but at this time of the year that will be with us in
no time and suddenly we'll be running at full pelt through the
summer.
April and May tend to be very frustrating months
as a grower, it's usually warm enough that customers are ready
for the summer veg, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and beans, but
even in polytunnels we can't get courgettes or beans until late
May, and tomatoes don't start producing without a huge amount
of artificial heat and light until late June in a glasshouse.
After very successful sales of our veg plants
at the market last year, we're going to be supplying the same
again this year - I'm doing the lettuce in larger cells so they
can get a bit bigger before selling them which should enable them
to stand up to slugs a little better, and we'll also have a few
blight resistant varieties of tomato available.
The first plants will be available from March - sweet peas, broad
beans and spring cabbage, and the range will expand as we get
into April and May when the soil warms up enough for planting
the less hardy crops out.
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