The Allotted Month – November - December 2015
With the weather being generally cold, wet and windy at this time of year and with reduced hours of daylight now is a good time to plan the year ahead and get your seed order in.
Rather than buying the same varieties of seeds you tried last year it is worth considering some new ones with different qualities e.g better disease resistance ;bolt resistant ; higher yields. Whilst it is possible to buy ready to plant modules of vegetables in the Spring it is much more fun to grow your own and packets of seeds can be bought very cheaply online and from certain retail outlets.
There are not may vegetables you can plant out at this time – one exception is garlic which is known to benefit from a period of cold weather which promotes growth later in the year. There are also varieties of winter onion which can be planted now however I tried these a couple of years back and the results were very poor. We just do not have the weather in Scotland to make growing these varieties worthwhile unless you plan to grow them under cloches.
Now is a good time to cover over bare soil with weed suppressant fabric which will make soil cultivation in the Spring a whole lot easier.
Clean out your shed of any old rubbish and wash and oil your gardening tools so that they are ready to use next year
Many sources recommend washing down the inside of greenhouses and using a disinfectant like Jeyes fluid to kill of fungus and other bugs, however this can be a big job. There are products available on the market such as sulphur candles which can do this job without having to do the cleaning.
Tasks to be done:
Fruit - It is possible to take hardwood cuttings of black currants, red and white currants ,gooseberries etc at this time to increase your number of fruit bushes . The shoots should be a good thickness and well ripened – cut them just below a bud and trim off the weaker growth at the top.
Cut down Autumn fruiting raspberry canes to just above ground level.
Old rhubarb crowns can be split up to create new plants and they benefit from being exposed to frosts before re-planting.
Happy Christmas and a good New Year when it comes,
J Greenfingers
With the weather being generally cold, wet and windy at this time of year and with reduced hours of daylight now is a good time to plan the year ahead and get your seed order in.
Rather than buying the same varieties of seeds you tried last year it is worth considering some new ones with different qualities e.g better disease resistance ;bolt resistant ; higher yields. Whilst it is possible to buy ready to plant modules of vegetables in the Spring it is much more fun to grow your own and packets of seeds can be bought very cheaply online and from certain retail outlets.
There are not may vegetables you can plant out at this time – one exception is garlic which is known to benefit from a period of cold weather which promotes growth later in the year. There are also varieties of winter onion which can be planted now however I tried these a couple of years back and the results were very poor. We just do not have the weather in Scotland to make growing these varieties worthwhile unless you plan to grow them under cloches.
Now is a good time to cover over bare soil with weed suppressant fabric which will make soil cultivation in the Spring a whole lot easier.
Clean out your shed of any old rubbish and wash and oil your gardening tools so that they are ready to use next year
Many sources recommend washing down the inside of greenhouses and using a disinfectant like Jeyes fluid to kill of fungus and other bugs, however this can be a big job. There are products available on the market such as sulphur candles which can do this job without having to do the cleaning.
Tasks to be done:
Fruit - It is possible to take hardwood cuttings of black currants, red and white currants ,gooseberries etc at this time to increase your number of fruit bushes . The shoots should be a good thickness and well ripened – cut them just below a bud and trim off the weaker growth at the top.
Cut down Autumn fruiting raspberry canes to just above ground level.
Old rhubarb crowns can be split up to create new plants and they benefit from being exposed to frosts before re-planting.
Happy Christmas and a good New Year when it comes,
J Greenfingers