TIP’S FOR OCTOBER

Dig vacant ground and incorporate well rotted manure or compost,  leave the ground rough.
Plant out  cabbages
Plant winter and spring lettuces
Continue to sow lettuces under cloches
Sow Broad Beans (Aquadulce, or The Sutton are suited to autumn sowing)
Sow spinach to over-winter for an early crop in spring
Cut down bean and pea haulms but leave roots in the ground
Lift and store the remaining marrows, beetroot and  potatoes
Pick the last of your tomatoes
Prepare planting sites for new fruit trees and bushes
Plant out strawberry runners
Tie grease bands around fruit trees to trap egg laying insects
Continue to harvest apples, pears, autumn raspberries and strawberries
Prune blackberry, loganberry and raspberry canes, tying in the replacement shoots.  

TIPS FOR NOVEMBER

Continue to dig and apply manure to vacant ground on your plots
Lift rhubarb crowns for forcing
Protect over-wintering root crops against frost by covering them with straw
Make sowings of lettuces under cloches
Plant garlic
Continue to sow broad beans
Sow early peas under cloches
Plant strawberries
Plant all bare rooted fruit trees this month if possible
Prune established apple and pear trees
DO NOT WINTER PRUNE CHERRIES, DAMSONS, PEACHES OR PLUMS
If you haven’t already,  prune established blackcurrant bushes by removing old shoots from the centre
Inspect ALL vegetable and fruit crops that you have in store, discard any that show signs of rotting or disease.

TIPS FOR DECEMBER/JANUARY

Prune fruit bushes - as a rule of thumb guide, anything that fruited last year on blackcurrant, redcurrant or summer fruiting raspberries can be cut out and burned.  Autumn fruiting raspberries should be cut back completely before the new growth appears in Spring.

Time to sow onion seed in a heated greenhouse for growing giant bulbs for showing.  Those grown for kitchen use only can be sown in February.

Broad beans can be sown in pots in a cold frame or unheated greenhouse

Although the calendar year is coming to an end, it does herald the beginning of the gardening year.  By now, especially after such an excellent autumn, you should be well on with your winter digging programme.  For those that are not - press on and dig all your vacant ground as soon as possible.  Do not be put off by those who will tell you it is too wet.  Providing you do not walk on the turned land, there will be no detrimental effect.  Remember use a spade rather than a fork, and leave the surface as rough as possible.  The winter weather will break it down much better than you ever will.

Many people like to dig in their manure/compost at this stage.  However, you can wait until a dry spell in late January/February and spread the manure over the surface ready for incorporating with either a rotavator or by forking into the top 4 to 5 inches prior to spring planting.  Remember you want your fertility in the top five inches, this is where the feeding roots are.  Roots that penetrate deeper than this are primarily the water absorbing ones.

TIPS FOR FEBRUARY

Hopefully by now most gardeners will have dug and manured their plots, but I suspect there will be as many folk who have not completed this task as those that have.  So those of you who haven’t, press on as quickly as possible.

If your supplies of manure or compost are limited, restrict it to the areas for potatoes, peas and beans.  Root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips should never be planted in freshly manured ground.

Remember also that you should never apply lime to land that has been freshly manured.  This is because the reaction of lime with manure forms a gas which will result in some of the best properties of the ground evaporating.

Now is the time to collect your seed potatoes and start preparing them for planting.  Place them in a seed tray (egg boxes also work well) in a frost-free environment.  They must be in plenty of light to encourage strong chits.  If they are in a poorly lit area the chits will be long and spindly. 

For those that have already prepared their land and are impatient to start, if and when conditions are suitable in early March you could start planting the following:-

potatoes, radish, shallots, onion sets, peas (e.g. Feltham First) and broad beans (e.g. Bunyard’s Exhibition)

Remember, however, that there is not a lot of gain in planting too early.  Experience has shown that later plantings are more reliable.

Cauliflowers

The following is a quote from Bob Flowerdew, regarding cauliflowers.  He said

‘Caulis are not easy.  Light soils are not good. They really do like heavy soils. Enrich with compost, manure, firm it by treading. Grow them in seed beds, thinly. Thin early, and when only a couple of inches high, run a knife a couple of inches under the surface to sever the taproots. This causes them to grow a bushier system of roots. When you transplant them it's a fibrous system which takes better. Don't put too close - couple feet each way.’