The milder weather has brought with it a flurry of activity in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden, and from the forecast it would appear that next week will be much the same. Having been unable to work on frozen soil for so long, we can now get out with the spade and start some much-needed digging. All our main beds need a good dig over and some organic matter added and the bed where we will be growing brassicas will have a dressing of lime this week to bring the ph levels down on our acid soil.
We also like to dig over the soil in our raised beds at this time of year. Raised beds, on the whole, don’t need to be dug. A good mulch of organic matter or compost to improve the soil and keep it fertile would normally be enough. However, in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden, we are surrounded by yew hedges and huge rhododendrons that like to send their roots searching for juicy fertile soil. A good dig over once or twice a year keeps them in check.
Inside the greenhouse, our little seedlings sown in the heated propagator January are all up and looking very healthy. This week they will be joined by more seeds trays as we will be sowing our tomatoes and peppers. We will also be sowing our first lettuce and salad leaves and given the recent news coverage of shortages of lettuces in the supermarket, it appears that it’s more important than ever to grow your own. We are currently harvesting some lovely rocket, grown in the greenhouse over the winter months and thankfully, not reliant on the weather conditions abroad. After putting up with the cold winter conditions for so long, it does the gardener good to feel a little smug occasionally…
