Do You Dig It?…

I am always glad to see the end of January as it feels such a long dreary dull month. Now we’re in February the days are getting noticeably longer and spring is thankfully just a month away.

One welcome sight I can see from my kitchen window is my evergreen Clematis armandii ‘Apple Blossom’, which has now developed lots of new buds and will give me a mass of early slightly scented pinky-white flowers to admire.

At my local supermarket I noticed a wide selection of seeds for sale which included vegetables, flowers and easy-growing seeds for children. So why not use the time now to plan your vegetable bed and stick to your healthy eating New Year’s resolution by growing your very own organic produce?

Does your flowerbed need a bit more colour with flowers in it? Well with a bit of early forward planning and with a couple of packets of seeds you’ll soon have a blooming colourful garden by the summer.

If you feel the need to get out into the garden and get some fresh air and exercise after the long winter months, around this time you’ll find there are already jobs you can be doing and you’ll soon warm up with the exercise. Another way of sticking to your healthy New Year’s resolution!

One job that will definitely keep you warm and fit is forking compost into your soil. This will benefit it by improving the texture and also help keep it free draining.

After the winter months (if you didn’t dig over the garden in the autumn) the soil will have become compacted by the winter rains and by incorporating organic matter into it, you’ll help any new plants to establish a healthy root system. But if digging is too much like hard work, then you can simply leave the compost on top of the soil and the helpful earthworms should pull the compost down into the soil for you.

If you are planning to plant some vegetable into the garden the earlier you start planting the earlier you’ll get your harvest. If you haven’t got a greenhouse, one way to achieve is to buy a cloche, which is a mini polythene tunnel, or make one yourself with wire coat hangers bent into arches and cover with a strong clear plastic sheeting. If you do this soon enough you will ensure that the soil is warmed up and nice and ready for your early crop sowing.