It’s vegetable planting time

Now is the time to sow and plant vegetables. There are a wide range of vegetable seeds which can be sown directly into the soil such as carrot, beetroot, radish, scallions, parsnips and it is still not too late to plant seed potatoes.

Soil preparation is important before sowing and planting remove all perennial weeds by digging out with a spade or fork or use Round-up or Resolva 24 hour weed killer. These are very safe to use; spray onto the foliage of the weeds and it absorbs the chemical travelling to the root and killing the entire weeds with no damage to the soil.

For shallow weeds use Weedol which kills within one day, again without damaging the soil, or use a hoe.

Once the weeds are dead and cleared away use well-rotted manure or soil condition available from the garden centre. Manure from the garden centre is weed free and easier to handle, as farm yard manure can have weeds in it and can also be too fresh to use.

Before sowing or planting use a general fertilizer such as Westland Growmore, make a shallow depression approximately 2-3cms deep and sow seeds from the packet very thinly along the row, cover with soil, remember to label the seeds and water in. Never sow all seeds at once, sow little and often to avoid too many growing at once.

The first of the vegetable plants are now in the centre such as lettuce, cauliflower and cabbage with more coming available weekly.

Plant individual vegetable plants 20-30cm apart using Westland Growmore the same as sowing seeds.

Enjoy vegetable growing with help and advice always available in the centre.