The Vegetable Plot - FEBRUARY

Plant out potatoes in late February

Remember, if in January you had set aside an area covered in polythene or cloches you can now early sow. 

You can plant potatoes in a sheltered border in late February, the Arran Pilot you started chitting in January would be good for an early crop.

• Sow spinach, salad onions, lettuce, cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, carrots, broad beans
• Indoors sow parsley and lettuce in pots 
• Plant shallots – remove old brown skin from the top to help stop birds pulling them out
• Start tomato plants in gentle heat to plant in the greenhouse in April
• Make a sowing of early variety of peas in boxes for transplanting outdoors later
• Grow sweet and chilli peppers, aubergines, cucumbers
• Try early planting of Jerusalem artichokes
• Continue to force rhubarb and seakale
• Lift and store parsnips in mid February, sow parsnips out of doors 
• Plant chives in late February – lift, divide and replant.
• Plant potatoes – protect young shoots with dry straw
• Sow parsley – in a warm, sheltered place