The Vegetable Plot - February

More fruit of your labours

Mostly in the Gardener’s Journal we talk about the veg in your plot but what about fruit, don’t they get a mention? Well, you could be planting fruit trees and bushes now if there’s not too much frost forecast, finish pruning fruit and give them the benefit of a good feed and mulch.

Autumn-fruiting raspberry canes should be cut to the ground to let new canes bear fruit. Protect fruit bushes from birds, use netting or erect a cage (to keep the birds out). You can do the same for your veg to stop birds harvesting your precious crop. And what a bountiful supply you should have coming along or ready now if you’re a keen veggie gardener: brassicas, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli, red and green cabbage and kale for good measure.

You’ll be enjoying your Jerusalem artichokes and parsnips, salads of chicory, lettuces, endive, rocket and mustards, leafy perpetual spinach, leeks and evergreen herbs. If you have all these you’re rich as Croesus but if not there’s nothing stopping you from starting now for next year.

• Plant out spring cabbages, plant shallots, chives, autumn-sown onions
• Plant potatoes in a sheltered border
• Sow hardy variety peas in a sheltered spot
• Sow lettuces, peas and cauliflowers in seedboxes to germinate in along with the broad beans
• Sow broad beans in boxes or pots and germinate in a heated greenhouse or frame
• Lift and store parsnips, sow parsnips outdoors

In late February sow turnips, early celery, French beans for succession, main crop tomatoes, melons, cucumbers