In your vegetable garden during December and January

Vegetable garden in winter

Winter is truly here as we enter the festive months of December and January. In the vegetable garden this is a time of rest, for the plants anyway! Gardeners however, can turn their attention to all those unfinished jobs that were pushed aside during the busy sowing and harvesting period of the summer. Rainy days will fill our water butts ready for the summer, and garlic cloves can still be planted until February.

Things to do in the vegetable garden

• 
  Start collecting plastic bottles
  for cloches in the spring

• Get organised for the spring and start collecting plastic bottles for cloches. The sawn-off plastic bottles will protect individual young plants from slug damage. Be sure not to trap a slug inside.

• If you don’t already have one or need more, build a new compost bin. Site it on bare earth or grass and make sure it is accessible for adding, removing and turning the material. Avoid using tanalised or pressure treated wood if building a bin from scratch.
  Garden Organic members can find more information online in our organic factsheets:

  • Build a compost bin
  • How to make compost
  • Garden wood preservatives

  Access to these factsheets requires members' password.
  Find out more about Garden Organic membership

• Sheds and fences may need repairing and painting to protect them over the coming winter months. Always choose a safe preservative. The Organic Gardening Catalogue sells Procol Fencecote, a non-toxic and non-flammable water-based wood protection

  Garden Organic members can check our factsheet, Using wood in the garden, for information on suitability and suppliers.

• Watch out for chickweed which can soon overwhelm winter salads and other plants, particularly on rich soils. As it can grow, flower and ripen seed all year round it is not a weed to be ignored. Hoe off seedlings, but pull up anything larger as the plants can root again in wet weather.

• Time to give those hard-working tools some care and attention. Scrub spades, forks and hoes with hot water, then dry thoroughly and wipe over with an oiled cloth to prevent rusting. Blades can be sharpened, but don’t overdo it!

  Sharpening stones and steels are available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue

• Insulate worm bins for the winter to keep worms active and producing compost. The Garden Organic publication 'Step-by-Step guide to Worm Composting' is available from The Organic Gardening Catalogue on 0845 130 1304 or online at www.OrganicCatalogue.com

• 
  Start a compost trench

• Start a compost trench - Bury kitchen waste at about a spade’s depth, preferably where the runner beans will grow next year. Cover the waste with soil, as soon as you add it, to prevent foxes or other animals from scavenging.

• Allotments - If you need more space for growing vegetables, now is a good time to find an allotment. Lists of allotment sites should be available from a local library or the council – and an increasing number now have a web site.

  If you are not quite sure how to get started, you could join up to one of our courses for a detailed explanation by Sally Cunningham, the former deputy Head Gardener at Garden Organic Ryton.

  Sally is running a series of six half day courses entitled 'Starting an organic allotment'. Places are limited so get your name on the list by calling our bookings team on (024) 7621 7717 See the course list here

• Crop rotation and seed buying - The short days in winter provide the ideal excuse to sit in the warmth and start planning for next season.

  Garden Organic members can view our factsheet on crop rotation for more information.
  
  Access to this factsheet requires members' password.
  Find out more about Garden Organic membership

• 
  Leaves rot down best
  in an open container

• When raking up leaves to make leafmould, be careful there are no hedgehogs hiding underneath; if you do come across one leave it undisturbed until the spring.

• Plant onion sets and garlic if the weather is still mild enough.
• If you want to grow onions from seed, now is the time to plant them as they require a long growing season. Germinate the seeds on a warm window sill for planting out in March.
• You can start forcing rhubarb, seakale and chicory in January. Rhubarb is forced by placing an up-turned bucket/pot over the plant to exclude light. The warmer the environment the quicker it will grow so place manure or straw over the top to encourage juicy, sweet shoots. Seakale is forced the same way, only there is no need for extra warmth.
• Chicory is forced differently. The chicory roots should be lifted from the ground, re-potted in normal compost and then placed in a dark, warm place (10-14°C / 50-57°F) with an upturned pot over them. The sweet chicons will be ready for late winter salads in about 4-6 weeks.
  

• Check stored crops regularly. Remove immediately anything showing signs of decay, to prevent rots from spreading. Some varieties of potato will begin to sprout sooner than others – so if one variety shows signs of sprouting, eat it up quickly.

• 
  Potatoes chitting

• Buy your seed potatoes in January if you haven't already got them, or come to Potato Day. Store the tubers in a light, cool, frost-free spot and leave them to sprout. This is known as chitting. Egg boxes make good chitting trays so start saving them now. Make sure you put the tubers with the 'eye' end - where the sprouts will grow from - upwards.

  Garden Organic members can view our organic potato factsheets online:

  • Growing potatoes
  • No-dig gardening
  • Potato pests and diseases

  Access to these factsheets requires members' password.
  Find out more about Garden Organic membership

• Order in manure ready to dig-in in the spring. Stack the manure in a position where it can remain undisturbed for six months to allow for any unwanted pollutants to break down. Cover with a waterproof sheet.

• Lift Celery as required in December. Any plants left in the ground can be covered with a thick layer of straw to protect them from winter frost.

• Stake and earth up any Brussels sprouts that are looking a bit wayward and likely to be blown over in harsh weather. Loose soil around the roots leads to Brussels sprouts not hearting up properly.

Why not start a 'Hot Bed'?

Hot beds were very popular in Victorian times. Once set up, they can be used to grow salad crops in winter, by getting a head-start on seed sowing in the spring (by up to a month), and for growing melons and any of the Cucurbitaceae family in the summer. A hot bed provides bottom heat, using manure rather than electricity as the heat source, thus speeding up plant growth of seedlings and tender plants.

A hot bed consists of two main layers:

• The heat source: Fresh strawy manure – in a layer 60-90cm deep (after treading). As the manure breaks down, it generates heat. Tread it down well to compact it, ensuring a more even release of heat.
• The growing medium: A mixture of top soil and garden compost (ratio of 1:1) – this is placed on top of the manure in a layer 20cm-30cm thick.

More information? – Follow the link to the Frequently asked questions for further information on how a hot bed works and places to see them in action

Sowing and Planting

Keep on sowing

• 
  Garlic drying

• Garlic

  Thermidrome is recommended for autumn/early winter plantings and Printanor is suited to late winter planting. Printanor can also be planted in early spring, but will give much better yields if it goes through a cold period over winter.

Sowing indoors

• If you have suitable space, make some early sowings in trays. Try lettuce, summer cabbage and cauliflowers, plus round varieties of carrots, spinach, salad onions and turnips. Germination temperatures of around 13 °C are adequate so a windowsill is fine to get these seeds going. Seedlings will need to be pricked out in trays and potted on before putting out under cloches or in cold frames in February.

• 
  Greenhouse tomatoes

• Tomatoes can be sown, for growing on in a heated greenhouse, as early as January. Tomato cultivars are available specifically for growing under cover, for example, Shirley F1 (medium size) and F1 Aromata (large).

• Heated propagator - If you are wondering what to buy a keen gardener for Christmas, or need ideas for spending your Christmas money, then a heated propagator could be just the answer. A little ‘bottom’ heat is just what is needed to give seeds a start, and help avoid damping off and other seedling diseases. A range of lidded propagators is available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. An alternative is a horticultural electric blanket, which you can roll out when required.

What you could be eating now

• Fresh or from 'natural' storage

  Artichoke, Jerusalem Beetroot Brussels sprouts Cabbage - winter Carrots Celeriac Celery Chard Chicory Claytonia/ Winter purslane Corn salad/ Lambs lettuce Garlic Endive Kale Kohl rabi

  Leek Lettuce Onions Oriental greens, such as Mizuna Parsley Parsnip Potatoes Pumpkin Rocket Salsify Spinach Sprouting broccoli Turnip - main crop Swede

Garden friends

• 
  Bird box

• Clear out bird boxes ready for spring. Put out food for birds - seed, nut and fat mixtures will provide the ideal diet; they will reward you by eating pests such as aphids, caterpillars, slugs and snails. And remember to provide a supply of clean water at all times; thaw it with warm water when necessary.

  See the range of bird boxes and wildlife hibernation houses in The Organic Gardening Catalogue.

Pest and disease watch

There are not many pests around in the garden at this time of year. Winter soil cultivation will help to expose soil dwelling pests to frost and predators.

• Do not add any plant material infected with soil borne diseases to your compost heap when doing the final clean up. This will put a stop to the spread of disease through your compost the following year. If you are not sure which diseases are soil borne, Garden Organic members can contact the advisory service via the Members' Area.
• Keep an eye on vegetables in store. Regularly inspect and remove any diseased or damaged individuals before problems can spread. Use mouse controls if the little devils are a problem.
• 
  Whitefly on brassica
  underleaf

• Keep an eye out for whitefly and aphids on Brussels sprouts and other winter brassicas.

  See our Organic factsheets Cabbage Whitefly and Cabbage Aphids for more information on prevention and control of these pests.
• Ensure brassicas and any other vulnerable crops are protected from pigeons by using fleece. Build a frame over the crop and line it with fleece to keep them off.

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