Even though it’s still wet, the days are warming up and getting longer. Now’s a good time to get your garden beds ready for spring. The lupins we planted as a green manure crop are just about to burst into flower so it’s time to dig them in.

They break down more quickly if they’re chopped up. You can use a sharp spade for this, but I find it easier to cut them into smaller pieces with hedge cutters.

Then we fork the ground over to aerate it.

A light dressing of lime is beneficial at the same time. It’ll help break the lupins down and add some much-needed calcium to the soil.

The beds we prepared in autumn with chicken manure, rock dust and oat straw and covered with black weed matting are breaking down nicely. The soil looks full of life and ready to be forked over in a few weeks’ time.

Crop Rotation

When planning the summer garden it’s a good idea to consider crop rotation…

This is a very simple but useful plan for growing healthy organic vegetables.

Potting up seedlings

The seeds we planted in February have germinated and are ready to be pricked out and potted up into punnets or larger pots.

We generally wait till mid-April to plant out the warmer crops like tomatoes, beans, peppers, cucumbers etc into the ground, but every year is different and we’ll wait to see what the season brings us.

Spring crops

Early spring crops like lettuce, rocket, Asian greens, kales, beetroot, spinach, chard and fennel can be planted now and will feed us until the heat-loving plants start producing.

Potatoes

Continue chitting potatoes for planting out when all chance of frost has passed. You can start chitting sweet potatoes but we don’t plant the slips out until May.

Looking forward to spring planting! From Rob, Jan and the Team at OEG!