Winter

FEBRUARY

• You can sow in your greenhouse: aubergine, chillies and sweet peppers, beetroot, broad beans, celeriac, kohl rabi, French beans, leeks, lettuce, peas, tomatoes.

• You can sow outdoors: parsnip, onions and shallots (sets), turnip and swedes.

• Buy and ‘Chit’ seed potatoes. Put the tubers in a light, cool and frost free place until they are ready for planting and have developed strong, short, green shoots. ‘Chitting’ can improve and speed up the harvest.

• Order young plug plants. To order with the Greenway Pembroke or for more details please email us greenwaypembroke@gmail.com .

• This is still a good time to do winter digging, especially on light soils. There are divided opinions on digging heavy clay soils: some gardeners recommend to dig in autumn to allow frost to break large clumps, some to dig in dry weather in March to April to avoid further compaction, others to consider no-dig method.

• Avoid walking on soggy lawns to avoid compaction of the soil.

• If you have any deciduous (loosing leaves for winter) shrubs to move or plant now is the best time to do it.

• Plant out spring flowering plants such as primroses and potted bulbs to add instant colour to your borders.

• Plant and prune autumn –fruiting raspberries. Cut all the fruited canes down to about 1 inch above the ground level. You can order bare-root canes with Greenway Pembroke in autumn and early winter. To order please call or email us.

• It is still not too late to prune apple and pear trees. Cut out any crossing over, damaged, dead or diseased shoots.