This is a good time to sow early white onions for use in spring.
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They can be sown directly where they are to grow, but many gardeners prefer to transplant when seedlings are 10 to 12 centimetres tall.
Onions prefer soil that is not acid, so dig in some dolomite.
They should be grown in an open, sunny spot to help reduce the incidence of downy mildew.
This attacks onions in spring, particularly in humid weather. It shows up on the leaves as a grey or purplish mould.
At the first sign of it spray with a copper spray such as bordeaux mixture.
Spring onions and shallots should be grown quickly. Give them some liquid fertiliser every two or three weeks.
Remember when planting onion and leek seedlings not to cover the roots with soil as you do with other vegetables.
Just make a hole, lay the small plant in it and water with a sprinkler or watering can.
This will wash the soil over the roots.
It need hardly be said that you don’t do this in hot sunshine.
Top Taties
Have you had trouble with scab on the skins of your potatoes?
Scab is a fungal disease which lives in the soil for many years and is caused by soil that is too alkaline, so don’t plant potatoes in a bed that has been limed.
They need a moist, acid soil with a pH of no more than six.
On the other hand if the soil is too acidic, the potatoes will be very small, although free of scab.
If all your soil is too alkaline, try growing a green manure crop and digging it in before it goes to seed. Doing this in autumn is best.
Don’t use fresh manure, either. Well-rotted manure is all right if dug in in the autumn before planting.
Some experts say that you should use only certified seed potatoes bought fresh each year, but many gardeners fare quite well using their own leftovers.
The pioneers didn’t have the benefit of certified seed. They often planted the potato peelings after eating what was inside them.
The same thing happens in compost heaps sometimes, and quite good potatoes result.
A good organic method of growing potatoes is to prepare a bed in autumn with a layer of fallen leaves. It can be up to a metre thick.
By the following spring they will have packed down and worms will be working through them.
Lay your seed potatoes on top of this and cover with a thick layer of hay or straw.
Once the green foliage appears through this, add more mulch.
The mulch will need building up again during the growing season to make sure light doesn’t get through to turn the tubers green.
If you haven’t prepared a bed with leaves over winter, you can use the same method by just placing the seed potatoes on top of the soil and adding hay or straw.
Sprinkle old manure over the top of the mulch.
The most important thing is to keep building up the mulch as it rots down, so that light can’t get through.
If any potatoes do turn green, don’t eat them. The green part is poisonous; so are the green seed heads, looking like miniature tomatoes, that form on the foliage.
Waste Not
Lucky is the gardener who has access to a stable or any other livestock pen where animals are kept with straw bedding.
This bedding, soiled with manure and urine, is one of the best fertilisers we can apply to our gardens.
The straw will rot down into excellent humus.
Urine is a much-underestimated fertiliser. It is rich in nitrogen and potassium and particularly beneficial for leafy vegetable crops.
It is a great activator for the compost heap, speeding up the conversion of organic waste to humus. If straight urine is applied to plants, it should be diluted first.