Greenhouse

January
  • Give your greenhouse, cold-frame and cloche glass another good clean
  • Use only warm tap water for plants and early sowings to prevent disease
  • Bring bags of sowing compost into warm room to preheat before use
  • Remove pest infested strings and canes and replace with new
  • Sow onion and leek seed in small pots or trays in warmth
  • Sow pak-choi, loose leaf lettuce, spring onions and rocket densely in pots or trays of compost to be cut as salad leaves
  • Sow pots of sweet peas and Night Scented stocks for indoor flowering
  • It’s a tad too early but go on sow some Sub-Arctic Plenty tomato seed in warmth
  • It’s not too early to sow indoor all female disease resisting mini cucumbers in warmth and light- they’ll probably crop by Easter!
  • Start onion, garlic and shallot sets in multi celled trays then later with root-balls they can be more securely planted out and will stay put
  • Plant extra early potato sets in big pots or tubs for crops by Easter
  • Chit your early seed potatoes (sets) - stand them rose (lots of eyes) end up in a cool light place, greenhouse will do if covered with a ‘duvet’ at night
  • Check chitting potato shoots for aphids and mealy bugs as these sneak in
  • Pot up a washed sweet potato in moist gritty compost in warmth to force shoots for this year’s plants
  • Trap slugs, woodlice and other active pests in hollowed out roots, potatoes or under bits of old wood