February 2025: Fertilisers Made Simple

5th February 2025

Way back in the mists of time, when I was a young man acquiring my first allotment, I soon became totally confused about fertilisers. In those days, it was common to purchase individual constituents—both organic and non-organic—and mix your own fertiliser compounds. Nowadays, it has become the norm to buy ready-made mixes.

Fertilisers were, and still are, a massive subject. So, I researched the whole topic from multiple sources and compiled a ‘reference bible’ that I could understand and follow—one that I still use to this day.

It starts something like this:

“FEED THE SOIL, NOT THE PLANT”

If you only remember that from this factsheet, I’ll be content. More details to follow.

Categories of Fertilisers

I separated the many types of fertilisers into distinct groups as follows:

Two Main Groups: Organic and Non-Organic

• Organic fertilisers consist of only natural ingredients, for example, Fish, Blood & Bone.
• Non-organic fertilisers contain at least some chemicals, for example, ‘Growmore’.

Both of these groups are further divided into Single and Compound Fertilisers.

• Single fertilisers consist of just one ingredient, such as ‘Dried Blood’, and are used to correct a specific deficiency. In this case, an insufficiency of nitrogen for growing vegetables that require higher nitrogen levels.
• Compound fertilisers consist of more than one ingredient, such as Fish, Blood & Bone, which is a general-purpose feed containing nitrogen phosphorus, and potassium.

All these fertilisers are available in granular/pellet form, or as liquid formulations—either ready-to-use (e.g. tomato feed) or mixed with water (e.g. ‘Miracle-Gro’ or homemade comfrey tea).

Understanding NPK

All fertilisers are quantified chemically using a system called NPK, which refers to:

• NITROGEN (N) – Essential for leafy plants like brassicas and rhubarb. Apply in spring, especially after a very wet winter.
• PHOSPHORUS (P) – Supports root development in root crops and perennials. Can be applied any time of year; the particle size controls the release rate.
• POTASSIUM (K) – Enhances colour, speeds up maturity, and promotes flowering (for example if you need to hurry up a flowering plant for a show!).

The amount of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in a fertiliser is expressed as its NPK ratio. For example, Fish, Blood & Bone has an NPK of 3-9-3. These numbers indicate the percentage of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in the fertiliser. These three nutrients are essential for plant growth and are known as macronutrients.

Additional micronutrients may also be added, such as Boron (B), Chloride (Cl), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mo), Nickel (Ni), and Zinc (Zn).

More commonly a selection of these are packed as ‘Trace Elements’, and denoted on packaging as ‘+T.E.’s ‘and Magnesiumdenoted as ‘+ Mg’. For example ‘Vitax Q4’.

You will find the addition of Trace Elements to a fertiliser ups the price quite a bit but they are very beneficial to your plants. You pays your money and takes your choice.

A ‘Fertiliser on Tour’ Tale

All this talk of fertiliser finds me sat here with a broad grin, chuckling away. It goes back 39 years and the memory never fades.

My son Miles was 10 years old and I felt it was time we had a Father & Son event. Well, a chat about the birds and the bees was due you see. I suppose social media beats dads to it these days.

It had to be a tough test as he had been an insulin dependant diabetic since he was 4 years old and I wanted to demonstrate that he could physically do what all other boys could.

So we only chose to walk the 78 mile long Dales Way didn’t we? I suppose it was handy because at the time we lived just a few hundred yards down river from the Old Bridge in Ilkley where it starts.

I bought a couple of cheap notebooks from Woolworths so that we could each make a daily record of our journey and off we went. 2 days walking, one day rest, two days walking, one day rest and the final day walking to the finish at Bowness. My wife and daughter joined us on our rest days and at the finish.

Fortune favours the brave they say. And it did by golly.

During the second day we were happily chatting away when Miles exclaimed, “What are they doing Dad?” pointing to a cow being mounted by a bull. I looked skywards and mouthed thank you and proceeded to tell my son how babies are made. I would give him information in bite-size chunks, let it sink in and wait for the inevitable questions before proceeding with further detail.

I had just explained how the man’s sperm fertilises the woman’s egg and waited patiently during an extended pause and then he asked,  

“Dad, have you got any fertiliser left?”  

I immediately struck my best macho-man pose and growled down at him, “The hell I have son!”

Well, I mean, “Have I got.. ..”  I was only 37 for goodness sake!

We both continued the rest of the walk with a spring in our step. The two journals were written up every evening and to this day sit on the coffee table at my side of the settee facilitating occasional read throughs and a smile every time I come to that word- ‘fertiliser.’

Which reminds me, I have gone off piste.

So, how do we best put these fertilisers to use – horticulturally. Near the beginning I wrote,

Feeding the Soil

As mentioned earlier:
“FEED THE SOIL, NOT THE PLANT.”

Well worth repeating.

Feeding plants after planting has its place, but it should supplement, not replace, soil preparation before planting

• Autumn: I dig trenches for my sweet pea and dahlia beds, adding a decent layer of well-rotted manure or garden compost in the bottom before backfilling. I also spread manure or a 2” layer of compost over the remaining beds—except those intended for root vegetables like carrots and parsnips. The plan is to finish by mid-winter. Spent mushroom compost is a good alternative (around £90 per large builder’s bag from builder’s merchants).
• Spring (two weeks before planting): I rake in Fish, Blood & Bone fertiliser for root vegetable beds and apply potato fertiliser to my potato beds. Fruit trees and bushes receive a general-purpose fertiliser in early spring.
• Brassica beds: I apply a light dusting of lime in spring. If no manure is used, lime can be applied in Autumn—but never both together.

Supplementary Feeding

By early spring, all my beds are fully loaded, reducing the need for additional feeding during the growing season. However, some plants may need extra nutrients, especially if grown for show or if they are very hungry plants (e.g. tomatoes, squashes, dahlias, and potted plants).

The Keighley Horticultural Society/Keighley Trading Hut has prepared an excellent Product Information Table listing fertilisers, their applications, and suitable plants. They have kindly given me permission to email copies of it to anyone interested. If you’d like a copy, email me at ramonkporter@gmail.com, and I’ll send you the table along with a list of available fertilisers. Please refer to the table before purchasing and applying fertilisers.

Liquid Feeding

• Apply liquid feeds to the soil, avoiding excessive splashing on leaves.
• On dull days, a foliar spray feed can give plants a quick boost—apply to the undersides of leaves for better absorption. I use a sprayer with a lance and an adjustable nozzle which makes under leaf spraying much easier.
• My go-to liquid fertilisers are Chempak soluble feeds:
  • No. 2 (High Nitrogen)
  • No. 3 (Balanced)
  • No. 4 (High Potash)
  • No. 8 (Low Nitrogen)

An alternative is Vitax Vitafeeds, They do the same job and can be bought relatively cheaply from allotment shops. 

Homemade Fertilisers

I also use home-made fertilisers, two in particular:

Nettle

Add about 1kg (2 lb) nettles to 10 litres (2 gal) of water, leave for about two weeks and use at a dilution rate of 10:1.

Comfrey

Add 1kg comfrey leaves to 15 litres (3 gal) of water and leave for six weeks in a sealed container then use undiluted. 

These are quite a bit weaker than the commercial fertiliser but can be used with gay abandon, and they work! Be warned, both of these stink to high heaven in the making of but that can be got round by making a concentrate if you have access to copious quantities of leaves or by storing the buckets/bins closer to your neighbour’s allotment than yours!

Put a hole on the centre of a tall bucket. After a wet spell to ensure the plants are turgid, cram the bucket with as many leaves, exclude stalks, as possible. Put a large stone on top, but do not add water. Put a lid on top and place the bucket out of the rain and over a receptacle that will catch the dark liquid that oozes out of the leaves This liquid does not stink. Dilute to a pale straw colour. Alternatively use a barrel/bin with a drain tap and mix comfrey, nettles, lawn mowings, even groundsel. Bocking 14 variety of Comfrey is sterile so does not set seed and take over your garden/allotment and is rich in potassium, Nettles have more nitrogen content. How perfect is that?

I hope all the above gives you a basic understanding, so we’ll wrap it there.

Next Month: Pest Control

Until then,
Keep fertilising, keep healthy, keep smiling, and keep sowing.
Best Wishes,    
Ramon 07594 456292
Plot 21 Silsden Road site

Ramon’s Growing Tips – Factsheet Calendar

4th February 2025

Each month, our Addingham Garden expert, Ramon, shares his passion and expertise to help your gardens and allotments thrive like never before! Check out the release schedule below to stay updated on all the helpful tips and tricks.

December 2024 Part II: Seeds to sow in Feb/March for first crops

21st December 2024

I have put this factsheet together, a little earlier than usual, to have it ready for the Christmas period. This leaves room for me to fit in, (January) a short factsheet on growing dahlias, by request.

Two Crops per Season

For optimum use of vegetable beds, it is possible to grow two crops per season from many of your polytunnel and outside beds. This is relatively easy down south with their warmer temperatures and better light levels but up here, in God’s Own County with our shorter growing season, we need to be a little inventive, but it is quite possible.

Basically all vegetables and fruit fall into one of four seasonal categories:-

a. Perennials, e.g. berries, asparagus, rhubarb, artichokes etc

b. All season crops which are in growth throughout the summer period, e.g. parsnips, purple sprouting broccoli, celeriac, celery, main crop potatoes, etc.

c. Varieties of vegetables which are bred for early sowing.

d. Varieties of vegetables that are bred for late sowing.

It is essential to select varieties bred for either early or late sowing (c and d). See my list below. Another advantage of sowing early and late is that the plants then miss their main flowering season, i.e. early crops mature before then and late crops reach the flowering stage after it. This is particularly helpful with plants prone to ‘bolt’ such as Florence Fennel.

To grow two crops per season up here we need to be quick off the mark with sowing. I sow seeds of early croppers in modules as soon as is practical depending on the vegetable. The modules are then placed indoors in a warm place to germinate. But, as soon as they show signs of germination the modules must be placed somewhere a little cooler but with good light but not a south facing position and not outside yet. If the available light is not coming from all four sides and the roof, as is likely in your home, I find a west facing windowsill useful. I turn the trays round 180* each day to help the seedlings grow straight.

I have also made a simple windowsill lightbox by cutting a cardboard box to provide a base which sits on the windowsill and a backing, covered in tin foil, to reflect the light from the window onto the rear of the plants. Works very well for me.

After a few weeks I place the seedlings in a cooler place still, but with good light. This may be in my cold greenhouse with a fleece over them when cold nights are forecast.

A couple of weeks later I start to harden them off by placing the trays on a bench outside the greenhouse during the day or, if this is not practical, fully ventilating the greenhouse in the daytime and closing at night. But often one must settle for ‘best situation available’ due to practicalities.

At some point in this process, you may need to pot the seedlings on into a small pot, then larger pots, until it is safe to plant them into the beds with protection. I ensure the plants have a well-established root system before planting them out.

I also grow some vegetables in good sized pots from February. I fill the pot with multipurpose compost riddled with a 6mm sieve (not seed compost as the subsequent plants will be spending all their life in the pot), sow the seed thinly, cover lightly, place in a warm place to germinate the can be moved to a cooler place but still indoors, putting in the greenhouse well established in March/April. I use this method for early carrots, radish, spring onions and lettuce. In my experience almost any veg can be grown in a container. In addition to pots, I use washing up bowls, (my favourite container), domestic water tanks, crates, buckets, troughs and so on. 

My favourite container planting in February/March is a deep trough filled with good quality compost. For containers I use a mix of 2/3rds multipurpose and 1/3rd John Innes No 2 or 3 with the top 2” sieved. I then sow one row each of four vegetables: spring onions, rocket, ‘cut & come again’ lettuce and beetroot. I put the container in the greenhouse or polytunnel with a fleece over at least until growth established.

But remember multi-sown plants in containers need frequent watering and feeding later on.. Remember to drill good sized holes in the bottom of them.

Did You Know?

You can grow parsnips in containers. Parsnip seeds stay viable for only 1 year so after sowing in March/April set the surplus seeds on one side (preferably in a fridge) until September. Then sow them in a deepish pot, leave the pot outside until early winter then take into greenhouse/polytunnel where it stays until baby parsnips are ready in Spring.

Autumn sown seeds

Many early vegetables can be sown the previous autumn, e.g. onions, shallots, broad beans, covered with fleece or mesh. In my polytunnel at the moment I have spring cabbage, lettuce, rocket, beetroot, spring onions, lettuce, broad beans, daffodils in pots and garlic, all growing away nicely, albeit slowly, but will provide some useful veg in late Winter.

They will be followed by tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and more broad beans, courgettes, French beans lettuce and beetroot.

When planted in the beds I put slug deterrents in place, cover the beds with fleece or mesh to protect them, initially from the cold winds and later from pests.

Potatoes, 1st and 2nd earlies are also classed as early season crops.

Meanwhile I give some thought to the late season crops to follow on from all of the above, judging when to sow them to have them ready for transplanting into the beds as soon as they become vacant, or even earlier. By earlier than vacant I mean intercropping.

2nd Crops : Intercropping

It isn’t always possible to wait until the 1st crop has been fully harvested before planting the 2nd crop. When harvesting say early carrots or beetroot rather than harvest by working your way along a row, I harvest at intervals and plant the 2ndcrop plants into these gaps so that at some point there is a bed of maturing beetroots interspersed with young say, Florence Fennel.

With beetroot this method is made easier if you Multisow ( sow several seeds in each cell of a module tray, (3-4 beetroot seeds per cell) as the spacings between the clumps leave a good space for a 2nd crop when I harvest a clump of beetroot. I find other veg suitable for multi sowing are spring onions (8-10 seeds), onions (4-5 seeds) and turnips 3-5 seeds).

2nd Crops : Varieties to use

Vegetable plants I use for ‘doubling up’ are:

(My favourite varieties, following many years of trialling, are in brackets)

1st earlies (‘Winston’) & 2nd early (‘Kestrel’) potatoes

followed by leeks (‘Porbella’) – rust resistant and/or maincrop carrot (‘Berlicum’)

Shallots, (‘Yellow Moon’ autumn sown) followed by beetroot (‘Pablo’)

Onions sets (‘Hercules’) followed by late peas (‘Terrain’)

Early peas, (‘Meteor’) followed by autumn/winter cabbage (any Savoy)

Broad beans,(‘Super Aquadulce’) followed by Purple sprouting broccoli (‘Claret’)

Early beetroot (‘Pablo’) and lettuce (‘Red Grenoble’) followed by Florence Fennel (‘Di Firenze’)and turnips (‘Milan Purple’)

Early carrots (‘Early Nantes’) and Early Florence fennel (‘Di Firenze’), followed by lettuce and celery (‘Victoria’)

Spring cabbage, (‘Wheelers Imperial’) followed by swede (‘Marian’)

There are other ways of doubling up, e.g. intercropping rows, which is planting fast maturing plants/seeds in the spaces between slower maturing vegetables. For example there is a wide spacing between brassica plant rows so sow radish seeds, lettuce plants, spring onions, baby beetroot and turnip seeds in between the rows of brassicas. These plants will mature and be out of the way by the time the brassicas grow sufficiently to need the space. This is a more efficient practise than setting brassica plants out too close to try and save space.

There are other ways of getting two crops per bed, put your thinking cap on when next you visit your allotment or garden veg patch and see what opportunities you can devise that suit your plot.

Another consideration when choosing varieties is disease control.

If your leeks are always plagued by ‘Rust’ disease then choose one of several rust resistant varieties.

If you plot is plagued by brassica Clubroot, again choose a resistant variety. 

More on what practises I employ to cope with pests and diseases in a later Factsheet.

In late winter/early spring I also sow a couple of varieties of French Marigold:

‘Double Brocade Red’ and ‘Marietta’, again indoors to germinate them as at the beginning of this Factsheet.

I pot the Marigold seedlings on into progressively larger pots, (6 of them into 3 litre pots for the greenhouse). Been doing this for many years now and can honestly say I just do not get any whitefly or greenfly in my greenhouse. In May I plant marigolds around my allotment close to vulnerable plants, e.g. Sweet Peas and Tomatoes. Well worth doing but doesn’t work quite as well as in the greenhouse. Probably because the pungent smell given off by the Marigolds, which the aphids can’t abide, will be more concentrated within the confines of the greenhouse.

Other February/March Sowings

February is a good time to sow broad beans in pots and then transplant outside.

Sow sweet peas in rootrainers in a cold frame.

Peppers and aubergines indoors as they require a long growing season.

1st early potatoes in second half of March, will need to protect the top growth from frost.

Shallot and onion sets. I start them off in modules or small pots in the greenhouse and plant out when roots well established.

That’s about it on this subject. I hope all this doesn’t appear daunting because it is quite straightforward in practise, but I strongly recommend you get a pencil and paper out and draw a plan. I couldn’t keep track of the process without my plans, even though I do sometimes reach version 5 before the final masterpiece!

I am happy to receive queries anytime.

Look out for the Dahlia growing factsheet early January.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a good New Year. 

I hope Santa is good to you and you all have a cracking horticultural 2025!

Meanwhile,
Keep Healthy, Keep Smiling, Keep Sowing.

Best Wishes,     

Ramon 07594 456292
Plot 21 Silsden Road site

December 2024: Seed Selection, Recommended Varieties, and Sourcing for Growing & Showing

30th November 2024

Cast your mind back to your teenage years. You’ve arranged to meet the latest love of your life under the railway station clock at 7 p.m. By 7:15 p.m., you’re still standing there, alone, with only your raging hormones for company, feeling grotesquely conspicuous.

Stood Up!

The crushing disappointment, the humiliation, the utter devastation.
“I think I must have something in my eye,” you mutter as they begin to water.

But wait—there they are! Running around the corner, clearly distressed. The train was late! You haven’t been let down after all. Devastation transforms to ecstasy in seconds.

And so it is when I sow seeds.

The packet promises: “Germinates in 7–10 days.” Yet, to this day, I still sneak a hopeful peek on day two, with childhood expectation—just in case, you never know! By day 11, with no seedlings in sight, despair begins to set in. Have I sown them too deeply? Are the seeds duds?

Then, on day 12, the seed tray bursts into life—a green carpet of seed leaves.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

It’s been like this for 68 of my 77 years. It’ll be a sad day when that anticipation fades—not for meeting lovers, mind you, but for sowing seeds. (And as for lovers, well, none I’m prepared to discuss with you!)

So, how do you choose seeds, and where to buy them in a manner that doesn’t lead to hormonal gymnastics and avoid emotional rollercoasters? Read on.

The Joy of Seed Selection

One of the most exciting times in the gardening year, for me, is selecting and ordering seeds. That time is now! By this point, retailers should have cleared out 2024 stock, and seeds for 2025 are sorted, packed and ready to go.

But be aware: seed packets are marked with the year the seeds were packed—NOT when they were produced. This means seeds produced in 2023 could be packed in January 2025 and stamped “Packed for the year ending December 2025.”

Not that seed retailers would do that, of course they wouldn’t……

But it does pay to understand the basics of how seed gets from the plants into the packets you buy.

How Seeds Reach You

The supply chain works as follows:

• Growers around the world produce seeds and sell them—often on contract—to a relatively small number of Seed Houses (e.g., Tozer or Bingenheimer Saatgut).

• Seed Houses supply to a vast number of Seed Retailers (e.g., Mr. Fothergills, Suttons, Tamar Organics), who package and sell the seeds to gardeners like you and me. Seed retailers generally do not grow plants for seed themselves, but the larger ones have trial beds for assessing potential new varieties recommended to them by the growers.

So, if you think some retailers have better seeds than others, well, most of them are buying from the same sources. But some seed houses and retailers are better at storing seeds and disposing of old seed than others. You must have seen seed packet stands positioned in full sun all day in garden centres. Avoid them like the plague. I keep all my seed packets in sowing month order in plastic boxes which I keep in a spare fridge. Dark, dry and cool = ideal storage.

Recommended Seed Retailers

Some highly regarded seed retailers include:

• Marshall’s
• Chiltern Seeds
• Kings Seeds
• Tamar Organics (now stocking seeds from the highly respected Bingenheimer Saatgut, as well as producing their own).

Understanding Seed Types

There are two main categories of seeds:

F1 Hybrids (F1):

These are created, crossbred, through a complex breeding process to introduce specific desired traits in the resultant plant. 

Open-Pollinated (OP):

These seeds are left to cross pollinate among themselves, naturally. Rather like a Roman orgy.

This method produces much cheaper seed, but the downside is the plants need a lot of labour for ‘rogueing out’. That is, inspecting ALL the plants frequently, in the field and before flowering to pull out all the plants that are obviously not going to reach the required standard. Unfortunately, this practise has become expensive for the growers, so they are cutting back on rogueing out with the result that inferior plants are pollinating the rest of the crop reducing the overall quality of the seed and plants they produce. 

Some comparatively small-scale British grower- retailers are still maintaining excellent standards.

My Preferred Sources

For open-pollinated seeds, I primarily use:

• Real Seeds
• Vital Seeds
  (Both have excellent websites with guides on saving your own seeds.)

For F1 hybrids and OP that I can’t find at the above, I recommend:

• Select Seeds
• Premier Seeds
• Tamar Organics
• Simply Seeds

The Excitement of Seed Shopping

As I write this, it’s late November, and I’m already making my seed list. I can feel the excitement building already—must be those pesky hormones again!

I cannot stress enough the importance of buying seeds from trusted sources.

Looking Ahead

You may want to wait until January to order your seeds. That’s when Factsheet No. 4—“Seeds to Sow in February/March for First Crops”—will be ready. It’ll be available before Christmas, giving you time to plan and digest between the festivities. And I may have an extra titbit for you early in the New Year…

Meanwhile,
Keep Healthy, Keep Smiling, Keep Sowing.

Best Wishes,     

Ramon 07594 456292
Plot 21 Silsden Road site

November 2024: Winter ground prep and ‘no dig’ process

1st November 2024

Winter Preparation

My first winter preparation job—the most important one—is to check the shed for draughts, inspect the gutters for leaks and blockages, replace the radio batteries, and gather my winter gloves (both warm and waterproof). And, of course, I ensure my supplies of coffee, tea, cuppa soups (with croutons, naturally), baked crisps, and mini cheddars are well-stocked. After all a boy has to keep his boiler stoked!

Harvest

Harvest and store all vegetables that won’t stand well in the soil over winter, like onions, shallots, beetroot, carrots, celeriac, cabbage, chicory, and potatoes. Maincrop carrots should be fine until temperatures fall below -3°C. It’s good to leave a bit of soil on root vegetables when storing them—DON’T wash them. All apples and pears should be harvested by November, as they’ll start to fall when ready. Store them in that mystical place that experts always mention: a dark, dry, airy place that’s neither too warm nor too cold. If you have somewhere cool and dry, that should suffice. I’m sure you will have just the place!

I store mine in the shed using stacked crates lined and topped with newspaper, covering them with fleece during frosty weather to encourage air circulation. This works well for me. I also dot mini chemical humidifiers around the shed to absorb moisture (found at B&M Store, Crossflats, Bingley, and similar stores for about £2 each). They work a treat! You can also store vegetables in thick paper sacks, flour sacks and the like. Make sure to check them weekly for any signs of rot.

Leeks, parsnips, and winter brassicas will be ok in the ground, though you might want to harvest a few in advance if frost or inclement weather is forecast. If you want them to stand throughout the whole winter, choose varieties labeled as “stands well” in seed catalogues.

Onions and shallots prefer warmth, so store them indoors, either plaited or in onion bags, and in both cases hung in order to ensure good air circulation. Store squashes with a 6-inch stem attached, in a warm place for 2–3 weeks to cure; they’ll then keep for several months. And, parsnips and some other veggies, like Brussels sprouts and spinach, taste better after frost.

Did You Know? Parsnips have a crafty way of protecting themselves from frost! When the weather turns frosty, they produce a liquid similar to antifreeze—happily for us, it’s harmless and adds a delightful sweetness. But in the absence of frost, please resist the urge to sprinkle car antifreeze on your sprouts! It’s not quite the same, and you will be lucky to survive the experience!

Autumn Clean

Leave no place for pests to hide in the garden and greenhouse/poly tunnel. Before overwintering tender plants, remove everything from the greenhouse, sweep out debris, and disinfect paths and staging, including the inside of the glass. A garden disinfectant, such as Jeyes Fluid, can prevent pests and fungi. (If you attended Amy from Harlow Carr’s talk, she showed us HORTISEPT PRO from firsttunnels.co.uk—definitely one to try!) Ventilate the greenhouse for a few days to dry thoroughly.

Also, clean pots and seed trays in preparation for spring sowing. There’s nothing worse than starting spring with a mountain of dirty pots and trays!

Tidy Up

Have a good go at weeds, as they’ll continue to grow during mild winter spells, and rake up fallen leaves, which are a haven for slugs and snails and we’ve all had enough of those this year thank you! Cut back faded perennials to about 5 cm above ground level, but don’t be too tidy—leaving some seed heads benefits insects, looks wonderful in autumn frost, and adds handsome silhouettes to your winter garden. Dig up and compost spent annuals.

Once your borders and beds are tidy, spread a 1-2 inch layer of garden compost or well-rotted manure. Don’t worry about digging it in; let the worms do the hard work!

If you’re planning to lime beds intended for brassicas, do so in autumn unless you’re adding manure as well. In that case, add manure in autumn and lime in early spring to avoid a reaction between the two.

If you can’t source manure or compost, sow cover crops (or “green manure”) like White Mustard or Field/Broad Beans (sown twice as close as normal) Frost will naturally break them down, or you can cut them down before they go to seed and leave the roots in the soil. If using a no-dig method, place the cut tops on your compost heap instead.

Note: the reason I sow the broad beans so close is that when the time is right I cut down every other plant at ground level and leave the remainder to grow on to maturity for (with a bit of luck) an early crop the following year.

No-Dig Principles

No Dig has worked well for me for several years now and the principles are simple. The idea is NOT to dig the soil at anytime to allow the mycelium network to remain intact. Mycelium, a type of fungus, has a beneficial symbiotic relationship with plants, improving water and nutrient availability. Think of it like a delicate spiderweb a few inches under the soil surface that connects your garden but it must remain unbroken.

DID YOU KNOW? The mycelium networks in very large ancient forests spread for hundreds of square miles? Just as well they aren’t spiders’ webs – can you imagine the size of the spiders?

• Weed and water beds if dry.
• Spread a 2-inch layer of well-rotted compost, manure or mushroom compost ONCE per year, anytime of the year. This should be sufficient and no need for additional feeding during the growing year.
• Harvest without uprooting plants. Twist and pull, leaving as much root in the soil as possible to rot down. Cut legumes at ground level and again leave roots in place.
• Reserve a couple of beds for potatoes, as they benefit from more depth. I also use a bed for sweet peas to allow trench composting.
• All my beds are no dig.

More Winter Tasks

If you sowed autumn crops or flowers recently as per last month’s fact sheet , you should have some planting out to do soon. Don’t forget to cover them with fleece or mesh throughout winter and check them weekly.

Repair bed edges, prune apple and pear trees, and tend to gooseberries and other fruit bushes. Attention to this will ensure more and better fruit next year. 

How much to prune? Best advice I have ever been given was:

“when you have finished pruning the fruit tree a pigeon should be able to fly straight through the centre of it.” 

Now I am not suggesting you shoo all the pigeons around towards your fruit tree, your imagination will suffice.

Plums only require a very light pruning to control their growth.

Strip tomatoes off the plants and put somewhere warm to ripen.

Planting and Pest Control

If you haven’t planted daffodils, tulips, overwintering onions, shallots, or garlic, now’s the time. Also pot on hardy annuals sown last month. Another good idea is to wrap grease bands around the trunks of your fruit trees to prevent the winter moth caterpillars crawling up into your tree throughout Winter and Spring and spoiling the fruit.

Place them about 18” above ground level.

You may also want to consider spraying your fruit trees with Winter Tar Oil Wash, although not very practical with large trees.

Until Next Month…

We are just about done for this month. I hope I haven’t bored you with all this information.

Next month the Factsheet subject is Seed Sourcing. In the meantime…

Keep Healthy, Keep Smiling, Keep Sowing.

Best Wishes,     

Ramon 07594 456292
Plot 21 Silsden Road site

October 2024: Seeds to sow in Autumn

30th September 2024

Hi Folks. This is the first of a series of 12 monthly factsheets I will be putting together for your information or amusement.

I do not intend them to be a definitive technical manual of how to do stuff, but simply more a record of what I grow and how I grow it. In other words what, in my experience, works for me.

So let’s crack on with this one shall we?

It’s a shame so many gardeners ‘put their garden/allotment to Bed’ for the Winter. Autumn is a great opportunity to give yourself a good start to next season. But I do understand that overwintering plants can be a bit daunting.

The idea is, in Autumn (late September to early November), to sow seeds of varieties bred for overwintering. They can then develop a good root system before Winter, during which they tick over and then in Spring they take off giving them a head start on Spring sown seeds and so generally crop 4-6 weeks earlier. Giving time to plant a second crop to follow on (more of that in a later factsheet).

Care must be taken to sow only varieties bred to survive our Northern Winters (see list below) and give them the protection of a polytunnel, greenhouse, cold frame, fleece or mesh as cold winds do more harm to plants than cold temperatures. On the coldest nights it may be necessary to cover even plants in the greenhouse/polytunnel with a fleece.

Due to the cool temperatures in Autumn I find it best to sow into cell tray modules or small pots (except where denoted otherwise below) in my greenhouse and plant out when well established. This includes onion and shallot sets.

Following is a list of varieties I have success with, together with the seed sources I use. Other sources are available.

I will be devoting a whole article to seed sourcing soon. You can view a calendar of my factsheet subjects here.

Vegetables & Herbs

Both varieties can be harvested by taking lower leaves leaving the plant to grow on.

Autumn sown onions tend not to keep beyond October following harvest so you will need to sow sets in Spring for Winter use.

Flowers

So, that’s it folks. Plenty to go at there so no excuses, get out from under that duvet and start sowing, in Spring you will be so glad you made the effort!

Feel free to contact me if you ever need help or advice or just fancy a nosy round my allotment.

Ramon, 07594 456292;
ramonkporter@gmail.com

Plot 21, Silsden Road allotments. If my white car is parked there, so am I. 

Feel free to call for a chat, tea/coffee and if your timing is good perhaps a toasted crumpet with home-made jam. 

Oh yes, we know how to do it properly on Plot 21!

Choose and plant Spring bulbs now for show success

30th September 2024

Making Space For Nature

20th March 2024

February’s talk by Rick Battarbee…

2024 spring show – 20th april

23rd January 2024

The spring show & coffee morning will be held on Saturday 20th april from 10am to 12noon. Entries can be made on the morning of the show between 8am – 9am. Judging will start promptly at 9.15am.

See the schedule for full details.

Show Results 2023

16th August 2023

The Show results are now listed on the Show section – click on the show tab in the menu bar.

The show was a great success – thank you to everyone who made it such a great day.