Roehampton Garden Society

Tag Archives: Blackcurrants


by

January jobs on your allotment

Maintaining soil and structures and planning ahead

  • As crops are harvested clear debris and cover cleared soil with weed suppressant.
  • Plan a crop system for vegetables- leaving a minimum of two years before replanting crops in the same place.
  • Complete winter digging of bare beds and cover the ground to warm beds for early crops.
  • Open greenhouse vents on mild days
  • Clean greenhouses, staging, pots and seed-trays for the coming growing season.

Sowing and growing

  • Apply winter washes to fruit trees to control overwintering pests.
  • Start ‘chitting’ tubers of early potatoes in trays in a cool, light, frost-free location.
  • Sow broad beans in pots under cover.
  • Sow winter salads in a greenhouse or windowsill.
  • Sow summer brassicas and spinach on a windowsill to plant out in late February.
  • Aubergines can be sown under cover on a sunny windowsill from late January.
  • Bring potted runners of strawberries under glass for forcing.
  • Sow later sweet peas now and pot on autumn-sown sweet peas, pinching out the tip after 4 pairs of leaves have developed or when plants have reached 3.5 cms. Place on a sunny windowsill, in a cold frame or greenhouse.
  • Ensure brassicas are protected against pigeons by netting.
  • Begin forcing rhubarb for an early crop by placing a bucket or forcing jar over the crop.

Harvesting

  • Harvest parsnip, swede, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, leek and turnip.

Pruning

  • Prune overgrown blackcurrant bushes- remove a third of the old, weak or unproductive stems to ground level to encourage new basal shoots.
  • Prune freestanding apples and pears, maintaining an open centre. Do not remove more than 20% of the crown in one winter
  • Prune gooseberries, redcurrants and whitecurrants by removing dead wood and low lying shoots. Prune last year’s growth of the main stems by about a half. Prune all side-shoots back to one to three buds from their bases.
  • Prune grapevines before mid January.

Gardening for wildlife

  • Regularly replenish bird feeders.
  • Clear out bird boxes by removing old nests and rinse out boxes.


by

December jobs on your allotment

Maintaining soil and structures and planning ahead

  • Clear away any remaining plant debris from plots and compost if disease-free.
  • Earth up and check stakes on Brussels sprouts and other tall brassicas to prevent wind rock.

Sowing and planting

  • Protect autumn-sown broad beans with cloches during extended periods of frost.
  • Divide and replant rhubarb. For early tender stems, ‘force’ rhubarb by covering crowns with a dark-coloured bucket or terracotta rhubarb forcer.
  • Ventilate green houses on mild days to reduce diseases.
  • Continue to plant fruit trees and bushes if soil is not frozen.
  • Plant blackcurrants 5cm below the soil to encourage new shoots.
  • Plant fruit trees trained as cordons or espaliers to make good use of limited space. Check RGS website for guidance on permitted trees.
  • Plant blueberries in pots of ericaceous compost.

Pruning

  • Prune grape vines before the end of the month, when dormant, to avoid sap bleeding.

Harvesting

  • Continue to harvest Brussels sprouts, kale and winter cabbage.

Gardening for wildlife

  • Feed birds regularly. Disinfect bird tables and water dishes regularly to avoid spreading disease.


by

November jobs on your allotment

Maintaining soil and structures and planning ahead

  • Continue to clear all plant debris from plots. Do not add blighted tomatoes to your compost, but burn or take to the dump.
    Empty compost heaps and use the well-rotted dark crumbly material.
  • Apply a 5cm layer of well rotted compost or manure to bare plots or cover bare areas with brown cardboard weighed down with damp grass clippings.
  • Prepare a winter compost trench for next season’s moisture loving plants such as sweet peas, runner beans or squashes. Dig a trench a spade deep and fill with kitchen vegetable waste covering each additional layer with soil.

Sowing and planting

  • Continue to sow overwintering broad beans.
  • Sow hardy peas either straight into the ground under fleece or 3 to a 9”pot to be planted out when the roots reach the bottom.
  • Sow a gutter of peas in the green house or under cloches for salad or risotto at Christmas time.
  • Sow cut-and-come-again salads in a sheltered spot or green house.
  • Finish planting onion sets and garlic.Garlic needs a chilling period so plant now. With current wet winters plant on a ridge to aid drainage.
  • Sow dill, chives and parsley now on a sunny windowsill.
  • Order bare root trees now for the best selection.
  • Fix grease bands to fruit trees to protect against winter moth. To help control pests and diseases spray fruit trees with winter wash on a calm, dry day.
  • Once leaves have dropped and before bud break in February spray fruit trees with winter wash on a calm, dry day. Spraying helps to reduce overwintering pests.
  • Start winter pruning of apples and pears.
  • Keep overwintering brassicas covered with netting to prevent pigeon damage.
  • Stake tall brassicas against wind damage.
  • Sow green manures early in the month such as grazing rye.
  • Clean the greenhouse to maximise light levels and before the water is turned off in December.

Harvesting

  • Start to harvest winter cabbage, Brussels sprouts, leeks and kale. Wait until after frosts for parsnips as they will be sweeter.

Pruning

  • Begin winter pruning of apples, pears and vines.
  • Prune overgrown blackcurrant bushes- remove a third of the oldest stems to ground level.
  • Fruited canes of blackberries and hybrid berries such as tayberries and loganberries should be pruned to ground level.

Gardening for wildlife

  • Remove surplus dead leaves from ponds to prevent decomposition pollution.
  • Clean out bird boxes of old nesting material so they may be used as winter roosts.