Jim went through the basics of soil cultivation and seed sowing:
- Break soil up with cultivator (a three pronged tool)
- Make the soil level with a landscape rake (wooden ones most effective)
- Consolidate
- Fine rake it to obtain a tilth
- Line out (always line out away from what you've sown)
- Create a drill with a draw hoe. For shallow edges the edge of the hoe is effective. For large trench like drills e.g. for bean use the whole hoe (Photo 1). 1½cm deep is a standard drill hole. Shuffle/ rake in hole afterwards. Light tamp with rake. For onions it is good to make drills as they have strong roots and will push themselves up.
- Measure soil temperature. Below 7°C and soil will sit and possibly deterioriate and you will get uneven germination. Here is why and where cloches can be used to warm up soils. Can use an outdoor thermometer to read soil, need to leave in there for a period.
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| Photo 1: Peas can be sowed on either side of the drill trench or scattered. |
- Beetroots are multi-seeds - more than one plant will germinate from one seed.
- Radish - sow 1 inch/ 2½cm, avoid thinning radish.
- Carrots sow 2cm apart
- Peasticks near peas sown help prevent birds from pecking them out.
- Potatoes for small amounts just make a hole 15cm deep (Photo 2). As they're early ones, they might not even need watering.
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| Photo 2: 15cm holes for potatoes. |
- Leeks on less fertile soil space further apart so you can get bigger ones.
- Strawberries are cold stored runners, stored at -1°C. It is a variety called Vibrant - they are arriving later this month. Will fruit 60 days after they are planted. They are from R. W. Walpole - biggest propagators of strawberries. Spread the roots out when planting them in. To check they are planted in firmly enough (brassicas too) - leaf breaks or want to break off in hand when you pull at it. Water after planting. Likely to be attacked by mice.
- Brassicas can be planted lower and deeper if they're a bit leggy (this is the case for tomatoes too).
- Bean poles for small plots space 60cm apart. Rows are a bit vulnerable on windy sites. Rows 30cm apart. Sow beans/ peas inside of canes. You can chit before sowing. These are particularly sensitive to soil temp. Direct sow or sow indoors from May.
- Add chicken pellets for a bit more nitrogen, work this in is during soil prep. stage.
- Liming - approx. 300g per metre for the plots that need them here (uncultivated, previously turfed ones)
- If growing sweetcorn - they would have benefited from a nitrogen boost in June (Sulphate ammonia).
My mark for soil cultivation was 13 out of 15.
Back at Woody I helped haul out Hydrangea paniculata dug up by a mini digger driven by Andy in the Chilean Glade (Photo 3), then we replanted these on one of the big beds at the start of the broad walk (Photo 4). It was interesting to transplant such mature plants and it definitely had an immediate impressive effect. These we did water in well very thoroughly.
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| Photo 3: Uplifting a Hydrangea paniculata with a mini digger. |
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| The hydrangeas replanted in the Broad Walk. |