The perfect time for planting

This is the ideal time to begin sowing vegetable seeds either directly into the ground, or into trays in the greenhouse or propagator depending on how much heat is needed for germination. Growing your own food brings so much pleasure, many challenges, a sense of pride at meal times and absolutely amazing taste! There is simply NO comparison to that which we buy from a supermarket. If you are nervous about beginning to grow your own food, start with some easier types to gain confidence. Suggestions for easy vegetables to grow would be Potatoes, Squash, Courgette, Celeriac, Parsnip, Sweetcorn, Beetroot and Peas. Quick growing food that will instantly reward you would include Radishes, Salad leaves, Lettuce, Rocket and Dwarf French Beans. The key to successful food growing is good, rich soil. Add a thick layer of home made compost to your soil each spring to encourage beneficial soil organisms to thrive and assist your vegetable plants to grow strongly and be naturally resistant to pests and diseases. If you don’t have your own compost then use soil improver from the garden centre or manure from a local supplier.

To grow your own fruit start by planting a Redcurrant and a Blackcurrant bush as they are tolerant of incorrect pruning whereas things like Gooseberries are much more tricky (and prickly!). Next add in a few canes of Autumn fruiting Raspberries, which are the easiest to prune as you just cut everything down to ground level in February. Finally plant some strawberry plants which are very easy to grow and will propagate themselves with runners. Allow a small patch of brambles for blackberries and add a Rhubarb crown. Netting your fruit creates a barrier for birds but also for you, and if harvesting proves to be too difficult, you might find you leave fruit rotting on the host plants, we’ve all done it, but it is daft to waste good food so I prefer to share and harvest easily.

Allow a wildflower this month is a controversial one. It is a plant that most people think is either Borage or Anchusa but is much more likely to be Pentaglottis sempervirens or Green Alkanet. With hairy large green leaves and tall blue flowers, it is a tidy grower in that the rosettes of leaves stay green and fresh looking through most of the year and provide good shelter for smaller creatures. After flowering, if cut down, it often flowers again. The flowers are great for pollinators. It does self seed perhaps more that you would want and the deep tap roots can be difficult to remove and if broken, they will grow into more new plants. Dead heading the flowers before they set seed is the best way to control how much you have of this plant, but it is worth it because it provides dense ground cover in partial shade where other things might struggle to grow and the bees, hoverflies and butterflies absolutely love it!