Things to do in the vegetable garden

• Watch out for chickweed, which can grow, flower and ripen seed all year round. It is not a weed to be ignored and can soon overwhelm winter salads and other plants, particularly on rich soils. Hoe off seedlings, but pull up anything larger as the plants can root again in wet weather.
• You can start forcing rhubarb, seakale and chicory in January.
  Rhubarb is forced by placing an up-turned bucket/pot over the plant to exclude light. The warmer the environment the quicker it will grow; you can place manure or straw over the top to encourage growth of the pale, sweet shoots. Seakale is forced the same way, only there is no need for extra warmth.
• Chicory is treated differently. Dig up well-grown chicory roots from the ground, pot up, and then cover with an upturned pot. Keep in a dark, warm place (10-14°C / 50-57°F). The sweet chicons (forced pale shoots) will be ready for late winter salads in about 4-6 weeks. Witloof is the traditional forcing chicory to produce white chicons, but other varieties can also be used, producing smaller and less regular chicons. If the compost is kept moist the roots may produce several more chicons after the first one has been snapped off to eat.
• Sow onions in January, as onions from seed need a long growing season. Raise in modules on a warm windowsill for planting out in March.
• Lift celery as required in December. Any plants left in the ground can be covered with a thick layer of straw to protect them from winter frost.
• Stake and earth up Brussels sprout plants that are at risk of blowing over in harsh weather. Loose soil around the roots leads to Brussels sprouts not hearting up properly.
• Order your seed potatoes from The Organic Gardening Catalogue  and when they arrive , set them out in trays in a light, cool, frost-free spot and leave them to sprout. This is known as chitting. Egg boxes make good chitting trays so start saving them now. Make sure you put the tubers with the 'eye' end - where the sprouts will grow from - upwards.

• Start collecting plastic bottles
  for cloches in the spring
  Get organised for the spring and start collecting plastic bottles for cloches. The sawn-off plastic bottles will protect individual young plants from slug damage. Be sure not to trap a slug inside.
• An extra compost box never goes amiss, particularly on an allotment or large garden. Dot them around so there is always one close by. If you don’t already have one or need more, now is a good time to build a new one. Use wood from old pallets to cut costs.

• Mulch bare soil in beds with last year’s leaf mould. If you’ve only got leaves from this season they can be used as a mulch. Rake them back before sowing next year.
• Plant garlic if the weather is mild enough.
• Check stored crops regularly. Remove immediately anything showing signs of decay, to prevent rots from spreading. Some varieties of potato will begin to sprout sooner than others – so if one variety shows signs of sprouting, eat it up quickly.

Why not start a 'Hot Bed'?

Manure based hot beds were very popular in Victorian times. A hot bed provides bottom heat, using manure rather than electricity as the heat source, thus speeding up plant growth of seedlings and tender plants. Once set up, they can be used to grow salad crops on in winter, as a natural heat source to give a head-start on seed sowing in the spring (by up to a month), and for growing melons and any of the Cucurbitaceae family in the summer. A hot bed consists of two main layers:

• The heat source: Fresh strawy manure, in a layer 60-90cm deep (after compaction). As the manure breaks down, it generates heat. Tread it down well to compact it, ensuring a more even release of heat.
• The growing medium: A mixture of topsoil and garden compost (ratio of 1:1).  This is placed on top of the manure in a layer 20cm-30cm thick.

The modern equivalent uses electric soil warming cables. Our activity sheet Building a Heated Propagator gives step-by-step instructions on constructing a heated bed.

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_now/archive/dec-jan/veg_gard_n...