February in Barbara’s Back Yard

End of February and the weather is beautiful.  Still very cold at night – and the tap by the barn was frozen this morning so had to use the bucket by the house – but the sun is lovely once the mist and frost have cleared.  This time last year we had the Beast from the East and we made a snowman, this year we are told it will be the Wet from the West at the end of the week – but we could really do with some rain – the wild pond has only a puddle of water in the middle.

I’ve been looking out for frogs – by the end of February they are usually hopping back to the pond to find a mate – but there’s no sign of them yet – in any of the ponds.  It’s quite fascinating watching them – if you sit still, more and more beady eyes pop up out of the water – and I love to hear their burbling – especially late in the evening – it always sounds louder in the dark.

As it’s been quite dry so far this year, I’ve dug the bean trench and put in a mixture of manure from the hen house, rabbit manure – and compost from the compost bin.  The rest of the compost has been spread over the potato patch.  One February it myvegetable patch had a moat around it – and I couldn’t do anything as the ground was much too wet.  This year I’ve already planted some onion sets and the parsnips will go in once my seeds arrive – which should be today.

This year I ordered seeds from www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk – I received a catalogue in the post – and you can still order with a cheque – or by phone – but online is definitely easier – there are more varieties on the website – and you can also find out if items are in stock.

I’ve ordered some potatoes – second earlies – and set them out in trays ready to sprout.  The DT Brown instructions are excellent:  After unpacking, put potato tubers in a cool, light, well-ventilated and frost-free place, away from direct sunlight.

Potatoes can be divided into five categories, planted from March to July

1. First earlies – plant mid-late March – ready June to July
2. Second earlies – plant in late March – ready July to August
3. Early maincrops – plant in April – ready August
4. Late maincrop – plant early May – ready September onwards
5. Second Cropping / Late Cropping – plant from early July – ready September to December

The chitting process allows strong green shoots (chits) to develop on the tuber before planting.  Although not essential, it is particularly beneficial for the earlier cropping potatoes because it give the potato a quick start, thus cropping earlier.  Set the seed potatoes out, side by side (I use egg trays) blunt end uppermost (this is the end opposite where the stalk was that attached the potato to the parent plant – but you can’t always see this).  

Plant tubers 4-6 in deep (10 – 15 cm), earlies 10-12 in apart, in rows 2 ft apart; maincrop 12-14 in apart in rows 30 in apart.  Once shoots appear above the surface you need to earth them up (draw up soil over the tubers forming a ridge).  This gives the plant a volume of soil in which to grow, stops the tubers turning green, and improves drainage and ventilation. 

It also gets rid of weeds.  I mulch everything else with grass cuttings – but when I did this with potatoes they all got blight so earthing up regularly works much better.

Potatoes are ready to harvest when the tops reach full size – weather permitting, they will usually attempt to produce flowers – or at least buds – at this time. 

Onion Sets: 

When onions arrive put them into a cool, light, well-ventilated and frost fre place, away from direct sunlight.

Plant between February and April, as soon as the soil is sufficiently dry and warm.  Onions form a bulb when the temperature and the number of daylight hours hit the right combination for them, which triggers their clock.  Until that happens, onions use the daylight to produce a good deal of top growth before they form bulbs (and the more top growth, the bigger the bulb).  When the day reaches the right number of hours for that variety of onion, the onion will stop forming top growth, and form a bulb instead.  The size of the bulb that eventually forms depends on the size of the ‘stalks’ and the number of them.  there will be 1 ring in the onion for every stalk that formed, and the larger the stalk, the larger each ring will be.  bulb formation will pause during dry, very hot or very cold weather.

Break off any flower stems which appear.  Mulching is useful for cutting down watering and for suppressing weeds.  Stop watering once the onions have swollen and pull back the covering earth or mulch to expose the bulb surface to the sun to dry.  When the bulb is mature, the foliage turns yellow and topples over.  Leave them for 2 weeks and then carefully lift with a folk on a dry day.

Onions which are not for immediate use must be dried.  Spread out the bulbs on sacking or in trays; outdoors if the weather is warm and sunny of indoors if the weather is wet.  Drying will take 7 to 21 days depending on the size of the bulbs and air temperature.  Store unblemished onions in trays, net bags 0r tied into plaits. 

I’ve also planted some broad beans in pots – and sown some herb seeds – which are in the propagator.

Daisy has decided to sit on some eggs so I’ve moved her to a pen on her own – it stops the other hens pestering her (because they always want to lay their eggs where she is sitting) and, if the eggs do hatch, they are in a safe place.