Cover veg plots with plastic

Cover veg plots with plastic

To get your soil ready for sowing, it is fascinating the difference that something as simple as covering the ground with black plastic can make.  Cloches will do the same of course.  Both help to warm and dry the soil.

Purchase a soil thermometer and note the difference between the covered soil and the uncovered soil.  Once the soil is consistently above 7ºC you can start sowing early crops such as broad beans and lettuce.

A great little tip for growing fresh lettuce

A great little tip for growing fresh lettuce.  Instead of buying plantlets from DIY stores and garden centres, keep your eyes out for plastic trays of mini-lettuces in supermarkets.  I've bought these in Sainsbury's, but I assume other supermarkets do something similar.

They are designed for consumption as a salad, but it is easy to divide them up and re-put them on in a good compost.  You can get about fifteen plants from a tray.  The good news is that  a tray brought this way only cost a pound or two.

One tray, which I bought sometime in April, saw my family through to the end of September in fresh lettuce, all for about £1.50!  

If you try it this time of year, I suspect that they will need to be planted under glass.