ROB SMITH
KITCHEN GARDENER
It’s all go as I prepare tomatoes, clear mustard and plant out brassicas
Helping you get your best-ever fruit and veg
The overwintered mustard leaves have finally reached the end of their lives and are flowering. I normally remove them before this happens but this year I left them to provide a little early food for bees and other insects. However, the plants are now being added to the compost heap so I can making space for ‘hot crops’.
With the final frost date across most of the country either due, or not far away, it’s time for me to think about tomato plants in the unheated greenhouse and prepare for potting them up. I like to get the compost ready before planting, as this allows me to break it up, aerating it and mixing through any slow-release fertilisers such as blood, fish and bone. By doing this, I can fill all the containers and let the compost warm up and settle before planting, then I can add more compost as I transplant the tomatoes. Also, by putting all the pots in situ, I can make sure the automatic watering system reaches each pot and move them if need be, without worrying about damaging plants in the process.
Cabbage seedlings which were potted up a few weeks ago are now ready to go into the raised beds in the garden, but I won’t be planting them alone. You can get a bonus crop by sowing fast-cropping radish in the space between slower-growing veg such as cabbage and other brassicas. It’s the perfect way to maximise space and the amount of veg you can produce from one bed. Simply direct sow the radish between the cabbages after you’ve planted them; within a few weeks you should be able to harvest the spicy roots before the brassicas begin to grow and shade them out. As the cabbage gets planted, my kale is being pricked out and transplanted into individual pots of peat-free compost. I grow ‘Pentland Brig’, a large-leaved variety which lasts for months if picked regularly. The seedlings will be kept in the unheated greenhouse, which will have the doors
