Your seasonal queries solved by RHS experts
I have a very small garden and have been advised to give successional sowing a go – where do I start?
Vegetables that grow fast but rapidly pass their prime or run to seed and cannot be easily stored, coriander, dill, lettuce, radish or spinach, for example, should be sown little and often for a more or less constant ‘succession’ of produce. A metre or two of row is usually plenty for most households, where 10m of say lettuces would be hard to use up before they spoilt. Better to top up from the supermarket than see efforts go to waste. Typically sow another short row every three weeks.
I sowed some chilli seeds in a propagator but the seedlings are looking very straggly, what have I done wrong?
Seedlings are ‘stretched’ if sown in warm conditions but with too little light. As soon as seeds germinate, move seed trays to a brighter place. The propagator lid cuts out much light and retains the very desirable warmth needed for fast, even germination, but are too dark and warm after germination. Windowsills are especially tricky as the light levels are lower than people expect and rooms can be warm. Backing the windowsills with reflective surfaces such as white card to reflect light back onto the plants or investing in low energy grow lights to provide supplementary light can help.
Alternatively choose a cooler room, bearing in mind that chillies, like tomatoes suffer at temperatures below 12ºC.
We have inherited an allotment plot that has been left in a very overgrown state and it feels a bit overwhelming! Do you have any advice for tackling neglected spaces?
There is no need to bring an allotment into full cultivation immediately and it is less stressful to tackle it bit by bit.
First collect up rubbish and dispose of it – it is worth asking for a skip if the allotment has been left in a bad way as if rather often the case. Then mow or strim off existing vegetation (machines can be hired) and compost it.
For early spring crops aim to dig a strip big enough to get the essentials in; baby beetroot and carrots, broad beans, lettuces, peas, radishes for example. Later crops, cabbages, courgettes, sweetcorn can be sown in pots and the ground will be cleared by the time they are ready to be planted out.
Alternatively, cover a strip in a double layer of cardboard and spread 15cm of compost on this and sow into the compost. Potting compost – especially peat-based compost – is less effective than composted manures and soil impr
