Vegetables
Potatoes are an easy-to-grow staple vegetable and many varieties are available.
Medium-sized tubers 6cm or 7cm long and 4cm or 5cm wide are right for most varieties, but smaller potatoes will still give reasonable crops.
Place them on newspaper in a light, frost-free place to sprout.
Small quantities can be sprouted in egg cartons or trays, which can be labelled with a felt pen.
Main crop potatoes do not need to be sprouted in this way, although they are best kept in the light, rather than in sacks or boxes, where excessive sprouting might reduce their vitality.
Prepare soil for early plantings in August by adding plenty of compost, but no lime, to an area facing north or northeast and, ideally, sheltered to the west.
Compost heaps and topless bins need to be protected from heavy winter rains. Heavy plastic fertiliser bags are ideal, as they help keep the bin warm; or sheets of corrugated iron are satisfactory.
Compost heaps take longer to rot down at this time of the year and should be turned over regularly. If fowl manure is available, its strong nitrogen content will speed up the decomposition process.
Carrots and beetroot can be lifted and stored in a corner of the garden. Cover thickly with loose soil or sawdust and they will be easy to dig when the soil freezes. Parsnips and swedes, whose flavours improve after frosts, can be treated in this way but are better left where they grew.
Green manure crops that have reached 15cm or higher should be dug in now. Left too long, the raw material will not have decomposed sufficiently for seeds to germinate.
The most active soil micro-organisms are in the top 15cm, so for rapid decomposition, chop the green crops with a spade and turn under the surface only. Adding garden lime at the same time will aid the process.
Leave the soil surface rough for frosts and weather to break it up.
Flowers
Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants can be propagated by root cuttings taken over the next month. Ones that lend themselves well to this treatment are most species of crab apples (Malus) grown on their own roots, tree poppy (Romneya coulteri) and Rhus typhina.
The best roots to use for trees and shrubs are the vigorous, outward-growing pieces away from the main taproots. Choose roots a little thicker than a pencil, with a few fibrous rootlets attached. Cut them into 10cm to 15cm lengths and place firmly into prepared trenches.
Place some sand on the bottom of the trench, and cover with friable soil. For herbaceous plants, use thicker, fleshy roots. Avoid accidentally planting them upside down by cutting the crowns or upper parts straight across and the basal ends on a slant.
Wood ash is a good top dressing for many trees and shrubs and on herbaceous borders. However, it can kill acid-loving plants, so keep it off rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, heaths, lilies and magnolias, which should be mulched with leaf mould and peat.
Ericas provide red, pink or white winter colour. Erica carnea varieties make up the main winter-flowering group and will tolerate some lime in the soil. E. darleyensis flowers for the longest period, bearing small, coral pink flowers from mid-June onwards.
