February is often the coldest winter month & what you can do on your allotment in February often depends on the weather. Do not slavishly follow instruction’s to sow or plant outside in February: think of the conditions, cold & wet ground will not germinate seeds it will just kill them off. If the weather allows, you can direct sow broad beans along with early peas best chance would be to start them in a cold frame and plant outside later. Onion seeds can now be started off indoors or in a heated greenhouse at home, they need to be 15 degrees C to get them going for planting out later. The greenhouse border can be brought into productive use, a row or two of early carrots can come out in eight to ten weeks, by this time the beds will be needed for tomatoes & so on.
If you didn’t plant your garlic out last November pop them in now, they like a cold spell so frost will not harm them. Conventional advice is to sow parsnips now but you will get much better germination rates in March, they will still be ready by the time the next frost arrives. Hardy lettuce can be started under glass, to provide an early salad crop along with rocket & some radish varieties.
Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)
