Back to the garden after winter

Recovery work:

The soil, with the cleaning of the land and the addition of organic manure

Normally the ground should have remained covered during the winter, either with the rest of the culture, or by a mulch or even better by a green manure like mustard.
We are going to start clearing the areas that will be sown at the start of the season. This will be the subject of the next column as well as the care of perennial vegetable plants, rhubarb, sorrel, lovage, artichokes…

Plantations: alliaceae, garlic, onions, shallots…

It is preferable to plant bulbils of garlic or hardy onions like red onions in the fall when the climate and especially the ground allow it.
In fact, garlic, and more generally vegetable bulbs, do not tolerate excess moisture in the soil very badly in winter, which causes them to rot, especially if there are remains of nitrogenous manure.
The cultivation of these bulbs is not very complicated. The bulbs in general do not support the excess of nitrogen, this is why it is not necessary to put fresh organic manure of manures or fresh compost for example.
For onions, we start with bulbils, that is to say small onions sown the previous year. Be careful, you really need small bulbs because above 2 cm in diameter these plants are very likely to flower instead of giving large onions.

For garlic and real shallots*, we make a division of scales. Each scale producing a new plant.
Unlike flower bulbs, onions and garlic are not planted deep. It is said that the planted pods “must see the gardener leave” or even “hear the bells ringing”!

sowing in the ground,

A bit like for onions, when the climate and the soil allow it, it is interesting to sow peas and especially broad beans in autumn, but you need a rather mild winter or protection such as a small plastic tunnel or bell frames until March.

Sowing “warm”

For the lucky ones who have a heatable greenhouse or an air-conditioned veranda, February is the time to sow tomatoes, eggplants and peppers, which take a long time to produce.

If I speak of a greenhouse or a veranda, it is because tomato seeds in particular need a lot of light in addition to heat to grow. Then the light makes it possible to avoid the etiolation of the seedlings and to limit the health risks.
These plants can be sown in boxes, under a glass plate or directly in pots, but only one seed per pot.

Others

For squash, zucchini, cucumber and other cucurbits, you have to wait another month or so for sowing, but for hardy varieties of lettuce such as winter lettuce, it is possible to sow seedlings to be transplanted warm or under frames. and tunnel. Ditto for cabbage or leek plants which can also be sown a little later outdoors when the soil warms up.

*Real shallots: Shallots are basically varieties of onions (Allium cepa) “sterile” which therefore do not make seeds. The only way to multiply them remains the division of bulbs.
But since 2009, we find on the market “seedling” shallots which are actually hybrids of onions and shallots resembling shallots but which do not really have the taste characteristics.
The old varieties are called “traditional”.

Ask all your questions during the gardening program on Sunday morning on France bleu Isère from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. by calling 04 76 46 45 45.