You may be thinking its too early in the year to be starting to think about summer but in order to have everything running smoothly by may, plans need to be made now.

Apart from the fact we all love curling up in front of the fire in the cold winter nights, poring over seed catalogues with visions of "how it will look this year!" and " wow, thats weird! ive gotta try that!" a good plan makes life simple.

At sissinghurst we plan our seed sowings to maximise the use of protected growing spaces. As such we dont even start sowing our Tomatoe seeds till mid late march! Admittedly we carry on harvesting till late september but this does mean we dont harvest anything significant till mid june. At this point i should clarify that we count in kilo's, we start getting fruit from the toms at the end of may but not enough to supply the restaurants needs.

Growing your own Tomato from seed is incredibly easy! when you buy a packet of seeds you may get way more than you'll ever be able to use yourself. If you have an allotment speak to others and see what varieties they reccomend as sometimes local breeds perform better than the generic ones available from the popular companies. They may also give you some of the extra seed they have if you ask nicely.

Last year we experimentent with varieties from H.S.L. (Heritage Seed Library). These varieties are not available commercially due to complicated and restrictive licensing laws. Technically they are known as "Heritage Varieties".

so if you do have some space on the windowsill plan to start sowing your tomatoe, chili and aubergine seeds as early as possible. These fellas are all from the same family (solanacea) and on average you can expect to get fruit from them 70 - 90 days after germination. Now is also the time to plan for another member of this family, Potatoes! All around the country Potatoe days are happening. If your not familiar with this concept it can be amusing, dont underestimate the value of the information you can pick up from these events though. Not to mention some of the more unusual varieties available and the fact your seed potatoes are of a far higher quality than those you pick up from your local diy store.

Heres an excellent page showing events around the country, hurry though theres not a lot of dates left! : www.potatoday.org/potatodays.htm

If you wish to learn more about the Heritage seed library please follow this link: www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

So, youve got your varieties sorted and when your sowing them. What else can you do?

If you have Top fruit, ie: apples, pears, peaches take time to ensure any old mummified fruits are removed and disposed of. Dont add them to your compst heap as they will be harbouring fungul diseases, which can carry on in the soil for a number of years. If you haven't got fruit now is the perfect time to plant!

Mulch bare soil as much as possible, this can be done in a number of ways and is absolutely neccesary in an organic garden. Not only does it cut down on weeding and watering, its so good for the soils structure. preventing erosion and when dug back in at the end of the season incorperates lots of lovely organic matter back into the soil to feed your worms.

cardboard, strulch, straw, green manures,bark chip, all have different properties, can be used for different lengths of time for different purposes.

For more information on mulches www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/wc2.php

 For more information on green manures www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/gs3.php

Right! well ive rambled enough for now and i hope ive given you something to think about. Check back in regularly for more info, hints and tips. Please feel free to email me if you want more info on a specific subject or volunteering with the National Trust.

Lou