Are you, like me, forever chasing your tail, pulling weeds when they have set seed, watering at midnight because you didn’t get round to it when it was light, and saying you are sowing very late as “an experiment” and not because you just forgot?
Worry not, here are a few tricks to get you out of jail right now. If you realise it’s going to be a good tomato year and you don’t have nearly enough plants, use the sideshoots as cuttings. You normally pinch off sideshoots (these grow out between the leaf and the main stem) when they are 2.5cm or so; but for cuttings, leave them until they are 10-20cm long. Sit these in a glass of water until they root, or pot them up (if under cover, plant the cuttings direct into the beds). If you put them in compost or soil, it’s essential to water every day for the first two weeks, or the cuttings will wither and die. After that, you’ll find they romp away and you should have fruit by the end of the summer.
Similarly, if you are thinning out other seedlings and any have a decent root system, carefully transplant them, making sure to water them in well, and continue to do so if the weather is warm. These seedlings, particularly lettuce and radish, will mature roughly two weeks after the rest, so that’s a neat trick to guarantee flawless succession. In fact, this approach works for pretty much everything other than carrots, which thoroughly resent the disturbance and cross their legs in protest.
If life has run away with you and you still have parsnips or leeks in the ground, just let them flower. The bees will love them and they will then set seed; scatter the seeds wherever you want leeks or parsnips next year, think nothing more of it and, come next spring, you’ll have the earliest crop imaginable with little effort.
You can cheat with supermarket herbs, too. A well-chosen pot of parsley, basil or chives can easily be split into individual plants. Don’t bother trying this with coriander, though; it will resent being transplanted and bolt to flower. One pot of supermarket parsley will edge an entire bed, while a single pot of basil, once split, will provide you with enough plants to make vats of pesto.
Come to think of it, this can be a very economical way to get a head start. Sit the pot in water for half an hour before you split the plants up: this will make it easier to loosen the root ball without tearing too many roots (they are often very congested). Pinch back the top shoot of the basil, so it branches out – these crowded individuals tend to be rather leggy – and water every other day, if necessary, until you see new growth, which is a sign the roots have bedded down.
