Jamie’s Little Allotment: Gayton-based gardener talks about the first grass cut of the year and the joy of potting on

In his weekly column, Gayton gardener Jamie Marsh gives his lawn cutting tips and talks about potting tomatoes in his new polytunnels…

That was quick wasn’t it? Four days off work for Easter absolutely flew by, but I suppose the old saying “time flies when your having fun” really is true especially when it’s glorious weather and you are doing what you love best.

Lots has been going on at the allotment and new polytunnels, yes you heard me correct, two new polytunnels - I’ll tell you a bit about those later.

My lawns have really started to grow well now so it’s time to start mowing. The first cut of the year needs to be at a high setting on your mower, just to take the tips off the grass. It will promote growth and help thicken up the grass and keep the weeds in check.

A tip is to make sure your mower blade is nice and sharp, if it’s blunt it might rip the grass out instead of cutting which is not good.

Now is a good time to do some lawn maintenance. At this time of year the soil is warming up and it’s a good time to over seed your lawn if it’s a bit thin, also seed any bald patches.

If you’re going to over seed, check for any moss and either rake it out or use a scarifier. Even if you have no moss you should still scratch up the areas you want to over seed so the seed has some loose soil to get its roots in to. Once seeded, press it down into the scratched soil either with a garden roller or just by walking on it.

You will have to keep it watered for a while, until the new seed has germinated and started to grow.

Remember if your lawn has a lot of moss, after you scarify it is going to look quite bad. I’ve come to the conclusion I quite like a bit of moss in my lawn, so I’m just going to leave it.

I said I’ve got two new polytunnels which I managed to erect over the last couple of weeks, quite a task on your own, but I managed.

I was quite keen to get them up because I had lots of tomato plants, 195 to be exact, in module trays in my growing/seedling room, which have been desperate to be potted on for weeks now, but until the polytunnels were done I had nowhere to put them.

Once these are potted into four-inch pots they take up a lot more space.

They are all potted now and in one of the tunnels. I find potting on seedlings from modules a very therapeutic job - especially when you are in the sun with a good podcast playing.

When potting on I use roughly 75% of a good peat-free, multi-purpose compost with 25% vermiculite. I add the vermiculite to help with the structure of the compost, which can be a bit hit and miss since we’ve gone peat free, and it also helps with drainage so the roots aren’t sitting in the wet and will hold a bit of moisture.

I just popped the tomato seedling out of its module, filled a four-inch pot half full with the compost mix then filled in around it, firmed it in and gave it a good drink. They already look a lot better because the nutrients in the seed compost were obviously depleted, now they have lots more new compost and are well away.

You’re probably thinking, why do you need 195 tomato plants? Well I don’t really, it’s more of the different varieties I want, 40 to be more specific, but like everyone, I can’t just sow one or two seeds just in case they don’t germinate. So I sowed five or six and most of them did - hence I’ve got lots of spares to give away.

Email me if you have any questions about what I’m doing in the allotment , also I’d love to hear what you’re up to in your garden.

Jamieslittleallotment@gmail.com