Cultivating a vegetable garden is one of the most satisfying occupations in the world! However: sometimes it can be pretty frustrating, especially when you’ve invested a lot of time (and money) and the outcome is a meager – if any- harvest. I know because I’ve been there as well. During my first years in vegetable gardening I made many mistakes. Mistakes you won’t have to repeat as you can profit from what I learned. With the right knowledge, you can sidestep common pitfalls and cultivate a thriving garden that’ll make your neighbours green with envy.
Ready to avoid mistakes? Great! Here comes your shortcut to garden success!
#1 Planning too big
Every year when I browse through seed catalogues I think about enlarging my vegetable gardening space to make room for all the plants and varieties I want to try out. After some time in cloud-cuckoo-land, however, I usually come to my senses and remember that our garden’s size is well manageable now and every square foot larger would make it overwhelming.
Solution:
Not only but especially when you are a beginner, I recommend thinking big but starting small. With growing experience, you can enlarge your garden space step-by-step until you’ve reached the garden size that’s manageable for you.
#2 Choosing the wrong spot
Before creating a vegetable garden you must make sure to pick the perfect spot. The key requirements to be met are
Sunlight: Vegetables need at least 8 hours of sunlight per day. Everything below that time is too shady.
Drainage: Make sure that the spot you choose is not water-logged but has good drainage.
Protection: Your garden should be protected from cold, harsh winds
Solution:
Choose the spot for your vegetable garden wisely. It should be sunny, well-drained and protected from cold winds.
#3 Not knowing your soil
Soil matters, ladies and gentlement, and it’s a huge difference whether your garden’s soil is sand or loam (just to name a few). Determining your soil type is the first step to learning what you can grow and adjusting it to your plants’ needs. In this post you can learn more about the different types of soil and their characteristics.
Solution: There are soil test kits available online and in nurseries. Once you know what soil type your garden has, you know what plants will thrive there and what you can do to spruce it up for other vegetables.
#4 Not knowing your hardiness zone
Hardiness zones are determined by the annual minimum temperature of a region, thus telling you what plants will thrive and survive there. Not knowing your hardiness zone may tempt you to grow vegetables outside that will not have enough sun hours and high enough temperatures to mature fully and produce a good harvest.
Another important piece of information you’ll get is the last frost date for your region. After that date, it’s safe to plant sensitive veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers outdoors. Any earlier can kill your plants (see #10)
Solution: Go to plantmaps.com and check out your hardiness zone.
#5 Using the wrong plants
First of all: there is no such thing as “wrong” plants but rather plants not suitable for your hardiness zone. Once you know what zone you live in, you’ll know what plants you can grow in your region
Tempting as it may be to go for sun-loving tomatoes in zone 4, you won’t be happy with the outcome if you plant them outside. The time frame of optimal conditions will simply not be long enough for them to ripen all their fruit.
Solution: Check your hardiness zone and choose your plants accordingly. If necessary, make adjustments like adding a greenhouse or a cold frame to prolong your season and create a better climate for sensitive veggies like tomatoes and peppers if necessary.
Check your hardiness zone and, if necessary, make adjustments l. Alternatively, cultivate sensitive plants in pots and bring them indoors as soon as it gets too inhospitable for them outside.
#6 Sowing/planting in wet and/or cold soil
One year, spring wouldn’t come and when around mid-April the sun finally started to come out, I was so anxious to make up for the “lost” time that I started to sow into the still wet and cold soil. Needless to say, it didn’t work to smear the seeds in. Germination was practically zero and I had to do it again a few weeks later when the soil was finally dry and warm.
Solution: Wait until the soil is sufficiently dry and warm in spring before sowing and planting.
#7 Poor soil preparation
Plants draw nutrients from the soil and to make sure that your garden is thriving next year, you’ll have to prepare your soil to fill it up with nutrients for the upcoming season. Gardeners who neglect this task, will soon have only weak plants with little to no harvest.
Solution: When everything is harvested in autumn, it’s time to put your garden to sleep under a thick blanket of mulch or green manure like phacelia. This not only protects the soil but adds nutrients when the organic matter decomposes.
Additionally, work in compost or well-rotted manure in spring before you start sowing and planting to further enrich the soil with nutrients.
#8 Poor weeding
Weeds compete with your veggies for nutrients, water and space and believe me: weeds clearly have the advantage! That said, it should go without saying that sowing and planting between weeds will neither make you nor your plants happy.
Solution: I know it’s tedious but your garden beds must be absolutely weed-free before you start sowing and planting. When you cover them with a thick layer of mulch, there won’t be many weeds and this task will be done in no time.
It’s best to weed at the same day you sow and plant. That way, the weeds need some time to start growing again and won’t compete with your vegetables for nutrients.
If you mark the sowing rows, you can weed in between without accidentally ripping out your soon-to-be-growing plants.
#9 Seed-starting too early or too late
The first sunny days in January and I want to seed-start whatever seeds I’ve got in my storage boxes. But while there are some vegetables you can start as early as January, it would be too early for most of them. Take tomatoes for example. Seed-started in January they would only become leggy and too weak to hold their own weight by mid-May when we can finally plant them outdoors.
If, on the other hand, we seed-start them in April, there won’t be enough time for them to mature and produce a good harvest.
Solution: If in doubt when to seed-start vegetables, check your hardiness zone first and then have a good look at the seed packages where you’ll find the necessary information.
#10 Planting too early or too late
Sunlovers like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants cannot be planted outdoors before the last night frosts are over; otherwise, they will die. Spinach and some lettuce varieties, on the other hand, cannot stand temperatures above a certain degree without producing blooms.
The right timing when planting is equally important as with seed-starting.
Solution: Check your hardiness zone for the last frost dates and either look at seed packages for ideal planting time or ask in your local nursery.
#11 Planting too shallow /too deep
If you plant too shallow, your vegetables will have trouble with rooting and become prone to falling over. Planting too deep, on the other hand, will result in restrained growth and small plants.
Solution: As a rule of thumbs, plant your vegetables as deep as they were in the pots. Exceptions are tomatoes, which you can plant twice as deep as the pot they were in before and bulb celery which you should plant higher than the pot level.
#12 Ignoring spacing
Cabbages should be planted 50 cm (20 inches) apart, but nursery (or seed-started) plants look so small that sometimes we underestimate the space they require when fully grown and plant them too close together.
Solution: As with seed-starting and planting time, you’ll find the ideal spacing for your vegetables on the seed packages. Alternatively, ask in your local nursery.
#13 Not observing crop rotation
I get it: the plan for your vegetable garden has worked out wonderfully and you want to copy it every year. Never change a winning horse, right?
Wrong! Planting the same kind of vegetables in the same place will leach out the soil and result in reduced to no harvest.
Solution: Observe the plant families and rotate your crops every year. Where last year you got strong uptakers (like cabbage or tomatoes), you’ll put plants with low nutrient uptake this year (e.g. beans or peas). Next year, you’ll follow that with medium uptakers like carrots or onions.
#14 Monoculture
If you grow only one sort of vegetable in a bed (yes, that’s monoculture), they are more likely to get diseases or be slaughtered by pests. Mixed culture is the keyword here!
Solution: Mix plants that go well together, like carrots and onions who keep pests away from each other. Find further examples of great companions here.
#15 Watering mistakes
Watering, it seems, is the most favourite task of many gardeners. They water until their plants cry for their life jackets and start singing “My heart will go on”. Plants can drown, too, you know.
Not watering at all, however, is no solution either. Water is what keeps the plants’ metabolism running. If they get not enough water, plants will die.
Solution: Water thoroughly after sowing and planting and then: don’t. Only water again if the soil is really dry and your plants show signs of wilting. That way, they grow deeper roots which makes them sturdier and healthy.
Additionally, cover the soil between the plants with mulch (see next point).
#16 Not using mulch
My granny and my mom prided themselves with their “clean” vegetable gardens where there were only plants and (weed-free) soil. The amount of time it cost, however, to keep this soil weed-free and to water the plants – especially during hot summers – was immense.
In my garden today, the soil is almost always covered in mulch, even in winter. It keeps the weeds at bay, the soil moist and produces compost when it decomposes.
Solution: Mulch your beds thickly as soon as the plants are about 10 cm (4 inches) high. Good mulch material are wood chips, grass clippings, leaves and half-rotted compost.
#17 Improper fertilisation
“The more the better” is not true when it comes to fertilisation. Some plants need many nutrients, others not so many. Some need more nitrogen, while others need a healthy dose of phosphorous and potassium.
Also, the timing of fertilisation is important. Giving too much too soon or all in one dose will result in weak (or even dead) plants.
Solution: Add a healthy dose of organic or mineral fertiliser (for example well-rotted manure or rock powder) when planting and get acquainted with your vegetables’ needs. Tomatoes, for example, want phosphorous and potassium about 4 – 6 weeks after planting to produce many fruits. When in doubt, rather use less fertiliser.
#18 Not using fencing
As you know, my vegetable garden is situated on a meadow at the outskirts of my village. If I hadn’t installed a (sturdy) fence, the deer, rabbits and even the foxes would eat my produce while the dogs and cats would be happily digging holes and misusing it as a loo.
Solution: Depending on where your garden is, set up a fence to keep off animals.
#19 Not controlling pests
One snail is not the end of the world but have you ever seen just ONE snail? Me neither! When they come, they come in droves like every pest under the sun.
Solution: Regularly check on your garden so that you can intervene at the early stages of a pest invasion and prevent a plague.
Additionally, apply the rules of companion planting to repel certain pests.
#20 Not using pollinators
No fruit without pollinators, right? So make sure you’ve got plenty of those flowers in and around your garden that attract pollinating insects.
Solution: Flowers and herbs like nasturtium, basil and calendula are not only a beautiful sight in your garden but also help attract pollinators for all your fruit vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Make sure to integrate bloomers in your vegetable garden.
#21 Not pruning
This mostly applies to fruit trees and bushes but also to vegetables like tomatoes. Letting them grow as they like will considerably reduce your harvest.
Solution: Fruit trees and bushes are best pruned in winter while they’re dormant. With fruit trees, cut off all branches that grow downwards, inwards or obstract each other. With fruit shrubs, cut off old branches at soil level. And here is a comprehensive guide on how to grow tomatoes successfully with a detailed explanation on how to prune them.
#22 Harvesting too late
It’s interesting to see how many gardeners hesitate to harvest until it’s (almost) too late. If not harvested at the right time, radishes and kohlrabi will get “woody”, lettuce will suddenly sprout blooms and tomatoes will become mushy.
Solution: Always harvest as soon as your vegetables are ripe. That way, you’ll not only have nutrient-dense vegetables but often will induce your plants to produce more fruit.
#23 Not enjoying gardening
In my opinion, this is the most important point! Don’t get all uptight when it comes to gardening. There will always be something that won’t turn out quite as expected. After all, it’s Mother Nature we are working here with.
So relax and, while trying to do your best, enjoy your garden. Take your time to sit there in the sunshine, admire all that grows, listen to the birds and savour your harvest! Our gardens should always be our happy places.
Spring is still far away at the beginning of the year, but the new gardening season has started already! The first vegetables wait eagerly for you to seed starting them because they need this headstart to prepare for the warm season. But seedling cultivation isn’t just for spring time. In fact, when you seed-start veggies until late summer, you’ll have a continuous harvest.
Let’s see what you can do to make it a success.
Why seed starting?
Isn’t it a lot of hard and tedious work to seed-start vegetables indoors?
Well, I would be lying if I told you you wouldn’t need to put in an effort. But it’s so worth it! In fact, there are several huge advantages of seed starting:
Saving costs
Seed starting will save you an enormous amount of money. Don’t believe me? Let me show you a small calculation:
One seed package of tomatoes, containing 10 seeds, costs about 4 €, that is 40 cents per plant. One tomato plant at the nursery costs at least 4 €, sometimes even more, depending on the variety. That’s ten times the amount you pay for seeds. Seeing as I grew about 40 tomato plants last year that’s a saving of 144 €!
Even if you just have a small garden or even only some pots you use for growing vegetables, your savings will still be considerable.
Variety
When you buy seedlings from a nursery, you usually can’t choose the variety of the vegetables you want ot plant. Or – if you can choose – they only have very few of the most common types.
BUT: when you decide to start your own vegetables and browse your first seed catalogue you’ll find a whole new world of seed varieties. It’ll be almost as if suddenly you’ve discovered the door to Narnia!
You can choose from varieties that are perfect for your climate, heirloom varieties, old varieties and even varieties that have become almost extinct! By supporting this diversity, you not only get healthier plants that are better accustomed to your climate but you also contribute actively to preserving the diversity of varieties.
Headstart
We all love tomatoes, eggplants, chilis and peppers but they need a long time to mature. If we were to sow them only when it’s warm enough outside (in my zone that’s mid-May), they would never have enough time to ripen and they’d only get to produce some green fruit before autumn frosts fall.
By seed-starting we fool them a bit by pretending that it’s warmer and sunnier than it actually is, inducing them to germinate. By the time we can transplant them, they’ll have grown into healthy and sturdy young plants already.
Plant protection
Indoors, your vegetable seedling will be secure from pests like snails, cabbage flies, voles and other hungry animal mouths. Also, they are protected from rain, wind and strong sunshine while still young and vulnerable.
Efficient use of bed space
You can use your bed space more efficiently when seed starting. Sow more than the required amount of plants and only transplant the healthiest and sturdiest outside.
When your beds are fully planted in early summer, seed start autumn vegetables indoors. When you harvest a vegetable variety, you can already plant the next batch, making sure there won’t be a gap for too long.
Which vegetables can you seed start?
Basically, there are three groups of vegetables:
– those that MUST be seed-started to get a chance of harvest
– those that CAN be seed-started but needn’t necessarily be and lastly
– those that MUST NOT be seed-started.
The sloths amongst our vegetables are tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, chilis and physalis. They need a long time to mature and for that reason must be sowed indoors between January and March already. Later would be too late.
Then we have the “sensitive souls” like lettuce and all cabbages. Theoretically, you can sow them directly outside but they are prone to devoured by slugs while still young and their chances of surviving an attack of the pests are meagre.
Starting them indoors, however, and not transplanting them before they have become healthy, sturdy seedlings, makes them stronger and less vulnerable to pests.
The third group are those vegetables that can’t cope with transplanting, among them almost all root vegetables for example carrots and turnips. Think about it: their goal is to develop long and big roots, so they don’t like being removed from the soil (even for a short time) to be transplanted again. Root vegetables are best sown directly into the bed, except for knob celery.
When in doubt, look at the back of your seed packages: most of them have a recommendation as well as the appropriate sowing and planting times there.
Timing Your Seedlings
Every vegetable has its own special requirements regarding the time of sowing and we gardeners must stick to that time frame as if our veggies lives depended on it.
Which they do.
I know how tempting it can be to sow tomatoes in January already but believe me you’ll regret it. Yep, speaking of experience here. By the time you can finally plant your tomatoes outside, they’ll be too long and weak to bear their own weight, let alone bear lots of fruit.
The right timing is a decisive factor for healthy and fruitful plants. It mostly depends on the last frost dates in your hardiness zone.
Some vegetables must be seed-started early, others have a longer time frame. If you want to harvest continually (and who doesn’t?), one-time sowing is not enough. That’s why we sow vegetables like spinach, radishes, lettuce and carrots several times a season. This principle of staggered sowing and planting is called succession planting and is a total game-changer in the vegetable garden! If you want to learn more about it, this article gives you all the details.
Essential Supplies
Plant lamps
Light is an important factor when it comes to seedling cultivation. I have a rather large south window that’s occupied with seedlings from February to summer and that’s good. Nevertheless, when the seedlings develop a certain stage of maturity, I put them in the (cooler) guest toilet and install a plant lamp. These lamps not only have the ideal light range for plants (which is why they have a very nasty violet shade for our eyes) but they can also be timed to shine for 12 – 16 hours, depending on the plants’ needs. You’ll never get this amount of light time, not even at a sunny window.
It’s clever to use a shelf for your cultivation of seedlings and install plant lamps on the underside of each shelf board to save space.
Planting pots
Now that we know where to put our seedlings and what lights to use, we need containers. Basically, we can use all sorts of planting pots and trays as long as they are not too high (which would require too much soil) and have good drainage. You can reuse plastic pots from former plants, special cultivation trays and even plastic fruit boxes. There are ready-made biodegradable pots that you can plant out. Alternatively, you can make paper pots that you fill with soil by yourself, or you use egg cartons or even egg shells. There’s almost no limit to the variety of pots you can use.
No matter what containers you use, you should have a kind of transparent hood you can put onto it to create a greenhouse atmosphere with warm temperatures and relatively high humidity. If you don’t have a hood, you can also use glass covers or even cling film. Make sure that you lift it several times a day to prevent mould or other fungi from growing. Once the seedlings are large enough to be separated, you can leave them without this protection.
Wash the containers thoroughly with hot water before using them for seedling cultivation. That way you can destroy germs and fungi before they can wreak havoc.
Heating mat
For warmth-loving plants such as the above-described tomatoes and eggplants, peppers and physalis, you may want to use a heating mat on which you can put the containers. These mats work like a hot water bottle and warm up the soil, inducing the seeds to germinate.
Cultivation soil
No matter the outer appearance of your pots or trays, their “inner value” – aka cultivation soil – is what counts! A good cultivation soil is crumbly and low in nutrients. “Normal” potting soil is not suitable for seed-starting as it contains too many nutrients. Seedlings don’t need nutrients yet. If the soil contains too many nutrients, the seedlings grow too fast, become leggy and the roots may be damaged.
You can either buy ready-made cultivation soil or use a mixture of equal parts garden soil, well-rotted plant compost and sand. Manure compost is not suitable as it contains too many nutrients. If you use homemade soil, you’ll want to bake it at 150 °C (300 °F) for 20 minutes to kill weed seeds and diseases.
Seeds
For me, seed catalogues are a bit like Santa’s grotto. I can spend hours – days even – browsing through them and noting down every plant I’d like to grow although I don’t buy all of those seeds in the end. But still plenty. Well, other women buy shoes…
Anyway, with newly bought seeds, you can be sure that they’ll germinate but often there are more seeds in a package that you’ll need in one season. Likely, you’ll have seeds from last year – or even the year before. As seeds can exterminate, you’ll have to check if they still germinate with this simple trick:
Fold two paper kitchen towels in half and moist them with water. Put 10 seeds of one seed package onto one towel and cover them with the second one. Keep it all moist and wait until the seeds start to germinate. When at least 8 out of the 10 seeds start growing (that’s 80 %), this package is still ok to use.
Plant labels
There was a time when I passed labelling my plants because I knew I’d recognize them once they had germinated simply by looking at their leaves. Ok, I was too lazy to label.
Long story short: I didn’t know which plant was which and my garden became a huge Kinder Suprise Egg. It was a bit like buying a truckload of tins, scraping off the banderoles, mixing them up and playing food roulette.
An easy way to label your plants is with ice sticks. Write the name of the vegetable and variety with a pencil on the stick and put it into the pot. For outdoors, plastic or slate labels are better to endure weathering.
Miscellaneous
You’ll need a watering ball or a spray bottle which are loads better for watering sensitive seeds as they don’t have a hard jet of water that could water off the seeds to the corners of the pot.
Later, when the seedlings are ready to be separated and repotted, you dibber comes in handy.
Ideal place for seedling cultivation
Seedling cultivation will occupy some space indoors for quite a long time. So, where to put all those plants? The most important factor to consider when choosing a place is temperature.
It shouldn’t be too warm. A cool stairwell, a non-heated guest toilet or even the basement are great. Although some vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants need it warm to germinate but once they are large enough to be separately planted into larger pots, they are happy with cooler temperatures.
Seed Starting Process step-by-step
Got everything you need for seedling cultivation? Great! Let’s get started.
1. Sowing
Put the soil into your containers and moisten it. Sow the seeds as deep as they need to be sowed (look for that information on the back of the seed packages), lightly press the soil so that the seeds are pressed down and water it all with a spray bottle or a watering ball.
Oh, and remember to label your plants 😉
Some plants, like lettuce or basil mustn’t be covered with soil but need the light to germinate.
2. Temperatures
Some vegetables need relatively high temperatures to germinate, others like it cooler. You can usually find this information on the back of the seed package. Giving your seeds the right temperature is vital for germination so make sure to hit it right off. At this early stage, the right temperature is even more important than light. So, regularily check the temp, keep the soil moist and wait.
3. Germination
The first green tips are looking out of the soil. Hurray! Now it’s time to move the seedling trays to your cultivation station with the plant lamps.
4. Care
When your plants have their first growth spurt you needn’t do much. Just water the seedlings regularly to keep the soil moist. Yet, while before you could water from above, right onto the soil, now I recommend watering either from the side or into the saucers your trays stand in and let the soil absorb the moisture. That way, the leaves won’t get wet which could cause diseases.
5. Thinning
When the seedlings have developed their first pair of real leaves (the seed leaves don’t count), it’s time to thin them out by transplanting them into larger pots. This not only provides them with more space for developing roots but also with more light and nutrients.
Make sure you plant the seedlings as deep as they were before. Tomatoes are an exception: plant them deeper than before because they can grow new roots on their stem which makes them grow sturdier.
If you are intimidated by thinning, why not start with vegetables like pumpkin, summer squash or sunflowers. You can sow one seed per pot and needn’t thin them out.
6. Growth
Repotted, put your seedlings back to the cultivation station. Make sure the soil is kept moist and lightly fertilise cabbages and tomatoes.
7. Hardening off
Before we can release the seedlings into the wild outdoors, we have to harden them off. Start about a week before transplanting and put the seedlings outside in the shade for a couple of hours. Each day, prolong the time and after 3 days even put them into the sunlight (not around noon, that would be too much). To make them accustomed to the wind, gently brush them with your hand, simulating wind movement.
8. Transplanting
You’ve grown healthy, sturdy plants that have already hardened off. Now it’s ready to plant them outside. Transplant your seedlings on a cloudy day or in the evening to reduce the risk of plant shock. Make sure you plant them at the right distance from one another (again: check your seed package).
Water the seedlings properly after planting so that the soil washes properly around the roots, leaving no air holes. If necessary cover the seedlings with nets to protect them from the weather and/or pests.
Common Problems and Solutions
There are a few common problems that may show when seed-starting vegetables:
Mould/fungus diseases
Fungus diseases spread best in damp and relatively cool environments. If you have mould or other diseases in your trays or on your seedlings, you probably haven’t ventilated the trays enough.
Solution: Open the hoods more frequently and for a longer time. Also, make sure that the soil is only moist but not wet.
Leggy seedlings
When your seedlings grow very long (“leggy) and have rather light-green leaves, they usually don’t get enough light and try to compensate by spindly growing towards the light.
Other reasons for leggy growth are too high temperatures or too many nutrients in the soil.
Solution: Install plant lamps Move the seedlings to a cooler place. Repot the seedlings into nutrient-low soil.
Nutrient deficiencies
If your seedlings stagnate or even get yellow leaves, they may need nutrients. Hungry plants like tomatoes and cabbages need their first gift of fertiliser already about two weeks after germination.
Solution: Add some diluted liquid vegetable fertiliser
Pests
Obviously, we’re not talking about snails or voles here. Yet, there is the risk for example of fungus gnats in the soil. Last year, I had an invasion of those blighters and didn’t realize it until the little black flies were everywhere and my seedlings started to wilt.
Solution: Fungus gnats can be fought off with neem oil, nematodes or other predatory mites which you can buy (online) and add to the water.
Watering issues
Overwatering can cause root damage while underwatering causes wilting. Both will eventually kill your seedlings.
Control your seedlings every day and adjust your watering routine to their needs.
Solution: Water until the soil is moist but not wet. Check your trays regularly.
Ready for seed-starting!
Now you’ve got all the equipment AND the knowledge for successful seedling cultivation. Remember: temperature and light are some of the most vital factors in seed starting. When you stick to the steps I described here, you’ll gain healthy plants that will yield a rich harvest in summer.
Hooked on seed-starting? This may also interest you:
The days become longer and although it may still be cold and even frosty outside, I can feel the itch in my fingers to dig into soil! Ok, we may not be able to plant outdoors yet but there are still plenty of garden tasks in February that will give us a head-start on spring! Roll up your sleeves and let’s get started.
#1 Compost heap
If you’re like me and have forgotten to cover your compost heap in late autumn, it’ll be a bit on the wet side by now. That’s why now, depending on your climate, can be a good time to turn up your compost heap. That way, dry and wet parts are mixed, the heap is aired and microorganisms as well as soil organisms can start working again as soon as it becomes warmer.
When you’ve upturned the compost heap, remember to cover it so that nutrients won’t be washed out.
#2 Soil preparation
During winter, the soil has become densed and we must loosen it up to prepare it for the first sowings. As you may know by now, I don’t dig up my garden soil but rather loosen it with the help of a garden fork. Prick the fork into the soil and jiggle it forwards and backwards. That way, the soil will loosen and air will get into the deeper soil layers. This air will help warm the soil up faster.
#3 Pimp your pot soil
Garden tasks in February not only contains preparing the soil in the patches but also that for pot planting.
Soil that has been left in balcony trays or pots is pretty much leached out. Dump all this soil into a big container or bucket, add a bit (not too much!) of organic and mineral fertiliser (compost, horn shavings, rock powder etc.) and add fresh soil at a ration of 1 part fresh soil to 3 parts old soil. Mix all the ingredients really well together and you can use this “new” soil for your planting pots again. By treating it that way you not only give the spent soil back the nutrients that are necessary for healthy plants but you also bypass the topic of crop rotation.
Crop rotation: An agricultural practice to cultivate crops from different plant families on the same place to improve soil health, repel pests and enhance nutrient levels.
#4 Check your seeds
By now you’ll certainly have a planting plan and know what seeds you’ll need. Check the seeds you may have from last year and buy or trade seeds on local exchange platforms. That way, you’ll not only become a little bit more independent but you’ll also get seeds that are perfectly adapted to your climate.
#5 Organize your seeds
For years I bought seeds I already had. Just because I had overlooked them in my chaos called seed box. That only changed when I took the time to organize that box. I took a cardboard box
#6 Improve your garden knowledge
Before long we’ll be in the midst of seed-starting, planting, maintaining and harvesting again. Now is this short time frame where we have the opportunity to enhance our knowledge on gardening, read up on principles and techniques and gain more theoretic experience that we can eventually put into practice.
Here are some topics you may want to learn more about:
Have you longed for a cold frame? Now’s the time to build one. The same goes for insect hotels, trellises, raises beds and decorative articles you may want to have for your garden but up to now didn’t find the muse to build them. Head for your workshop, grab your saw, screwdriver and screws and start building.
#8 Refresh your garden paths
I use wood shavings and chips on my garden paths and at the end of winter (that is: now) I add a fresh coat of them. It not only suppresses weeds but also prevents the earth from the beds from falling onto the path – as long as the layer of wood chips is as high as the soil from your beds.
Alternatively, build frames around your beds, either with planks, round timber, fences made from willow twigs, stone and so on. There are no limits to your imagination. Think it – build it.
#9 Fruit tree and berry bush pruning
Another important garden task in February is pruning. If you haven’t pruned your fruit trees and berry bushes yet, now is more or less your last chance. By pruning, we thin the tree crowns and bushes so that they become lighter and airier and the fruits have more room to grow and ripe.
You can cut the twigs and branches with a wood chopper and use that material for your garden paths or as a mulch for your beds. Leave some branches and use them as a trellis for peas that you can sow later in spring.
#10 Clean your greenhouse
Over the winter, algae and dirt has collected on the greenhouse windows. Like with every good spring cleaning, this must be removed so that your plants inside will get enough light to grow healthily.
Yes, I know, it’s still winter but spring is already lurking around the corner and we can do a lot of garden tasks in February to give our garden a head-start for the upcoming season!
When the days get longer in February, my fingers start to itch and I yearn to get them into the dirt. Alas, it’s still way too early to sow and plant outdoors. BUT: we can prepare for spring by seed-starting some of our vegetables indoors in February.
If you’re new to vegetable gardening, seed-starting may seem a bit daunting. After all, you can always buy seedlings at a nursery and plant those out in your garden at the right time. Seed-starting has, however, several advantages compared to buying plants.
First of all, it’s cheaper. A seed package of tomatoes containing 10 seeds costs about 3 € now. A tomato seedling, ready for planting will cost at least 4 – 5 € per plant. Last year, I cultivated about 40 tomato plants, which would have amounted to 160 – 200 €! Just for the tomatoes! My inner Ebenezer cringes at the thought…
Another advantage of seed-starting is the variety selection. Most of the tomatoes I cultivated last year wouldn’t have been available as seedlings. I love tomatoes and what’s more, I love to try different varieties. Every season, I buy 4 – 5 new tomato varieties that I haven’t cultivated before and seed-start them together with my favourite varieties. You won’t get that range in a nursery.
Last but not least, seed-starting gives you a head-start for spring as the vegetables (and varieties) you like are ready for transplanting when the time and temperature are right, shortening the time until harvest by several weeks.
February seed-starting: What to grow
Although the list is not as long as in March, there are some vegetables you can seed-start now. Let’s start with warm-season crops:
Tomatoes
Seed-starting tomatoes in February is discussed controversially. As usual, it depends on your climate zone and where you intend to transplant the tomatoes. Wanna plant them outside in the open but can’t do so before May? Then, February is too early to seed-start tomatoes. They would only become too long and leggy and would be too weak to hold themselves up by the time you can transplant them. Tomatoes for the outdoors shouldn’t be seed-started before mid-March.
However, if you have a greenhouse, things are looking different. As you can plant tomatoes in the greenhouse in April already, now is a good time to seed-start them indoors.
I’ve talked about those two already in the January post but if you haven’t found the time yet to seed-start them in January, you can still do so now in February.
Physalis
Seed-start physalis in January by sowing several seeds into one pot. Put the pot in a warm and bright spot. Temperatures about 25 °C (77°F) are ideal. Physalis grow slowly at the beginning and must be kept moist. Separate the plants when they are about three weeks old and plant them in single pots. Either plant physalis out after the last night frosts or separate them again and put them into large pots that you put outside.
Physalis are perennials and can be kept indoors during winter.
Eggplants
Eggplants also need some time to grow and mature so the end of January / beginning of February is a good time to sow them into small pots. When they’ve grown four leaves, transplant them separately into pots.
Artichokes
Put two to three artichoke seeds into a pot and repot them into separate pots when they’ve reached a good height. Artichokes usually build blossoms (that’s what we eat) in their second year, with a bit of luck and a good head start even in their first year.
Sweet potatoes
Cut sweet potatoes in halves or quarters and let the cutting areas dry for a few hours. Then, put the pieces with the cut end facing down into a pot or balcony box with soil so that only a centimetre (1/3 inch) looks out. Place the pot or box in a warm and sunny place. After some time, shoots will grow out of the sweet potatoes which we’ll cut off later and put into water for building roots.
Fennel
I must admit that I’m not good at cultivating fennel. I either get no or only a minuscule harvest. Nevertheless, I’ll try it again this year and although I’m not an expert with this vegetable I know that seed-starting fennel will make the plants healthier and sturdier before we transplant them outside in April / May.
All these warm-season crops need a temperature of about 25 °C (77 °F) to grow well. A sunny window and maybe a heating mat will help them to thrive.
The following vegetables are all cool-season crops that grow best at a temperature of 18 – 20 °C (65 – 68 °F).
Early brassicas
Brassica is the name for the cabbage family. In February, seed-starting may contain early varieties of
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Savoy cabbage
Red and White cabbage
Kohlrabi.
I usually sow one to two rows of seeds into a large plastic container filled with earth and transplant them later into single pots. Remember to label the rows with some kind of marker where you note the kind of vegetable and its variety. Yes, that’s absolutely necessary because no, you won’t be able to remember what’s where or deduce it from the leave shape. Been there, done it, definitely not recommendable.
Leafy greens
If not already done, seed-start leafy greens like
Winter lettuce
Iceberg lettuce
Swiss Chard
Arugula.
Sow the seeds into pots and separate the plants later by repotting them.
Onion family
Onions
We’re talking of sowing onions here, not putting bulbs into the soil. Sowing onions may be more time-consuming than planting the bulbs but it shows advantages like healthier growth, more varieties and better storage capability. And it’s cheaper.
Sow the seeds into a tray or small single pots and place them in a bright spot at about 16 – 18 °C (60 – 65 °F) or colder (not below 10 °C / 50 °F).
Summer leak
Summer leek, that’s harvested in July / August must be seed-started at the end of January / beginning of February. You can either sow the seeds in trays and transplant them later or you sow them into small single pots. Plant the leek outdoors when it’s about as thick as a pencil.
Root vegetables
Celery
Celery needs a long time to grow those thick, bulbous roots and therefore profits from being seed-started in February. Keep in mind that celery only germinates in light which is why you shouldn’t cover the seeds with soil but only press them down lightly. Water the seeds very carefully and make sure that they aren’t washed off the soil.
Beetroot
Beetroot is normally best sown directly into the patch but if you want to get a very early harvest and intend to put the plants out into a cold frame or a greenhouse, seed-starting now is a good idea.
Herbs
You can seed-start the following herbs indoors:
Basil
Parsley
Thyme
Sage
Garlic chive
Plant them outdoors after the last night frosts, parsley and garlic chive can be transplanted in April already.
Common February Seed Starting Challenges
There are a few challenges every gardener who seed-starts his vegetables indoors will know.
In February, the days are already longer but the natural light is still not enough for seedlings. For that reason, I always use a plant lamp which not only delivers enough light but also the “right” light.
Also, the air indoors is usually dry due to heating. To counter that, you can put bowls with water on the window sills. In the course of time and depending on your indoor temperature the water will evaporate and moisten the air. Additionally, make sure that your seedlings get enough water.
No matter how you heat your rooms, there is a natural temperature fluctuation indoors due to lower night temperatures and alternating day temperatures, especially when the sun is shining and heating up the temperature indoors.
To keep the soil and seedlings moist it’s best to cover them with a plastic lid which usually comes with seed-starting trays. If you use other pots you can also use cling film or any plastic cover actually that is transparent enough to let the light through. It’s important, however, to open the daily and check on your plants, making sure that the air can circulate and preventing the formation of mould or other fungal diseases.
Summary
As your seedlings thrive under grow lights, it’s time to look ahead to the bustling spring season. Your careful attention to indoor seed starting has given your garden a strong foundation, but the journey is just beginning. Keep monitoring your seedlings daily and adjusting care as they grow.
It’s so satisfying to see those first February seedlings transform into robust plants ready for the garden. That makes all the careful attention worthwhile! As spring approaches, you’ll be the envy of your neighbourhood with all those healthy, vigorous plants. And when later in summer you bite into your first homegrown tomato, you can say nonchalantly “I knew them when they were just seeds!”
Imagine having fresh vegetables from your garden throughout the entire growing season. With succession planting, you can transform your garden from a place with a one-time harvest to a continuous source of fresh produce!
When I started as a new gardener, I was overrun with harvest for a few weeks every season for the first couple of years. We couldn’t possibly eat or preserve everything that was ripe then and the neighbours started changing the roadside when they saw us coming from fear of being forced upon cucumbers or zucchini. Some weeks later, however, the situation was quite the opposite and we had to run to the supermarket to buy all those vegetables we had in abundance a short while before.
It took me a while to figure out how to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the whole season without any “gaps”. With a bit of smart planning, the next year’s harvest was a good deal more satisfying and we had almost no gaps between harvests. Over the years, I improved my planting plan and now I can proudly say that I can continually harvest from spring to late autumn.
The trick is to sow or plant vegetables whenever there is a gap where some other vegetables have been harvested.
I’ve been using these techniques for years, and I’m excited to share how you can maximize your garden’s potential.
Understanding Succession Planting
By cleverly sowing or planting whenever there are gaps in the beds after harvesting, we can ensure a continuous harvest throughout the whole season. This successive planting is called (drumroll, please!): “succession planting”. Apart from a continuous harvest, there are a lot more benefits and advantages of succession planting
Succession planting reduces weeds by constantly keeping the soil covered. Whenever we have harvested one kind of vegetable, we sow or plant right afterwards so that the gaps close fast and weeds don’t stand a chance. It also keeps the soil moist.
With clever planning and observing what plants go well together (i.e. mixed culture), staggered planting guarantees our soil’s health. For example: when we plant legumes like peas or beans which collect nitrogen before or after hungry plants like cabbages or tomatoes, we can ensure that the soil won’t be leached out.
Succession planting also helps control pests and diseases. By avoiding growing large numbers of the same vegetables at once, we create a natural barrier. Besides, different growth stages attract different beneficial insects.
When, due to the weather, pests or disease one crop fails, succession planting is our backup plan and reduces the risk of losing our entire harvest.
By spreading out planting and harvesting times, we prevent an overwhelming workload, either of planting or harvesting. As I told you before, I had this experience when I started gardening. I had lots to do in spring what with sowing and planting and then later with harvesting simply everything at once!
The different methods of succession planting
Succession planting is not only a season-long lettuce harvest. Instead, there are quite a few different methods to do it:
Same-crop succession
This covers the above-mentioned lettuce harvest. By planting the same crop every few weeks, for example lettuce, we ensure a constant harvest of this crop throughout the season. Make sure to always choose a different place for the same crop. Otherwise, the soil will get leached out of nutrients.
Different-crop succession
This means following one crop with a different crop, for example plant tomatoes after early peas.
Interplanting
A clever way to make the best use of your space is to plant fast-growing vegetables between slow-growing ones. A good example for interplanting is to cultivate radishes between cabbage plants.
Relay planting
This means starting one crop before the other has finished. A good example of relay planting is the famous “three sisters” bed, where we plant winter squash (harvest in autumn) between corn rows (harvest in late summer).
Temperature-based succession
Some plants like it hot, others thrive in colder temperatures. Choose different varieties of your crops and plant them accordingly by cultivating cold-season crops that are “followed by warm-season crops.”
Catch cropping
No matter how well you plan your vegetable garden, there will always be gaps for a few weeks. In that case, we plant or sow fast-growing vegetables like radishes or spinach to close the gaps and cover the soil until the next main crop can be planted.
Succession planting misconceptions
There are some common misconceptions about succession planting that I want to rectify.
“I need a large garden space”
That’s not true. You can apply succession planting in a raised bed and even in large pots on your patio.
“Succession planting means planting the same crop repeatedly.”
As you can see above, there are different methods of succession planting, same-crop succession being only one of them.
“I need to follow a fixed calendar schedule”
Local climate and weather conditions matter far more than a strict schedule. While not leaving out the calendar completely, it’s more important to watch the weather at your place.
“All plants are suitable for succession planting”
Some main crops like tomatoes and peppers don’t work well with succession planting. Instead, stick to the tried and tested veggies that go well with this concept.
“It’s too complex for beginners”
Definitely not! Even as a fledgling gardener you can apply basic succession planting methods.
“Every planting will show the same results”
Unfortunately: no. Growth rates and harvest yield strongly depend on seasonal changes like temperature, moisture and sun hours.
What do we need for succession planting?
Well, first of all, time. Wait, don’t go yet! The time I’m talking of is mostly spent on planning your vegetable garden and especially what to plant and when. Additionally, it costs a bit of time to sow (indoors or outdoors) or plant every few weeks and regularly monitor for harvest timing.
Another thing we need is a continuous supply of seeds or seedlings. You can either seed-start or sow your plants directly or plant seedlings from the nursery into the gaps.
Plants need nutrients, so you have to feed them with compost or other fertilisers.
If you want to extend your season, you’ll need row covers or a cold frame.
Although you have to constantly monitor your garden, the workload is spread throughout the whole season rather than concentrated in spring and fall. This makes gardening more manageable despite requiring consistent attention.
Planning Your Succession Garden
There are a few things you have to observe when planning your succession garden.
First of all, you should make a planting calendar where you indicate when to sow, seed-start and plant what vegetables. Don’t confuse a planting calendar with a planting plan. The first is about timing while the latter is about what veggies you want to plant and where.
The next step is to understand your actual growing season which is determined by frost dates, temperature, daylight hours and microclimate. Your growing season or hardiness zone, indicates the length of time you can grow crops outdoors. Cold frames, winter gardens and greenhouses prolong this growing season. Not sure about your hardiness zone? Find out at this site.
A further important factor to consider is maturity dates, i.e. the time different vegetables need until they can be harvested. This information is usually printed on seed packages or in seed catalogues. If you know, for example, that a certain variety of tomatoes you want to plant needs about 75 days to be harvested, you’ll want to write down when you planted them (for example: May 15th). Then, you can calculate the estimated date of the first harvest, in this case, July 29th. To adjust to local growing conditions, you might want to allow for a wiggle room of 7 – 10 days.
With all that planning, always keep a close eye on how far each of your plants needs to stand from each other. You’ll also find this information on the back of the seed packages or in seed catalogues. I know how tempting it is to reduce the space between plants, especially when they are still young and small. Every gardener has made that mistake at least once. (Some of us more often… ahem). However, vegetables that are planted too close compete for nutrients and space and will stay a good deal smaller than those planted with enough distance from one another.
During the season it’s helpful to keep a record of your gardening. Be it with a software/app or with a traditional handwritten gardening journal, there are a few things that should be covered:
The crops you choose
Crop varieties
Days to maturity
Expected and actual harvest date
Notes on the crops’ performance
Succession intervals
Space planning
This might look something like this:
Crop
Variety
Planting date
Days to maturity
Expected harvest
Actual harvest
Yield
Location
Notes
Feel free to use this chart as an example or create your own and remember to update your chart during the season.
Best Vegetables for Succession Planting
To get a good basis for planning succession planting, we must distinguish between fast-, medium- and slow-growing crops.
Fast-growing crops (30 – 40 days)
Radishes: Plant every 2 weeks March-September
Lettuce: Plant every 2-3 weeks March-September
Arugula: Plant every 2-3 weeks March-September
Baby Spinach: Plant every 2 weeks March-May, August-September
Baby Asian Greens: Plant every 2-3 weeks March-September
Make sure you choose the appropriate variety for the respective season (remember: there are cool- and heat-tolerant varieties!)
Medium-Speed Crops (50 – 60 days)
Bush beans: Sow every three weeks from May to July
Carrots: Sow every three weeks from April to August
Beets: Sow every three weeks from April to August
Kohlrabi: Sow every three weeks from April to August
Slow-Growing Crops (60 + days):
Tomatoes: staggered plantings 2 – 3 weeks apart in spring
Peppers: staggered plantings 2 – 3 weeks apart in spring
Broccoli: Early spring and late summer plantings
Cabbage: Early spring and late summer plantings
Brussels Sprouts: Late spring for fall/winter harvest
Winter Squash: Single planting in late spring
Either grow the Speedy Gonzales veggies between the sloths or let a fast-growing one follow a medium-growing crop.
Season-by-season guide
Depending on your hardiness zone, terms like “early spring” and “late summer” can vary considerably. For that reason, let’s define these seasons by their temperature:
– Early Spring (soil temp 5 – 10 °C / 40-50°F)
– Mid-Spring (soil temp 10 – 15 °C / 50-60°F)
– Late Spring/Early Summer (soil temp 15 – 20 °C / 60-70°F)
– Mid-Summer (soil temp 20 – 30 °C / 70-85°F)
– Late Summer/Early Fall (soil temp 15 – 20 °C / 60-70°F)
– Autumn (soil temp 10 – 15 °C / 50-60°F)
That defined, let’s have a look at exemplary tasks that’ll help you to keep your garden’s soil covered and harvest rolling in continually.
Spring succession tips
Prepare the soil as soon as you can work it without smearing it. Remove the mulch to let the soil warm up. Then, rip out all weeds that may have grown, loosen up the soil with a hoe and work in some compost to add nutrients.
Start with cool-season crops like peas, spinach, radishes, and lettuce in early spring (depending on your hardiness zone). Cold frames and low tunnels allow you to plant and sow a few weeks earlier than normal.
Let carrots, beets and Swiss chard follow in Mid-spring. Continue the succession of lettuce and radishes and plant the first bush beans. Now, it’s also time to seed-start indoors the warm-season crops like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and so on.
In late spring, when the temperature rises, succession plants more quick-growing greens like lettuce, arugula and radishes every 2 weeks.
Continue the greens succession and plant the last cool-season crops before summer.
Summer planting strategies
When late spring changes into early summer, replace the bolting spring crops with heat-tolerant varieties. It’s also time now to plant, summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers and other heat-loving vegetables. Continue to plant herbs and leafy greens every 2 – 3 weeks and seed-start fall crops like broccoli, cabbage and kale indoors. Plant out the last set of cucumbers.
In Mid-summer you can sow quick-maturing crops like bush beans directly into the bed.
By the end of August, you can plant a second round of cool-season vegetables like spinach, arugula and lettuce and sow fall root crops like turnips and radishes. Continually plant short-season crops.
Although it can still be hot, consider the first frost date for your region and choose your vegetables accordingly. It’s best now, to cultivate varieties which take no longer than 30 – 45 days to mature. That way you’ll make sure that they ripen before the first frost hits.
Autumn garden planning
Continue to plant cold-hardy greens and root vegetables, always considering the first frost date. If necessary, you can use row covers to protect your vegetables from cold temperatures and thus extend the growing season.
Plant your last batch of quick-maturing crops like spinach and lettuce by mid-September. Now is also the best time to plant garlic for next year’s harvest.
Sow cover crops in every gap that arises when you have harvested or cover the soil with mulch.
Winter preparations
Protect your perennials, like certain herbs as well as vegetables like leek, kale and winter lettuce with covers from the cold.
Winter is the time for planning next year’s garden and succession planting. If you have recorded your garden year in a journal, you can see what worked well and where you can make improvements next year.
In January, you can seed-start the first vegetables for the upcoming season.
Soil Management
As the soil is always covered with crops that take nutrients out of it, it is our task as gardeners to provide exactly those nutrients. After all, we not only want to maintain our soil’s fertility but also to ensure the healthy growth of our plants.
To do that, we start with working compost into the soil in early spring.
When planting strong uptakers like cabbage or tomatoes, we can add well-rotted manure or compost into the plant hole.
During the season, we need to make sure to add organic or mineral fertiliser to give the plants what they need when they need it.
When we have harvested one crop it’s good to loosen the now uncovered soil and work in some compost, well-rotted manure or another long-term fertiliser before sowing or planting the next crop.
Always keep in mind which plants grow great together (and which don’t) and apply the rules of companion planting. That way, we can prevent soil depletion.
Like in nature, our garden’s soil should always be covered, either by plants or by mulch. The cover not only holds the weeds at bay but also retains moisture and prevents the soil from being washed away by rain.
Advanced Succession Strategies
Beyond the basics, there are some advanced strategies you can use that will make you look like a succession planting pro in no time:
Intercropping Techniques
Plant crops together that complement each other, for example, tall corn and low-growing beans. That way you make the most use of your space, keep pests at bay and improve nutrient cycling
Companion Planting
Companion planting means knowing which crops support each other’s growth and strategically placing them together. The combination of tomatoes and basil or carrots and onions are good examples of companion planting. A clever combination of “best buddies” helps to repel pests, enhances nutrients and supports soil health.
Vertical Gardening Methods
Make the most of your space and let your vegetables grow upwards. You can use trellises, for example, where cucumbers, pole beans or winter squash can climb. Or you try hanging pots from carport ceilings or patio canopies and plant them with vegetables. On your balcony or patio, you can also use wall-mounted planters or buy stackable growing systems. Vertical gardening is ideal for small spaces.
Season Extension
With cold frames or a greenhouse, you can extend your region’s growing period. You can sow and plant weeks earlier than outdoors and, depending on your hardiness zone, ensure a year-round harvest, if necessary with a bit of additional protection.
Especially for the first crops outdoors, row covers are a game-changer. They protect the seedlings from harsh weather and temperature variations. Hoop houses create a microclimate that’s beneficial for growing and great for keeping pests out.
Microclimate Creation
With a bit of clever planning, you can create a beneficial microclimate in your garden and thus manipulate your local growing conditions in your favour! My garden, for example, has a slight slope. To prevent the soil from being washed off, I have created the beds at a 90 ° angle to the slope. That way, water is kept longer at the beds’ edges and has more time to seep in.
It’s important to place your plants strategically to create a good microclimate. Large or climbing plants, like corn or pole beans, should be planted at the back of the garden so that they don’t cast a shadow on other plants.
Or you use them as a wind-breaker to protect other, more sensitive plants from harsh winds. A side effect may be the retention of warmth that benefits heat-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers.
Succession in Small Spaces
Gardening in containers is no reason to give up on succession planting. On the contrary: what works in a garden works in containers as well. However, given that we only have a limited amount of soil in containers, fertilising is more important to keep the soil nutritious enough to ensure the healthy growth of your vegetables. Also, use smaller varieties that are better for being grown in containers, like dwarf plant varieties. As with a garden, make a planting and a growing plan.
Succession Planting Wrap-up
You see: a good succession planting strategy can easily provide you with fresh produce during the whole growing season. Just observe the following points:
To get started with succession planting, begin small by focusing on quick-growing crops like lettuce, radishes, and bush beans.
Keep a calendar to track planting dates and expected harvest times, taking into consideration your hardiness zone.
Make sure that you’ve always new crops ready to replace any gaps where plants have been harvested.
Match the crops to the seasonal temperature ranges. Make sure to plant cold-hardy veggies in spring and late summer and heat-loving ones in late spring / early summer.
Maintain your soil’s health by working in compost in late winter and spring, fertilising according to your plants’ needs during the growing season and making sure that the soil is continually covered through successive planting.
Start planning your succession schedule now, and you’ll be amazed at how much food you can grow in even a modest garden space.
