In March, we still have night frosts (and even some day frosts) but that doesn’t mean that there is nothing to do in the garden. Quite the opposite! It’s time to awaken our gardens and even sow and plant our first vegetables! There are several essential garden tasks that we should do in March and if you want to learn what they are, you’re in the right place here!
#1 Fill up raised beds
Raised beds are not only filled with soil but layered with different organic materials like twigs, leaves and plant stems underneath. When that material decomposes, it is reduced in volume which makes it sink down.
Now that your raised beds are empty, it’s a good time to fill them up with humus and compost. Fill more than the surface level, ideally forming a little mound as the soil will sink again during the next weeks.
#2 Create new beds
If you want to enlarge your garden space, now is a good time to create new beds. As you may know, I love this method of putting in new patches as it doesn’t require digging or other heavy work, is very quickly done and wonderfully effective.
#3 Sprout potatoes
It’s still too early to plant potatoes, but you can give them a headstart by sprouting them. Lay them out flatly on a surface where they get lots of light. I usually put the potatoes into egg cartons that I place on the window sill. After some time, they grow little green sprouts.
#4 Airing cold frames and greenhouses
With more sun hours, temperatures rise quickly in cold frames and greenhouses. Increased temperatures lead to increased condensation which can make our plants rot. Air your cold frames and greenhouse regularly to let the moisture get out.
If you have protected plants with fir branches against the cold, it’s now time to remove them. While they were great in winter, we now need lighter materials for coverage, like straw or a winter protection vlies that let the light through. Fir branches at this stage of the season are too dense and can even impair growing.
#6 Remove mulch
Mulch is not only a good protection against weeds but it’s also a good insulator. On the down side, that means that it keeps the cold in the soil for longer than we want to. For that reason, it’s an important garden task in March to remove the mulch from our beds by raking it to the edges. That way, the soil can warm up quicker.
#7 Weeding
Even though we’ve covered the beds with mulch, there will still be some weeds. When we remove the mulch it’s best to pull out the weeds that have grown underneath. Thankfully, they’ll come off easily.
Additionally, when the soil is now bare and warms up, weeds will also start to grow. Pull them out soon before they get too large.
#8 Strawberries
You can plant new strawberries now and protect them with a vlies. If you have strawberries in your garden already, remove all wilted leaves now. They may be infected with diseases and by removing them you can prevent those from spreading.
#9 Rhubarb
Another garden task you can do in March is to put a bucket over your rhubarb to help it grow faster. The principle is that the early spring sun warms up the air and the soil underneath the bucket which makes the rhubarb sprout faster. The lack of light doesn’t hamper that but makes sure that the stalks become especially tender. With this method, rhubarb can be harvested already about 4 – 6 weeks after covering.
#10 Seed-starting indoors
There’s quite a list of vegetables you can seed-start indoors in March. To get the full overview of what plants you can sow now, go to this blog post.
At the same time, check the seedlings that you’ve started earlier in the year daily. Make sure the plants have enough water and are aired regularly so that excessive condense moisture will not cause rotting.
#11 Sowing / planting outdoors
Admittedly, there are not many plants you can sow outdoors in March, but still, there are some. Here is an overview of vegetables that can be sowed and planted outdoors now:
Transplanted vegetables not only need protection against the cold but also against pests like snails and slugs who are very hungry now. A slug fence or collar is a good physical barrier against our slimy fellow lodgers and hopefully will keep them at bay.
Be grateful for every little helper 😊.
The last months we were reduced to dreaming up our vegetable gardens. Now is the time to take action! And although it may still be cold outside, we can already prepare the soil and plant some early vegetables. Grab your gardening gloves, hop outside and get gardening!
Where February still represents winter with a hint of spring as the days get longer, March is quite the opposite: spring with a hint of winter. There’s something magical about that transition from winter’s quiet to spring’s promise that gets my – still too clean – fingers itching and making me want to dig in the dirt. With rising temperatures in March, the list of vegetables to sow and plant grows as well.
While we can seed-start cold-sensitive veggies indoors, there are a few robust vegetables that can already be sowed and planted outdoors. Read on to learn what to sow and plant in March.
Loofahs belong to the cucumber family. As they like it very warm, they can only be cultivated in the greenhouse in my zone (7b). If you also want to include loofahs in your garden, now is the time to start them indoors. In my experience, it helps germination when we roughen up the seeds by grinding their edges on sandpaper and afterwards soaking them in lukewarm water for 24 hours before putting them into the soil.
Loofahs – like cucumbers – don’t like being transplanted, so I take larger pots and put in one seed per pot. That way their roots won’t get meddled with and we only have to disturb them once when we plant them outside.
Tomatoes
Mid-March is the right time to start all those tomato varieties indoors that you want to cultivate outdoors. Tomatoes for the greenhouse can already be started in February but if you have missed it then, it’s not too late to start them now.
Usually, eggplants, chillies and peppers are started in February or even January because they need quite a long time to grow. You can still start them now, however! They may be a bit behind their time but it’s not too late to grow them.
Greenhouse cucumbers
It’s too early to start cucumbers for the great outdoors but if you want to cultivate them in the greenhouse, now is the time to start them. As with loofahs, cucumbers do not like to be transplanted, so take a large enough pot and put only one seed into it. That way, they need not been thinned and can later be planted in the greenhouse without having their roots disturbed.
Leek / Onions
Sow winter leek and – if you haven’t already – onions. I either sow 2 – 3 seeds per small pot or I take a larger container and sow them in rows that I will be thinning later.
Onions I usually sow in small pots with three seeds per pot. When I transplant them later, I leave those small bundles of three together.
Lettuce
It’s best to sow lettuce every 3 – 4 weeks to ensure a continuous supply. There are some varieties that we can sow outdoors in March while at the same time seed-starting later varieties indoors. When it gets warmer, we can replace the harvested lettuce with those pre-grown plants and at the same time sow lettuce in different varieties directly into the beds.
Herbs
Parsley needs a really long time to germinate and if you haven’t started it already in February, now is the time to do so.
Herbs, like basil, savoury, chervil, cress and others can now be pre-cultivated indoors, as well. Either sow several seeds in large pots (and thin them later if necessary) or take small seed trays and put one seed per tray.
Cabbages
We have already seed-started different members of the cabbage family in February, but we can still sow (again)
Red and white cabbage
Kohlrabi
Broccoli
Cauliflower and
Savoy cabbage
Remember to label the pots and note meticulously the kind of vegetable you’ve sowed and its variety! You won’t be able to deduce it from the seedlings later. Believe me, I’ve been there and you won’t want to make the same mistake.
Nasturtium
Nasturtium is a great companion for cucumbers. It attracts insects that are harmful to cucumbers like aphids, white flies and squash bugs and thus acts like a life trap to keep them away from the sensitive cucumbers. At the same time, it confuses and deters cucumber beetles and nematodes.
If all that wouldn’t be enough reason to plant nasturtium, it’s also a pretty sight in the garden with its beautiful flowers and the whole plant (flowers, leaves and seeds) is edible.
Enough reasons to grow nasturtium? Grab your seed package and seed-start it now!
Potatoes
Sprouting your potatoes in March will give them a headstart for when you plant them in April. To sprout potatoes, lay them out on a surface and expose them to the light, for example on a windowsill. I usually use egg cartons in which I put the potatoes. After a few days, we can see small sprouts growing out of the potatoes.
What to sow and plant outdoors in March
Depending on your hardiness zone, it may still be too early to sow anything outdoors, but in zone 7b, where I live, it’s ok to do so – IF we cover the seeds with protective covers or sow in the cold frame.
There are early varieties that can be sowed outside mid to end of March. Just remember that peas are climbers and therefore install a trellis or net between the rows.
Carrots
Again, we’re talking early varieties here. If you have planted onion bulbs in autumn, sow the carrots in the rows between the onions. That way, carrots and onions will protect one another from harmful pests.
Broad beans
You can either sow broad beans outside in late autumn or now in March. It’s also possible to seed-start them indoors in January and plant them out now.
Broad beans are very tolerant to low temperatures and can even stand light frosts which is why they don’t need protection against the cold. I usually cover them with fleece anyway, if not for their sake then at least for my peace of mind…
Lettuce
We’re talking about varieties here that are very tolerant against cold temperatures like Asia lettuce and winter purslane. If we sow those outdoors now in March and later in April plant the varieties we have seed-started indoors now, we can continually harvest different kinds of leafy greens. This method of sowing vegetables every 3 – 4 weeks is called succession planting which not only ensures a continuous harvest but also that our beds are always covered.
Radishes
Radishes can either be sowed in a cold frame, a greenhouse or outdoors with protective fleece As they have an exceptionally short maturity time, sow them every 2 – 3 weeks to have a continuous harvest.
Spinach
Spinach is almost a no-brainer: sow it, cover it with winter protection fleece and just let it grow. It’s usually quite tolerant against the cold and will grow well under protective cover.
Planting outdoors
Before we plant anything outdoors, it’s important to harden the seedlings off by gradually exposing them to outdoor temperatures. Start by putting your plants outside or in the greenhouse for 2 – 3 hours at first and prolong that time over the course of a week before transplanting.
Lettuce
Lettuce that we have started in February is now ready for transplanting outside. Make sure that the seedlings are not planted too deep or they may rot. As a rule of thumb, put them into the soil as deep as they were in the pot.
Strawberries
Plant strawberries in March, at best different varieties that will ensure a long harvest, and cover them with protective vlies.
Spinach
If you have started spinach indoors, now is the time to transplant it, otherwise you can sow it now directly into the patch (see above). No matter which way you take to get spinach into your garden, it will still need a protective cover against too-cold temperatures.
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!”
