Start Your Spring Veg Early – a guest post by Hazel Rycroft
There are several reasons why you should start your spring vegetables from seeds in the next few weeks; by rearing young plants inside you can start ahead of the season and take advantage of a narrow, but sunny window of opportunity. Seedlings and young plants are incredibly vulnerable and even the slightest touch of frost can destroy them completely, so by protecting them during the early spring you can significantly increase their chances of survival.
Here is a quick and easy guide to get your vegetables off to a great start:
Planting:
First of all you need to buy your seeds. As you are starting early, and can control the temperature, you have the choice of a wide variety of different types of vegetables from around the world.
Once you have decided on your chosen crop you need to get out your planters, get your soil nice and moist (I recommend seed growing mix), and set to work. After you have filled all your little pots you can bury your seeds in the soil. Aim to push them down into the earth at least three times the length of the seed.
After putting them in direct sunlight, and watering them every day, all you have to do is wait for your seeds to sprout. 
Hardening:
Many people put their plants straight outside once they have grown a bit bigger, but you need to harden them first. Your plants have had a very cushy life so far, and the shock of being dumped in the garden can see them off. You need to get them used to their new life before you send them into the cold. Here is a timetable for hardening off your budding vegetables.
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Day
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Shade
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Sun
|
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1
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2-4 hours on a nice day
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|
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2-5
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2-4 hours
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One hour
|
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6-7
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2-4 hours
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2-4 hours
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8-10
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2 hours
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6 hours
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11-12
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8 hours
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13-14
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all day and all night
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all day and all night
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Once you have planted your veg, you can look forward to a summer of great veg. Happy gardening!
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Everyone wants to crack on in the vegetable garden in March, as the birds begin to sing and the days get longer – but the ground is still cold, and will be until it dries up. So don’t go mad and sow all your seeds – just put a few in and leave the rest until the soil has dried out.
Sow:
- early beetroot, carrots, lettuce, radish,spring onions, perpetual spinach directly into the ground
- peas & broad beans in pots
- celery in trays on warm window sill & keep moist
- leeks in a tray to thin later and leave under glass
- plant onion sets, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes & shallots if not already in
- plant early potatoes as soon as the ground is dry enough
Crop: Finish harvesting cabbages, leeks, parsnips, kale and sprouting broccoli.
Other jobs:
- mulch soft fruits with organic matter
- lift mint every 2 years & divide
- hoe weeds regularly before they get too big
- be on constant alert for slugs
This collection of equipment shows the tools we use for sowing seeds:
seed-sowing-tools
- a wide toothed rake for raking soil before sowing – which will allow some lumps to be left on the surface. This helps to reduce soil capping.
- rake for tamping down (firming ) the surface
- tape measure
- walking board – to spread weight over the soil & avoid compaction
- trowel
- marker pole – with seed spacing marked on the pole
- marking sticks – for marking row ends
Collecting the equipment needed for sowing seeds before starting saves time.
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purple-sprouting-broccoli
Today we are still harvesting purple sprouting broccoli, and at the same time planting seeds for next year’s crop. In fact we are planting lots of brassica seeds including brussel sprouts and cabbage.
preparing-to-plant-seeds
- It is most important to prepare a seed bed to give the best growing conditions for the seeds.
- Place markers in position at either end of the row, using a tape measure to give the correct row width.
- Gently firm the soil down.
- Use a walk-board, which is not resting on the soil, but supported at either end of the bed. Line the board up with the row markers.
- Draw a seeding groove with a spade. Use the walking board to produce a straight line, & work carefully to get the correct depth.
making-seed-row
creating-seed-row
Sowing Vegetable Seed
* *only place a few seeds in the hand
* *pinch a few seeds between finger and thumb and work them out
* *try to get them dropping singly, not in a bunch
* *take plenty of time, as it is worth the result
* *make a mark in the row, before taking another pinch of seeds from the hand, as you loose sight of the last seed
* *avoid sowing doubles
seed line
*Cover the seed with fine soil. Then put a few small cobbly bits on top & gently firm in. These lumps help to keep the soil open and prevent capping
*Water the vegetable seeds in.
Seeds require water and certain temperatures to grow. Different seeds require different temperatures. Some even need a period of extreme cold (vernalisation) before they will germinate.
The time the seed takes to sprout (the germination time) varies with the season, which effects the soil temperature. In an early, warm spring, the soil will warm up faster than in a cold, late season.
It is therefore difficult to predict how long it will take for seeds to emerge. But, as a rough guide, vegetable seedlings will emerge within this number of days in the right conditions:
Aubegine 10-12
Beans (runner & french) 7-10
Beetroot 10-14
Broad beans 10-14
Broccoli 6-10
Brussels Sprouts 6-10
Cabbage 6-10
Carrots 10-21
Cauliflower 6-10
Celery 10-14
Courgette 5-8
Cucumber 7-10
Eggplant 10-12
Endive 10-14
Kale 5-10
Kohlrabi 5-10
Leeks 10-14
Lettuce 6-10
Marrow 6-10
Melon 5-10
Mustard Greens 5-10
Onions 10-14
Onions (Spring) 10-14
Parsnip 21-28
Peas 7-10
Pepper 10-14
Pumpkin 6-10
Radish 5-8
Spinach 14-21
Squash 6-10
Swedes 6-10
Sweet Corn 6-10
Swiss Chard 7-14
Tomato 10-14
Turnips 6-10
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NicheSaladLeaves are an exciting blend of salad leaves which add a range of colours, tastes and textures to salads. The blend consists of Leaf Radish, Leaf Carrot, Wrinkled Cress, Kale Red Russian, Red Amaranth, Golden Purslane and Salad Burnet.
The seeds can be sown in succession, outside, from March to September.
Seeds can be sown from October to February under glass.
When the leaves are about 4″ high, they are cut off about 1″ above ground level and the leaves come again in no time.
The leaves are used in salads or as a garnish. Growing NicheSaladLeaves lettuce leaves in the garden gives a good source off fresh green leaves.
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*The right time to sow vegetable seeds varies according to the
weather experienced in the spring. A cold spring will mean the ideal
time is later than if it was a warm spring.
*The soil takes time to warm up, to reach the right temperature for
seeds to germinate.
*Weeds are a good indicator. If it is warm enough for weed seeds to
grow, it will be warm enough for some vegetable seeds to be planted.
*Look out for the first seed leaves of weeds (they are called cotyledons).
cotyledon-of-weed
weed-cotyledon
*As soon as the weeds appear, hoe them out.
*Read the back of the seed packet to see the recommended time period
for planting.
*Listen to the weather forecast & cover the seeds & seedlings when frost
is expected.
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The time to sow Butternut Squash seed is when both the air and the soil
have noticeably warmed up and the risk of frosts is past. But it is
possible to start squash seed indoors 4 to 6 weeks earlier.
The seed will only germinate in temperatures over 60F, & the shoot will
take between 1 & 2 weeks to emerge.
If starting off indoors:
* plant 3 seeds in a plant pot (10cm in diameter), point bit facing up.
* Cover with some clingfilm and put on a frost-free window sill.
* Remove the weakest seedlings to leave the strongest 1 or 2 in the pot.
* They will be ready to plant out when they have 3 leaves.
* Don’t rush because squash like warm soil and will be killed by frost.
* Introduce them to outside conditions gradually, by putting the
pots outside during the day for a bit, so they harden off.
Everyone wants to crack on in the vegetable garden in March, as the birds begin to sing and the days get longer – but the ground is still cold, and will be until it dries up. So don’t go mad and sow all your seeds – just put a few in and leave the rest until the soil has dried out.
- Sow:
early beetroot, carrots, lettuce, radish,spring onions, perpetual spinach directly into the ground
- peas & broad beans in pots
- celery in trays on warm window sill & keep moist
- leeks in a tray to thin later and leave under glass
- plant onion sets, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes & shallots if not already in
- plant early potatoes as soon as the ground is dry enough
Crop:
Finish harvesting cabbages, leeks, parsnips, kale and sprouting broccoli.
Other jobs:
- mulch soft fruits with organic matter
- lift mint every 2 years & divide
- hoe weeds regularly before they get too big
- be on constant alert for slugs
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