The “planting season” is longer than you think, and it starts a little later than you think too! Here’s our guide of what to plant, and when to plant it.
March
Onion and garlic sets can go in the ground this month – if waterlogging is likely to be a problem you can always create ridges and plant them in the top of the ridge. Depending on weather conditions you can start planting out seed potatoes towards the end of the month. It’s a good idea to cover the soil for a few weeks beforehand to warm it up (use cardboard or black polythene)
April
This is the month when everybody wants to start planting as soon as possible, but it’s not always a good idea. We quite often have late frosts, bitterly cold winds and the odd hail or sleet shower which can be disastrous to young plants. It’s a good month for planting seed potatoes though.
We usually start shipping plants towards the end of the month when the worst has passed, and once the plants are mature enough to survive the journey to their new home. If you feel that it’s a little too chilly for your plants when they arrive, then you can loosely plant them in a bag of compost in a sheltered spot until it warms up a bit (see post below)
May
This is often the best month for planting! By now, the weather has warmed up and those frosts and bitterly cold winds have usually passed (but not always, so be careful – last year the first May bank holiday weekend was icy cold!) You can happily plant away to your heart’s content – parsnips & roots, courgettes, pumpkins, tomatoes (in a greenhouse) and aubergines, beans and peas, leeks, onions, potatoes, leaves, brassicas, the whole lot really!
June
Early June is still a great time to plant more or less anything so don’t panic if you missed the boat in May! In fact, you may find that some plants actually do better and grow faster for the weather being that much warmer and the days being that much longer. You can plant tomatoes and other more tender crops outdoors at this time of year. It’s a good time for a second planting of quick growing crops like beetroot and peas, and you can easily add another row or two of carrots, or spinach/chard/lettuces.
July
This is a great month for planting brassicas for an autumn/winter harvest – if you want to keep your veg patch going that little bit longer, then we’d highly recommend getting some kale, purple sprouting broccoli, sprouts etc into the ground in July.
August/Spetember/October
This is the time to plant autumn and winter veg, but really that’s a whole different season, so we’ll leave that till another time.