It's February already! There is a lot of excitement in the air with everything opening up. Valentine's is just around the corner...but don't forget about your garden! Your garden deserves some love and TLC too.
Whether you have never planted a seed in your entire life or are an avid grower with the greenest of fingers or somewhere in between we are here to help you!
Knowing what to do and grow during different times of the year is half the battle when it comes to growing food.
"So where do I start?" I hear you ask... well lets get down to the basics for beginners!
How do I grow my own produce?
1. Plan your garden
Whether your garden is small, medium, an acre in the country or just your kitchen windowsill, you can grow your own produce!
Take a long hard look at your garden - planning your garden is the first step! You need to decide on how big you want your garden to be, what your favourite foods are and how much time you want to put in.
There are different techniques you can use to organise your garden and to make managing weeds easy from the beginning such as:
- raised bed gardening
- no dig gardening
- square foot gardening
We'll be sharing blog posts on each of these over the coming weeks!
If you're new to growing, start small, give your wee plants enough space to grow and stretch out. You have plenty of time to make more space for more of your plant babies in the future, once you get the hang of it!
You can even use software to plan your garden!
2. Prepare Your Soil
No ones perfect and neither is your soil, and that is perfectly okay! Organic matter will improve your soil, by adding nutrients, better texture and water retention. Now is a great time to set yourself up for a successful gardening year! So much of plant health and nutrition depends on having rich, fertile soils.
Add fresh compost to areas you plan to plant up - lucky for you we know exactly where to get some! ;)
Layer well rotted horse manure or seaweed (or a plant food mix) to beds where 'hungry' plants such as tomatoes will grow.
Plants are delicate wee things so you need to take good care of them! You want your soil to be not too wet or too dry. A little trick we like to do is make a small ball of soil in your hands...if it crumbles, you are ready to go! If not, consider how to improve draining in that area or put raised beds in place.
3. Stock up on Seeds!
Go through all your seeds from last year, and make a list of what you have
Think back on what worked well last year, and what you might like to try growing this year. Create a plan of what you'd like to sow
Based on your planting plan, what's missing? Order them quickly, as high-demand seeds sell out quickly
Check out our 5 favourite seeds to grow in February! Organic Seeds | Little Green Growers
4. Pre-order your plants
If life is too busy, or you don't have the space, specialist equipment or know-how, we can grow your plants for you!
To be sure to get your plants' pre-order them today as best-sellers run out quickly!
For year-round harvests, sign up to the Happy Growing subscription! We grow your plants specifically for you and send them out each season!
Or preorder the Easy Peasy Veg Patch for a quick and easy beginners veg patch - perfect for small gardens too!
If you are a culinary whizz who loves herbs our Happy Herbs includes 6 certified organic herb plants.
Or if big juicy tomatoes are your thing, choose Tomato Lovers Dream for a set of 12 heirloom organic tomato pot plants!
5. What are you waiting for? Get out into your garden and get growing!
Finally now that your soil is rich, you have some organic plant food in your hands, seeds galore and a few wee cheeky plants you are good to go!
Remember that if you're starting seeds in February, you need to ensure they have enough warmth and light - so a bright sunny windowsill, or else a heated propagator with grow lights are needed.
Don't forget to keep us updated on how your lil baby plants are doing, we want pictures and videos galore!