Dates assume southern England.
North of the Trent, add ten days
to everything in spring.

Sowing notes

What follows is what we do here, on a heavy loam that stays cold until late April. Treat the dates as a starting point and trust your own ground over any calendar.

Timing and depth
CropSowDepthSpacing
Broad bean, autumnLate Oct – mid Nov5 cm20 cm
Broad bean, springFeb – March5 cm20 cm
Onion from seedLate Feb, under cover1 cm10 cm
LeekMarch, seed bed1 cm15 cm out
CarrotApril – early July1.5 cmthin to 5 cm
Purple sproutingMay, seed bed1.5 cm60 cm out
Melon, short seasonLate April, warmth2 cm90 cm
A seedling lifted to show its roots
Leek seedlings lifted for transplanting — trim the roots, not the tops.
Seedlings under cover
Under cover in March. Ventilate on any day above eight degrees.

Three things that go wrong

Sowing too early. Seed sown into cold wet ground sits there and rots, and the sowing three weeks later overtakes it. Soil temperature matters far more than the date.

Sowing too thickly. Our packets are tested and the figure is on the label. If it says 88%, sow as though nearly all of it will come up, because it will.

Watering seedlings from above in the evening. That is how you get damping off. Water in the morning, from below where you can.

Saving your own: everything we sell is open-pollinated, so seed saved from it comes true — provided nothing closely related flowered nearby. Brassicas and beet are the ones that will cross behind your back; beans and tomatoes rarely do.

Germination standards

We do not pack anything below the standard for its species: 75% for most brassicas and roots, 80% for legumes, 65% for parsnip and the umbellifers, which are simply difficult. The tested figure and the test date are printed on every packet.