With warmer weather here and growth picking up there’s a temptation to cruise to summer-long harvests. But that would be a mistake, because now’s the ideal time to make more sowings to get extra harvests both later in the season… and beyond.
So, join the ever-affable Ben as he busts open the seed box and gets ready to sow reliable favorites that will set us up for plenty more pickings to come.
Delve into our full catalog of Sowing To Harvest videos with this handy playlist:
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https://gardenplanner.motherearthnews…
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49 Comments
Great to see your garden looking fantastic. Thank you for all your planting tips. I have learned such a lot from watching your videos.
It has finally started to warm up here in the central US and the garden is growing much better! I just bought tomato and pepper plants yesterday and will likely plant them tomorrow.
The only things sown on my allotment are my potatoes currently. This is my third growing season but the first year was getting used to the plot so we just used the then bed layout which was really weird. Last year we ripped the place apart and put in new beds however ill health struck and the plot was near enough abandoned. This spring we realised the new beds needed to be moved so we are down to the last bed to be weeded and moved which should be done by this weekend and all the plants are ready to go in. We originally had planned on 9 x 4ft by 10 ft beds however the new paths are not yet done so we have stacks of paving slabs in the way. So plan is to have 3 potatoes beds, one bed with Barlotti beans, sweetcorn and pumpkin, one bed of tomatoes with radishes, a bed of parsnips, onions grown from seed and carrots, a bed of peas and a bed of summer/ early autumn brassicas with some leeks. Once the potatoes start to come out I will put in the winter/ spring brassica and some leeks. My salads, shallots, onion sets, celery and herbs and more tomatoes are grown at home. In the greenhouse more tomatoes and peppers.
My lettuces around here always bolt because it gets too hot to early even if we plant early. It's a love hate relationship here in 8b in the south 🙁 Thanks for the reminder to get a bed ready for carrots and beets!
This year I've tried onions and garlic for the 1st time and I'm pretty pleased so far. Just repotted my spinach today which was looking a bit straggly and sad. Hope it will pick up. I'm looking to sow some savoy too, but need to get some wire mesh as pigeons are a real problem here.
Factual inaccuracy in this video – you referred to beet root as tasty.
Won't the carrots be disturbed when you are taking the garlic out?
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The way he's handling the seeds and dirt it's like he's the Bob Ross of vegetable gardening 😊
As a maturing novice allotmeteer, I am. disappointed in my carrots not germinating can you advise please. Rachel
👏👏👏
Started my first sungold tomato inside very early and put it in the garden bed outside like last week and I have one tomato almost ripe already soon I’ll get try my first ever tomato I grew myself! Wishing everyone abundant harvest and peaceful growing! One love
My seeds took a long time to germinate this year – I haven't got the luxury of a glass greenhouse but I do have a plastic one up the side of the house. However, after a lot of moving them from the sunny porch to the front room and then out into the greenhouse, they're now starting to be ready to move outside gradually! I recently planted swede, turnips and parsnips outside (thanks to one of your videos), with radish and lettuces in between the rows. Really love all your videos and find them so informative – and inspiring, encouraging me to get up from in front of the telly and get planting! Best gardening channel on Social Media! 🤩
We moved house in November to a Welsh hillside, it then rained continuously for months so I've only just got outside to sort out the veg plot. My first task is to remove the perennial weeds but I have managed to start potatoes in pots and I have set up a few beds so far which will have brassicas in them, next on my list are beans and squash (already sown but with nowhere to go as yet!). I am also planning a separate bush fruit patch.
I'm having a nightmare year from snails. Any good tips to keep them out my greenhouse without killing them?
Thank you for all your video's, they have been a great help in getting me started in the gardening world. I also have joined the "garden planner" which is also packed full with information, tips and tricks but what I'm missing there is what can be grown after a crop harvest. Like what can I plant after early potatoes or after spinach etc. And also which plants that DON'T like each other. Would be great to get some help there 👍
Over here in the northeast US, my radishes have been growing like crazy. Kale and spinach are super healthy. I have more cilantro than I know what to do with, even with taco Tuesday once a week! Some of my carrots were wiped out by slugs early on, but they’re growing really will in a different bed. Just planted out tomatoes peppers and eggplants this weekend so we’ll see how it goes. My beans aren’t doing so well though unfortunately
I just planted some seeds the other day, and totally forgot to plant carrots and beets so thank you for reminding me!
I tell everyone about your channel, from great tips to multiple ways to garden or reusing materials- it's SO helpful!
This is my third year growing my own food and I don't think my mom will ever accept store-bought lettuce ever again! I also grow only in containers or large pots- been so great!!
Love your film. I'm going to sow second showings today! You've reenergised me.
This guy’s enthusiasm is so infectious!!! I’m trying to cultivate a mulch-heavy, permaculture inspired garden in southern Spain and I must admit my labour/yield ratio is seriously out of whack. Of course, working in the garden itself is rewarding but taking home a couple of small potatoes, 4 strawberries and 3 lettuce leaves for my efforts makes me wonder how we’re going to save the world with regenerative agriculture! Any tips?
Great vid, lots of useful info. The allotment was very slow starting but getting going now. Success with potatoes, peas, lollo (my fave lettuce) and beans galore to come! Struggling with my brassicas tbh, they were doing ever so well for weeks but the last few days of warmer weather seems to have knocked them for ten? Yellowing/browning leaves and wilting. Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. 🙂
I have a south facing garden in the woods. I understand i need 6 hours of sun to make some plants mature…my question is ….how can plants in a green house like cukes and tomatoes mature when they get no direct sun??? Please help me understand the light.
Where do you put your fennel? Is it near anything else? I reallly want to grow fennel, however every companion planting guard says that fennel should not be planted near anything? How far apart should I keep it if I put it in containers? Thank you. I enjoyed your video very much. I enjoyed all of your videos.
What are the seedlings with the dark red stems and thin leaves? I have a ton of them growing randomly in some of my pots and it almost looks like i just dumped seeds in there a different year.
I'm on my second year of backyard mini-farming and loving it. I've gotten such a wealth of knowledge from great gardeners here on YouTube and corrected many mistakes from my first year.
I've got around 60 varieties of fruit, veggies and flowers growing in 130 square feet. Thanks to no-dig and companion planting, it's low maintenance enough for me to keep up between attending full-time college and working. It's been an amazing experience and I'm excited to keep learning this season.
Spring planting of daicon and turnip almost finished. Onions, garlic and shallots coming along nicely. First flowers on the potatoes yesterday. Two rows of parsnip and carrots are up and away and red cabbage and cauliflower are just starting to 'head up'. Only got half the space to plant this year as the other half is tarped (going no dig). All the best.
My babbington leeks are growing. Looking forward to having them pop up year after year
Hi I have contacted you before about where you brought your arbors from
I've fallen in love with the wonders of pallet collars as cut-price raised beds thanks to Ben's videos – added a second layer to my potato bed last night to make earthing easier – such a great tip!
The monster worm / snake unraveling at 6:13 unlocked some childhood fear I didn't remember having…. Anyway, love your channel!
Awesome thank you!
I don't have anyone to help me either with my garden. I still don't have it turned over.
I’ll sauté the midrib of kale…. For stir fry …. It’s great and very nutritious
Bad start this year. One minute all set for sowing in outdoor beds, but a weeks. Visit from my son and daughter in law and the seeds popped up like a n F6 Lightning scramble!
Not those I was waiting to so, but Bitter Cress and rain so I could just stare at it and wish I’d mulched with sowing compost. But no respite, seeds from the bird feeder, grass of some sort sending roots down to a spade depth.
This week , one bed per day (or more if I can) sow what I should have in May and brassicas and salads.
I’ve bought compost from Aldi, very cheap, but I’ll bet I’ve not bought enough compost.
On the bright side, for the last week I have a Robin picking up root eating caterpillar like things as I pick up weeds. He watches me so close just in case I dig up some thing that I might eat and he to quick to give me an opportunity. 😎
You have to love those gorgeously beautiful arugula blooms though!!
why is greenhouse sunken? is it happenstance/uneven ground or a functional reason?
A wonderful video, as always.❤
The rhubarb and purple asparagus are yielding glorious harvests already, but the wildfire smoke from Canada has decreased my gardening activities over the past week. Too dangerous to be out there, even with a mask on due to severe asthma and allergies, but hopefully a good rain will help them stop the fires soon. From what I can see out the windows, though, the potatoes and onions are filling out their new bed nicely, the corn and squash are coming up in three sisters beds, and the beetroots are sprouting. The last time I had a proper walk through the garden, the gooseberries, blackcurrants, and red currants were blooming. The honeyberries had started to produce fruit, and there were little strawberries forming, too. The tulips are still blooming, the bearded iris just started blooming, the Triteleia were about 6 inches tall, and the Dutch Iris were about 8 inches. If we can all get decent rain, then hopefully this will be a lovely, productive growing season.
My lettuce, kale and hostas are getting off to a strong start this season. My peppers are healthy, but still small. My begonias are struggling. Marigolds are just fine. Oh, my peppermint plant has never been this big before. Thankfully I keep it in a big pot. I hope that your garden is also healthy and producing this season.
I lost all of my perennial vegs this year. Purple sprouting broccoli, purple tree collard, perennial kale, and globe artichokes. Sometimes I think my property must be cursed when I look at my plants compared to my neighbors.
One thing I never seem to get to germinate is dill. I had some in seed trays that did but then they didn't make it through the transplanting. I was hoping if I could get it to grow just once then it might reseed itself.
Any tips on dill?
Hey Ben, Thanks for all your videos mate, I have learnt alot from them.
I had some Tomato seedlings inside from about late March, they stayed very small and bushy and I think I stressed them in to flower? Any idea why this happened? I had three blue flourescents and 1 red bulb. Temp was good.
When I put them outside a little too early with that false spring they just died pretty much 🙁
Here's to a great growing season. Cheers!
I thought beets were a cool weather crop? June is mighty hot here in zone 8.
I'm here in Michigan and I anticipate having a longer hot season… So I may not start sowing a 2nd batch of cooler weather plants until late June/early July…. does that seem wise? Usually we are still hot in September. Or do you think with the days getting shorter after the solstice the plants will have more time to be cool? This is only my 2nd year doing the vegetable garden so I'm still learning!
I live on an oversized city lot. The front of the house faces south where I have 4 beds. The roots of a tree destroyed my underground irrigation pipes, and I am temporarily using a variety of irrigation schemes. One front bed is my berry patch. The peach tree in the middle got bacterial gumosis and I cut it down. My graft onto the rootstock sucker failed. The gooseberry bush is bigger than ever, and I think I finally got the secret to thriving raspberries. The thornless blackberries are blossoming. The baby red current now has a riot of leaves. And all around, everywhere in nearly every bed, the elephant garlic flowers are about to burst open. The Chilean red garlic that I dug up years ago is still growing in a corner. The pomegranate tree is covered with feathery leaves, and everything is covered with black locust petals like snow.
Behind the berry patch is a full sun bed I let lay fallow last winter. It also contains a peach tree, now covered with young fruits, and an Asian pear tree nestled behind the peach. I grafted 5 western pear varieties to the Asian pear, but only 2 grafts survived. I don't see any fruits on the grafted branches. Purple cornflowers also grow in the back of this bed. The bed is covered with more garlic of several varieties. Along the edge of the fallow bed are a series of irrigated pots growing kale, broccoli, thyme, and artichokes. As each potted plant reaches the end of its season, I rotate in a different newly transplanted plug in a different pot. That way, I am constantly invigorating the soil from old pots with chips, compost, organic fertilizer and some fresh commercial soil, then planting it with a start from my little greenhouse. Right now, I am putting out the newly transplanted potted cucumbers and eggplants. I planted 2 zucchinis in the front bed with corn starts. I cover each new transplant with an opaque plastic gallon jug with the bottom cut out to protect it from birds and slugs.
I have a problem finding the right place for strawberries. Last year I retired my strawberry patch and constructed an irrigated strawberry tower out of a cylinder of wire fencing and some garden cloth. During the torrential rains this past winter, the strawberry tower fell over into the fallow bed and broke the irrigation lines. Yesterday, I purchased some terra cotta strawberry jars on sale half price; today I intend to transplant all the strawberries from the collapsed tower into the new terra cotta jars.
I have irrigated pots half way along the east driveway where I have 3 plum trees. I love grafting, so I have many varieties of plums and a pluot growing on the branches of the 3 wild plums. When I replaced my toilets with low flush varieties, the old toilets became pots for planting. I drilled a hole at the bottom of the toilet bowl, but the tanks already had a hole. The other half of the east side driveway is planted with thornless blackberry. My next door neighbor grows English ivy. It is a bane on the east side of my property. I am forever pulling out ivy that threatens to strangulate my potted plants. I also have an asparagus patch along the sunny east side driveway, which is currently full of tall asparagus ferns in flower. In the shadier parts of the east driveway are flower gardens. The columbine are in flower. The Easter lilies are budding and the milkweed is rapidly rising.
In a sunny corner on the north side of the property near the mulberry tree are some newer beds. There I have raspberries and goji berries surrounded by kale and cabbages. I also planted a zucchini there. Ivy is a perpetual pariah. On the other side of the mulberry tree is my pile of disintegrating chips. Also more artichokes growing in salvage grow-bags cast off by the MJ industry in this area. Also growing are potatoes, succhinis, and corn. My bee hive is located here because it gets lots of sun but is protected from the wind. In a few days, I will add a super to my thriving bee colony. I also ate the first ripe mulberry yesterday. The tree is covered with unripe berries.
All along the north side retaining wall are irrigated raised beds and pots with blueberries, cabbages, artichokes, tomatoes, mugwort, and chard. I have failed time and again to grow carrots in those raised beds, so I recently removed the fallow soil from that bed and filled it with brand new commercial soil. I planted 2 rows of carrot seeds and 1 row of carrot starts from my greenhouse. I have planted nasturtium seeds in or near all the cucumbers and squashes; let's see if they sprout.
All the lettuces, cilantro and peppers are still in my greenhouse, along with sprouting sunflower seeds that are intended for pest control (I'm allergic to sunflower seeds). I have a fenced in large pot and a grow bag with lettuces at the end of their time in the poultry area. Soon I will harvest the last 2 lettuces and amend the soil with compost, green sand, organic fertilizer and some commercial soil and transplant the summer squashes. A rickety old wooden ladder stands over this grow bag. I intend to train the squashes up the ladder. Last time, I used plastic grocery bags to gently tie the vines to the ladder. Then all the plastic bags exposed to the sun disintegrated into plastic powder that fell into my organic bed below! I had a difficult time extricating tiny pieces of plastic bag from my garden; it was impossible to get it all.
The west side of my property is the egg farm. It provides me with plenty of soiled straw to use as mulch and to age into compost. The poultry clean up the snails, slugs, pill bugs, earwigs, ants, and other bugs while producing golden eggs for me and my neighbors. After harvest, I open the gates and allow the poultry a few weeks to clean up the excess bugs, then close the gates and plant again. The poultry love brassicas of any type. They will eat all the brassica leaves while cleaning up the bugs, if allowed. The poultry need to eat green leaves every day, and there is no meadow nearby. All excess leaves from my harvests, pulled weeds, grass clippings and weeds from around the neighborhood are gathered for them. Also found on the west side are 2 more wild plum trees, fig, cherries, persimmon and another peach. I prefer mission figs, so I grafted purple figs to my Kadota fig tree and the grafts are growing fruit this year. Last weekend, I draped a bird net over my Queen Anne cherry tree to attempt to protect what promises to be a bumper crop.
Thanks for all your farming lessons. I have learned a lot from you and I really enjoy your enthusiasm and quick wit. One of these days, I will use your garden planner for improved placement next year.
Do have video to grow in a green stock planter for June
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How do you keep your beds so clean and clear of weeds etc
Great video! I am a novice veg gardener and am very fortunate to have been gifted a good sized garden plot (20 feet x 20 feet) from my employer! I used your site to plan my space and have been enjoying your videos like a guilty pleasure! I have a bit more space in my garden yet, so I may try carrots in a few weeks as suggested. I am so deeply invested in this garden and have been so inspired by you Ben! Many thanks from St. Jacob's, Ontario 🙂
What growing zone are you in? You may have mentioned it in the video, but I never caught it! Thanks in advance for your time
Alas, a local visiting cat dug up my lettuce. All the more galling as my own cat is an indoor one, and sits in an outdoor run.