Hello, today I'm going to look at what to sow in February.
I'm Liz Zorab and this is Byther Farm.
What seeds can I sow in February? Well there's actually quite a lot of them, but
I'm going to start by saying you will need to adjust your sowing times according to
where you live and what your local conditions are like. So I've checked our
local conditions, I just searched for frost dates and the site I looked at
confirmed, pretty much what we know already, that our last frost is likely to
be at the end of April. So from then on it's a good time for us to be hardening
stuff on outside, ready to plant out in the garden. And today I'm going to talk
about seeds that you can start with some heat and also seeds that you can start
undercover. So, if like me, you don't have any heat available, have a look in the
description below and it'll give you a time stamp for when I start talking
about the seeds that you can sow under cover. But if you have got some heat there
are plenty of seeds that you can sow. And so you don't need to grab a pen and
paper and be scribbling while I'm talking, I've also left a list of all the
varieties I'm talking about in the description box .
So if you have got some heat
available to start your seeds off, here are some of the things that you can sow now.
Summer cabbages can be started off now. In 2019 I grew a really nice
variety called Filderkraut. I really liked the taste of it, it was a pointed cabbage
and I gave the outer the the very outside leaves to the ducks, but you
could eat those. And that cabbage was equally good both hot and cold, so cooked
and served as a side dish, but also sliced very finely and used in a coleslaw salad.
Both of them absolutely lovely1 So I will be growing Filderkraut again.
But I'm also going to try another variety called Dostenfelder Dauer.
It's probably not how it's pronounced, again I'll leave the
information in the box below, but it's another green summer cabbage.
I'm really looking forward to trying that one. And you can also sow some
red cabbages now. I love red cabbage, I like it as coleslaw and I like it
braised very slowly with some wine and some spices and some apples,
I freeze that and then have that throughout the winter. So I'm going to be sowing a
variety called Red Acre. I'm going to do at least two sowings of the Red Acre -
towards the end of February and then probably the end of April, so that I
get two crops. One that I can use in my coleslaw in salads and the other that I can
cook and freeze for use during the winter.
And you can sow cauliflowers now.
I'm still sowing All The Year Round - so confession is - the first sowing I made
back in October failed miserably the ones in November have done fine, and I'm
going to sow some again now because I don't want a whole host of cauliflowers
all at one time. I'm just sowing a really small amount so just getting three or
four plants, because what am I going to do with a glut of cauliflower? I would
rather have a small number to harvest over a longer period and then we will
actually use them. I'm not a fan of frozen cauliflower, so for me that
staggered sowing so I get a staggered crop is a much better idea.
And still with seeds that you can sow and with a bit of heat it is celeriac. We grow a variety
called Giant Prague improved. I don't start this now as I don't have heat, so I
will wait and a,little bits but if you have the warmth you can do that.
And likewise for celery. Last year I grew like a salad celery, one that you
can just to eat the stalk. This year I'm going back to one that I've
grown before which is called Celery Red Soup and the the actual stalks have a
purpley red tinge to them. I found that tastes incredibly strong, so much too
strong just to eat a stick raw, but in soups and in stocks it was absolutely wonderful.
So I will be growing that again this year, so that I can get it
into soups and stews for the winter because I really like a celery taste in
my stock - I think it adds an extra something!
There are some leeks that you
can start now, something like Musselburgh can be sown now.
I'm growing an awful lot of leeks this year and again I will be growing
a lot different varieties, I will be staggering their sowing periods so that
I can harvest them over a really long period during the winter. In 2019 I grew
loads of leeks and then I gave loads them away and I didn't actually plant
enough for us! I like the mild oniony taste of leeks in a lot of food. I like
them as a side dish, but I really like those in stews and soups and and during
the winter I thrive on soup and on stew, so for me it's worth growing the extras.
And you can get your onion seeds in now. I have three varieties here, I think I've
said before I've never grown onions from seed before. I've always used sets into
the ground. So this year I'm trying Senshyu Yellow, Bedfordshire Champion
and I'm also trying a shallot onion which is called Zubrune and it
could be pronounced Zebrunee, but I think it's just Zebrune. Anyway,
they're the ones that have got a pink skin, they're elongated and I really like
the mild, almost sweet, taste of them, particularly if I cook them really
slowly in a pan and let them almost caramelise, they're just fabulous!
And one more suggestion if you've got the heat to start them, is some tomatoes.
Now three years ago I decided I wasn't going to grow any tomatoes and you persuaded
me that I should have some and I did. Last year I was given a load of tomatoes
and I absolutely loved them, so I will be growing those varieties again.
I'm also going to grow this one which is Moneymaker,
a San Marzano, a cherry tomato called Cerise and a yellow one called Golden Sunrise.
So they can be started off with some heat. I don't have the heat so I'm
going to be waiting for another four weeks before I start those. The one thing
I will say about tomatoes though is, if your intention is to grow them outside
don't plant your seeds more than about eight weeks before your last frost date,
because otherwise the plants are going to get too leggy and too hungry and then
they'll end up getting stunted before you can actually get them into the ground.
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So that's what you can start now if you've got some heat.
If like me you have some covered area but no heat, don't worry there's still plenty
of things that you can so now. Again, adjust your sowing times for your area,
so further north and in colder areas you're going to push these times back
and right to the end of the month or even to the beginning of March. I can
only talk about averages and you really must check your frost dates.
Try not to sow hundreds of seeds for your windowsill or your greenhouse or
your polytunnel that you're not going to be able to get outside, they're just
going to become incredibly leggy and you'll need to resow.
And so that you don't
need to grab a pen and paper and be scribbling while I'm talking, I've also
left a list of all the varieties I'm talking about in the description box.
So if you're growing under cover you can start off beet roots now.
This is my favorite, this is Boltardy, it's a really nice round-ish beetroot.
I just like the flavor of it, I like the consistency of it.
I have already planted some of these but for their baby beet leaves rather than
for the roots. And at the end of February I'll start sowing this
into modules, two or three seeds per module, and then I
can just plant them out in small clusters and they'll grow on from there.
I'm also growing a white beet rool. I like the favor of it, it's slightly milder, I
found it slightly sweeter and so I'm growing one called White it's an Albino
Beetroot. And I'm hoping this year to grow enough of that that I will be able
to make a white beetroot wine towards the end of the year.
You can start broadbeans now. These ones are broadbean Aquadulce Claudia. They are seeds that
I've saved myself from last year. Now you can sow these in the autumn and I know
that's what Erica over Erica's Little Welsh Garden has done. She's put up a
video of planting out her broadbeans. I know she swwed her seeds in the middle
of October, she's let the plants grow through winter and she's now got them
into a bed. If you haven't seen that video I'll leave a link in the description.
The reason that I don't sew my beans in autumn and I wait until now
is that, in previous years I've sown them, they've grown absolutely beautifully and
even though our ducks do an excellent detective job on the slugs and snails in
the veg garden, when I've planted my broad beans out,
they've just been snaffled by the snails and all I'm left with is sad, little
stumps. If I sow them now, it's a little bit further into the season I can get
them really big strong plants before I put them out and then hopefully they
will survive the slug and snail onslaught.
Brussels sprouts can be started now.
I have a variety that I think is called Evesham, there's any
shorthand on the packet so I'm not entirely sure, but I'm fairly sure that these
are called Evesham. I've really enjoyed our Brussels sprouts
this year, I started picking them couple of weeks before Christmas.
Here we are, beginning February, I'm still harvesting them and I only grew six
plants, but I'm not harvesting a huge number at any one time. I did have
some for breakfast yesterday morning, yes I know, for breakfast! But it was just, you know,
just what I fancied and they were just lovely with some eggs.
Sow those now, according to your area, and in a few weeks time you can start hardening
them off and get them outside. They do need a really long growing period.
I'm really excited about this, we can start some carrots off! So I've got two really
early varieties Amsterdam 2 solo and Amserdam 3 Sprint. These will be growing
in the polytunnel all the way through, so I will just sow them in rows and
I keep my fingers crossed because I'm a bit hit-and-miss with carrots. Some years
I do really well, other years I don't. Last year was a good year, so I'm hoping
and 2020 will be too.
You can also sow cauliflower seeds under cove,r so not
only will I have All The Year Round on the go, but also a green one. You may have
seen this in the shops, it's a green one, the heads rather than being round, kind
of have points on them, they look almost like a lunar landscape and I love them.
They're called Romanesco and I will be sowing a few of those. And also, I'll
have to read the name out to you - Di Sicilia Violetto and these are a
purple and pale mauve-purple cauliflower head. The ones I grew last year didn't grow
very big, they were really small but oh good grief, they were tasty!
They were really nice so I will be growing some of those again.
You can continue to grow less and cover. Ours are still doing really well in the corner here, I've sown more.
I'm often asked about
the varieties that we grow and where to get the seeds from. So I've pulled
together a list of every variety that we grew last year, all the plants
that are growing in our garden here and if you'd like access to those lists, all
you need to do is sign up for our newsletter and in our next newsletter
there will be a link taking you through to some hidden pages on our website
where you'll be able to peruse those. I'll leave a link in the description box
so you can sign up for our newsletter.
And you can also sow salad leaves like
Mizuna, I've got a mustard here called Green in Snow, I also grow the mustard
Ruby Streaks, which is a deep red color, quite mustardy as the leaves get bigger, but
very small leaves almost have a caramely taste to them to start with and then the
more you chew them, the more that mustardy heat comes through.
And also on the recommendation of a fellow content creator a gardener I'm gonna try
Lettuce Salanova and this one is called Expertise RZ.
Apparently leaves are exceptionally tolerant to cold and exceptionally
tolerant to heat and I've got to say they were exceptionally pricey seeds.
So I'm going to be really interested to see how these do. They're like a cut and come
again but rather than individual leaves you can actually just cut the head and
it will regrow. So I'm really looking forward to trying that and I will report
back on the results of it later in the year.
And just as starting off with the heat,
you can also start onions under cover. I'm going to do some spring onions.
I have already got a row of spring onions in and, says she's looking over, I can see that
one has started to come up. The two varieties
that I'm growing are Performer and White Lisbon. I don't seem to be hugely
successful at growing spring onion, so I will sow plenty of rows in the hope that
some of them come up.
And to go with those spring onions I'm also gonna plant
some radishes. Now so I've got three varieties one is French Breakfast, it's
that 'pink at the top and white at the bottom' standard recognizable radish,
one is called Cherry Belle and is more of a globe,
smaller circular radish and I'm also going to try it a little little white
radish this is called Albena. I'm really looking forward to trying it
and to see if having a white skin gives it a milder flavor or not.
Just three more that I'm going to mention. Peas can be sown now. I'm putting them into
guttering suspended in our polytunnel. I drilled some holes in the bottom of the
guttering, filled it with compost, sown my pea seeds on top and they've been
growing away really nicely since the autumn. I'm now going to do some more and
rather than staying in the polytunnel for the season, these ones will get taken
outside. I'll dig a shallow trench in the soil, take the guttering and very
gently move it like that and hopefully the peas in their compost will slide out,
down into the channel that I've made, giving very little root disturbance for the peas.
Sowing under cover you can get some spinach in now. I've got a Perpetual
spinach, but for me it actually doesn't matter what sort of spinach it is, I'm
growing it for the baby leaves to add salads. I eat a lot of salads and I'm not
hugely keen on spinach as a large leaf, but I do like it as a baby leaf.
I either sow it in a row quite thickly or several in a module and then plant the modules out.
And last, but by no means least, are turnips. You can start some turnips, again I'll
be starting these in modules so they can go outside with minimum root disturbance.
And last year I was given several different types of turnips to try.
The one that I liked the most is a white skinned one, but I'm also going to be
trying Purple Top Milan and one called Petrowski. And you can see these seeds are
just saved in an envelope, but I have remembered to label them. So there we go,
a race through some of the things that can be sown during February.
One more time I'm going to remind you to adjust your sowing times according to the
area your in because it would be awful just to sow a whole load of seeds only
to have to repurchase and re-sow them in a month or twos time.
And so wherever you
are in the world and whatever you've got planned for today, I hope it's good one,
and I also hope you'll join me again next time!