Interactive Garden: What to Sow, Plant and Pick This Month

January · The quiet month

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Too cold or too late to sow outside.

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Order seeds and seed potatoes. The best varieties sell out. Order now and you can plan the beds round what you have.
Chit seed potatoes. Stand them in egg boxes, eyes up, in a light, cool, frost-free place.
Force rhubarb. Cover a crown with an upturned bucket or bin for pale, sweet stems in March.
Winter prune fruit. Prune apples, pears, currants and gooseberries while they are dormant, on a dry day.
Spread compost. Cover empty beds with 5cm of compost or well-rotted manure, and let the worms take it down.
Plan your rotation. Decide which bed each crop family moves to this year.

January in full

February · Getting ready

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Broad beans

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Warm the soil. Cover beds with cloches or black plastic for two weeks before the first sowings.
Cut autumn raspberries down. Cut every cane to the ground. The new ones will fruit this autumn.
Finish winter digging. Only if the soil is not sticking to your boots. If it is, stay off it.
Net the brassicas. Pigeons are at their hungriest. Check the nets on kale, sprouts and purple sprouting.
Clean pots and trays. Wash them before the sowing rush. It prevents seedling diseases.
Lime the brassica bed. If your soil is acid, lime the bed where the cabbages will go. Never at the same time as manure.

February in full

March · Spring starts

Jobs on the plot

Plant first early potatoes. From the middle of the month in the south, the end of the month further north.
Plant onion and shallot sets. Net them for a few weeks so that the birds do not pull them out.
Feed fruit bushes. A handful of general fertiliser and a mulch of compost round each one.
Hoe on dry days. Weed seedlings die in minutes on a dry, breezy day. Little and often saves hours later.
Put up bean supports. Easier now, before the beds fill up.
Watch for slugs. They wake up hungry. Check under boards and pots after dark.

March in full

April · The busy month

Jobs on the plot

Plant maincrop potatoes. And start earthing up the earlies as their shoots show.
Sow tender crops indoors. Courgettes, squash, sweetcorn, runner and French beans, in pots on a windowsill.
Thin seedlings. Thin rows of carrots, beetroot and lettuces before they crowd each other.
Protect from late frost. Keep fleece handy. Cover potato shoots and fruit blossom on cold nights.
Keep sowing salads. A short row every fortnight from now until August.
Start weeding weekly. Ten minutes with a hoe each visit keeps the plot under control all year.

April in full

May · Hold your nerve

Jobs on the plot

Harden off tender plants. Put them outside by day and bring them in at night for two weeks before planting.
Plant out after the last frost. Late May in the south and Midlands, early June in the north and Scotland.
Earth up potatoes. Draw soil up round the stems every couple of weeks.
Net strawberries and brassicas. Before the birds and butterflies find them.
Stake broad beans and peas. String round canes for the beans, twiggy sticks for the peas.
Water newly planted crops. A good soak twice a week is better than a sprinkle every day.

May in full

June · Everything grows

Jobs on the plot

Plant out everything tender. Tomatoes, courgettes, squash, sweetcorn and beans can all go out now.
Stop cutting asparagus. Stop on the longest day and let the fern grow.
Pinch out tomato side shoots. On tall varieties, every week.
Water in the evening or early morning. Aim at the roots, not the leaves.
Mulch. Grass clippings or compost round thirsty crops keeps moisture in and weeds down.
Plant leeks. Into the space the early potatoes or broad beans leave behind.

June in full

July · Picking begins

Sow indoors

Nothing to sow under cover this month.

Sow outdoors

Plant

Jobs on the plot

Pick every few days. Beans, courgettes and peas stop producing if you let them get big.
Watch for blight. In warm, wet spells check potatoes and tomatoes for brown patches and act at once.
Sow for autumn and winter. Chard, spring cabbage, turnips, and the last carrots and beetroot.
Feed tomatoes and courgettes. A high-potash feed every week.
Dry onions and garlic. Lift them when the leaves fall over and dry them in the sun.
Summer prune fruit. Cut back the new growth on gooseberries and trained apples.

July in full

August · The glut

Sow indoors

Nothing to sow under cover this month.

Sow outdoors

Plant

Jobs on the plot

Deal with the glut. Freeze beans, make chutney, and find the neighbours who do not grow courgettes.
Plant new strawberries. Peg down runners or buy plants. Planted now, they crop fully next June.
Sow green manure. Sow mustard or phacelia on beds as they empty. It feeds the soil and smothers weeds.
Cut out old raspberry canes. On summer varieties, cut out the canes that have fruited and tie in the new ones.
Arrange holiday watering. A plot neighbour will usually do it in return for the pickings.
Sow overwintering onions and spinach. For the earliest crops next year.

August in full

September · Gathering in

Sow indoors

Nothing to sow under cover this month.

Sow outdoors

Plant

Strawberries

Jobs on the plot

Lift maincrop potatoes. Dry them for a few hours and store in paper sacks in the dark.
Harvest squash and pumpkins. Before the first frost. Cure them in the sun for ten days.
Plant autumn onion sets. And spring cabbages, into ground cleared of summer crops.
Pick apples and pears. They are ready when they come away with a gentle twist.
Start a new compost heap. There is plenty to fill it with.
Order garlic and fruit bushes. For planting in the next two months.

September in full

October · Clearing and planting

Jobs on the plot

Plant garlic. Now or next month. It needs the cold.
Sow hardy broad beans. A variety bred for autumn sowing will stand the winter and crop a month early.
Clear spent crops. Compost everything healthy. Bin anything with blight or white rot.
Collect leaves for leaf mould. Bag them or pile them in a wire cage. In two years they make the best soil improver.
Cut down asparagus fern. When it has turned yellow.
Cover bare soil. With compost, cardboard or green manure. Bare soil loses its goodness to the rain.

October in full

November · Winter work

Sow indoors

Sweet peas

Sow outdoors

Broad beans

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Plant bare-root fruit. Raspberry canes, currants, gooseberries and fruit trees, from now until March.
Net the brassicas. The pigeons have noticed there is nothing else to eat.
Lift parsnips after a frost. They are sweeter for it.
Spread manure. On the beds for next year's potatoes, beans and squash. Not where the carrots will go.
Check stored crops. Remove any potato, onion or squash that is starting to rot.
Mend and tidy. Sheds, paths, water butts and tools, while there is time.

November in full

December · Rest and plan

Sow indoors

Nothing to sow under cover this month.

Sow outdoors

Too cold or too late to sow outside.

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Pick winter veg. Sprouts, kale, leeks and parsnips for the Christmas table.
Review the year. Write down what did well, what failed and what you grew too much of.
Draw next year's plan. Move each crop family on to the next bed.
Winter prune. Currants, gooseberries, apples and pears, on a dry day.
Clean and oil tools. A wipe with an oily rag stops rust.
Stay off wet soil. Walking on it squeezes the air out. Work from a plank if you must.

December in full

On the plot in this month

Where you grow, and the frost forecast

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

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Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Sow indoors

Sow outdoors

Plant

Pick

Jobs on the plot

Plan the whole plot