What to Plant When | A Month-By-Month Guide To Growing Veg

One of the first things you’ll want to know as a beginner gardener is what to plant when?

So, we’ve put together a really handy set of free pdf printables that we hope you’ll love!

The first is our quick glance What To Plant When Guide.

You also need to take a look at our free Month by Month Gardening Guide (see below)…

And our free printable garden planner.

What is the What To Plant When Printable?

Our What To Plant When Guide includes loads of tasty vegetables from leeks to french beans and tells you what to plant when and when you should be able to harvest each crop.

It’s important to sow your vegetable crops at the right time of year because it gives them the best chance of becoming strong, high-yielding plants. It also avoids the risk of loosing plants due to bad weather.

It’s equally important to harvest at the right time too so that you can enjoy your crops at the peak of their tenderness.

How to use the What To Plant When Guide…

This What To Plant When Guide has been designed to use as a guide for UK gardeners.

If you live in a colder area or it’s a particularly harsh year, weather-wise then you’ll need to adapt the dates accordingly.

Along with different gardning methods, soil health and using natural fertilizers a hugely significant part of a gardeners success is down to the weather.

You’ll notice that the majority of vegetables will need to be sown during the Spring from March to May as the soil begins to warm up and the days get longer.

You’ll need to wait until the risk of frost has past in your area before transplanting more tender crops like french beans into their final positions in the garden. As a gardener you’ll learn to keep a close eye on the weather forecast!

We can help plants along by warming beds before planting and covering new plants in cloches or plastic tunnels.

If the weather takes a turn for the worst and the temperature is forecast to dip below 4° cover tender plants with fleece and/ or straw to give them a better chance of survival.

Some vegetables are hardier and can be planted a little earlier if the weather is favourable e.g. broad beans.

Don’t feel too disheartened if you get it wrong…most gardeners have lost crops because they’ve been overly keen after a week of sunshine in March!

Just keep some back-up seeds so that you can resow if you need to.

Summertime is when it gets really exciting as many vegetables are ready to harvest.

Sowing carrots, radishes and salad leaves will give you some tasty vegetables to enjoy a little earlier.

Our guide will help you to ensure that you have a selection of crops throughout the year. For example, planting cabbages and sprouts for winter greens.

It’s well worth planting some leeks as they are an amazing alternative to onions because you can leave them in the soil over-winter.

Download and Use This Vegetable Growing Guide

Familiarize yourself with the symbols at the top of the What To Plant When Guide to growing vegetables.

These will tell you what can be:

• Transplanted – vegetable plants that are planted outside. Make sure you harden plants off first by putting them outside for longer periods each day (for 2 or 3 weeks) to get them used to cooler temperatures.
• Sow indoors – Sow seeds on a windowsill or coldframe.
• Heat required – some seeds will require heat to germinate and a few tender plants will need heat to grow. A heated greenhouse or heated propagator would be required to start these early in the year.
• Direct sow – this is when you sow seeds straight in the garden.
• Cover – You’ll see a circle in the table if plants or seeds would benefit from a cloche or plastic tunnel for protection. For smaller seedlings you can use a clear bottle cut in half.
• Harvest – This will give you an idea of when your crop will be ready.

Remember, that this is designed to be used as a guide as growing is dependent on regional and seasonal weather variations.

Print your free printable What To Plant When Guide.

Pop a copy in your seed box, your garden planning file or stick one on a wall in your potting shed so that you can refer to it as needed.

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