Spring's well advanced here now. The light
is stretching well into the evenings, it's a lot warmer, and have you noticed how growth
seems to be almost doubling by the week now. But if you're worried about being behind, please
don't be, there's still lots to look forward to. Including this month's sowings, warm seasoned staples, the most useful
vegetable garden flowers of all, and my favorite leafy green, which isn't just
green but a rainbow of cheer. More on that later. What's your highlight of the gardening
year? Picking the first pea pods? The first tomato perhaps? Or unearthing
those gorgeous smooth skin salad potatoes? They're all up there. But for me, it has to be sinking my teeth into a beautifully
crisp and juicy homegrown sweet corn cob. Mm hm, yes sir-ee! Sowing sweet
corn direct offers a few advantages. There's no potting mix involved and it'll
save you time potting on and transplanting. It's simply a matter of
sowing into warm fertile soil. A position like this, that faces
the midday and afternoon sun is ideal because corn loves it sunny and warm. To sow the seeds just dibbet a hole into
loose soil, about an inch or 2cm deep and pop in your seed and then cover it over. And set the seeds about 30 to 40cm or
just over a foot apart in a grid pattern. And, you might want to sow a couple of
seeds into each hole to be on the safe side and then thin them to leave
the strongest once they're up. It's really important to plant
in blocks rather than long rows, because corn is pollinated by the wind. So, by planting in a block you'll have more chance
of success, no matter which way the wind blows. Night-time temperatures really need to be
above about 50 Fahrenheit or 10 Celsius, so if it's still a bit chilly, just secure in
place a row cover of garden fleece like this, just until the seedlings are a little bit bigger
and the temperatures have warmed up a bit more. Having said all of that, I don't quite
trust it enough to sow directly outside. Springs can be very hit and miss here
and that could cause patchy germination. So to be on the safe side, I'm going to
sow indoors into plug trays like this to give it a much more reliable germination. Now these are a reasonable depth, but you could get an even better start
by sowing into deeper plug trays. Something like this would work well
actually, these are carrots I sowed earlier and it would encourage the roots to grow down, but I haven't saved quite enough of
these so the plug tray will do just fine. So I've got a peat-free potting mix here and I'm just going to add a few
handfuls of this perlite here. What that will do is just kind of open it out
a bit and create an even freer draining mix. Now there's nothing corn dislikes
anymore than sitting in cold claggy soil so this will help to open it
out and improve germination, which our corn seedlings will absolutely love. And then to sow, start by just laying the
seeds one on top of each plug like this then with them all laid on top you can just
follow through with a little stick or something and poke the seeds down to a depth
of around half an inch or 1cm. Now it's warm enough in here for these
guys to germinate perfectly smoothly but if it's quite cold where you
are, bring them indoors to germinate and ideally on a heat mat that would
get them really germinating quickly, then bring them outside once they are up. Now these guys will get planted
outside into their final positions at the same spacing as if I had direct sown them. So just over a foot or 30 to 40cm apart and I will do that towards the end of the
month, about 2 weeks after my last frost date and once the soil has definitely
warmed up nice and toastily. Don't let your seedlings get root bound. If it's still too cold when
it's time to plant them out, just pot them on into a slightly larger pot so they don't get their roots
all clogged up in their plugs. In case you're wondering, I've chosen
an early, super sweet variety of corn which will both give me those deliciously
sweet cobs that I'm hankering after and up the chances of a decent crop even
if the summer ends up being wet and cool. I should add by the way, that
we've got full Growing Guides on corn and all of the crops featured today and I will link to videos on those
down in the description below. What's next then? Beans glorious
beans, what is there more handsome? Again there are two options here so away from the growing areas into plug
trays or pots, for that extra peace of mind but but also beans work very well
sown directly against their supports whether some sort of trellis or teepee/cane frame. But if sowing into pots or plug trays improves
your chances even a smidgen, well why not? It means you can get the conditions
absolutely perfect for sowing but of course once it's warmed up, you
can sow direct too, that's just fine. Now I'm sowing two types of beans today,
a plain old green bean or French bean and these gorgeous speckled runner beans here. Each will give very distinctive styles of pods
so I'll get nice variety that way as well. The flowers of beans make them
worth growing all on their own in fact did you know, that climbing beans were originally
grown purely for their ornamental value, eating the pods came later, get
the best of both worlds I say. And sowing them is much like our corn, I'm just
going to lay the seeds on the surface like this and then poke them down into the potting mix. Now this time the seeds are a little bit bigger, so for these French or green beans I'm going to poke them down to a
depth of around an inch or 3cm or so and then these chunkier runner beans here, they'll go down to a depth of around an inch and
a half or sort of like 4cm, something like that. And of course, do not forget to label them it's all too easy to get mixed
up a few weeks down the line. I will keep both my corn and my beans lightly
watered as they germinate and then grow on and the beans will go out against their
supports as soon as they're big enough to handle as they'll do fine, so long as it isn't frosty. These are destined for my bean arches and I'll space the young plants
maybe 6 to 8in or 15 to 20cm apart. Then once they've started growing up, I'll top up the soil with a lovely
mulch to keep the roots cool and moist, an essential consideration as
beans are of course very thirsty. Do you have a crop that's a little
bit of a pain in the bottom, that always throws up challenges,
that makes things tricky for you? Well mine's celery. I used
to grow it no problem at all but over the last few years it's
got really ravaged by leaf miners so my strategy is to grow it somewhere like here well away from where I've
usually grown it in the past. That way when the the pupae emerge from the soil
they'll have nothing to get hold of up there. I should get a cleaner crop that way. And then once they get going I'll probably
just cover them withsome fleece or row cover to make sure that the leaf miners
can't fly in and discover them. The Garden Planner by the way, can help you keep
a track of what you grew where in previous seasons and you can try it for free using
the link in the description. Celery is a lot less likely to bolt or flower
when it's sown and it's a little bit warmer so don't be in a hurry to sow
it too early in the season. Now why do plants do this? Well the little
seedlings, if they get a sudden cold snap will think they've experienced a winter, which will trigger them to think it's their
second year when they normally flower. But if your celery does flower, well maybe leave
a few plants to flower to their heart's content because the frilly little flowers
are a real boon to beneficial bugs. I should add by the way, that I'm
sowing a self-blanching variety. That just means I'm not creating trenches
or banking up soil against the stems. These plants naturally do that, by planting them
about 9in or 23cm apart in a block formation they'll naturally create shade and give us
those lovely crisp stems that we're after. It saves a lot of faff and
if you like the sound of that well here's a by no means exhaustive list of
some self- blanching varieties to look out for. And sowing is super simple. I'm
starting by just wetting the potting mix so I don't disturb the really very tiny seeds and then with that done, I can just take the
little seeds and sprinkle them across the surface and this time because they are so
incredibly tiny I'm not going to cover them. They actually need light to germinate. But I am going to just pop
over bit of clear plastic to create a nice warm and humid environment
and secure that in place like that. And then just germinate these.
They'll be fine out here actually but you could germinate them
on a warm sunny window sill. Once they're up I will carefully transfer the tiny
little seedlings into their own plugs to grow on. The celery will go out into enriched moist soil which I'll keep well watered at all
times, because celery loves it super moist making this a fantastic choice
if you have a very wet area. They'll also appreciate a good mulch as they
get going, to keep soil moisture locked in. Still to come, my favorite leafy green. But first, let's give the
bees something to buzz about with two, easy growing, happy power
flowers, borage and nasturtium. The first time I grew borage I
was amazed by how quickly it grew and how much our fuzzy buzzing friends
absolutely loved the flower, buzzing all over it. Those sky blue blooms are so attractive and
as an added bonus you can eat the flowers they give a lovely refreshing quench
to just about any summer drink. Borage can be sown into pots or direct,
which is what I'm going to do today. Now it really loves a sunny position but will
grow quite well in dappled shade as well. So I'm just prepping the soil here by
lightly forking it over, that should do and then let's just scatter
a small number of seeds over and then I'll just sort of lightly tickle
it in as well, just like this. There we are. I've actually got a few little
borage seedlings in here and that's one of the joys of borage
is it does self-seed a little bit. The seedlings won't need much care, they
can just be watered if it's really dry, but other than that they'll just
kind of take care of themselves. They can cope with porous soils as well and
these guys I'll probably just move elsewhere to let them grow to their full potential. Another flower that the bees
absolutely love is nasturtiums and these couldn't be simpler to sow. Just poke them in here, there and
everywhere, wherever you want them to grow. Now I'm choosing a trailing variety which I can
kind of channel out of the way from other crops or put up supports to grow up and add a
really cheering picture of gloriousness. The cheery yellow flowers and the
leaves both have a peppery taste and indeed look beautiful
and taste wonderful in salads and you can even eat the seed pods
too, so this is a really useful flower. I've had people comment that once you sew
nasturtiums you'll never be rid of them and certainly it does self-seed very readily, but this is a joyous plant that's easily gathered
up and removed from anywhere you don't want it. And who wouldn't want this kind of
soul affirming cheer in their Garden? Just look at it [Music]. Chard is my favorite leafy green, a real winner. Choose chard for that seductive combination
of luscious leaves and stupendous stems. Turn hard times into chard times
with this easy to grow crowd pleaser. So we've got two options for sowing chard. The first window to sow it is in spring and that's for leaves throughout
the summer and on into autumn and then you can make a second sowing in midsummer for plants that will over winter to
give a nice crop of leaves next spring. And then for sowing, you can obviously
make direct sowings into soil which is what I'm going to do here, but I'm also going to make a few sowings,
just in case, into plug trays as well. Now just like celery, chard can
bolt if it's sown too early, so this is one crop there's no advantage
to really sowing earlier on in the season. The soil here was improved with
lashings of garden compost last autumn so there's nothing really left to do here other
than just smooth it over and then get on and sow. And I'm going to sow two seeds in each position. I'm going to sow them about
8in which is 20cm apart so just make a little hole and I'm going
to drop in two seeds and cover them over and then do the same again. Now like beets or beetroot seeds, the
seeds are in fact clusters of seeds, so you may get more than two little
seedlings come up in each spot but I would just thin them to leave about
just one or two little seedlings in each spot. My advice when growing chard is
to choose a colorful variety, one with shocks of color
to the mid ribs and veins. These types of chard look magnificent when backlit especially in the morning or evening sunshine. This is real food for the
soul as well as the body. Now look for varieties described as rainbow
mix or bright lights, something like that or just sow individual colors. Get that
colorful shock into your life anyhow. I'll keep my chard gently watered and
then mulch around the little plants with a top up of compost or
perhaps some grass clippings to gradually improve the soil and keep everything
nice and covered and moist as they grow. Now is a fantastic moment in the sowing calendar. There's still plenty of time
to sow squash family crops, broccoli, beets and all other
sorts of vegetable garden staples. If you missed last month's
sowing video, check that out next because everything sown then can also be sown now. See you're not behind after all! Whenever you're sowing, I'm sure you'll
be keeping busy. I'll catch you next time.
