Small Changes, Better Growing
Ten short lessons for a better spring garden, from the people who pack the seed.
Each lesson fixes one small thing that trips up almost every gardener in spring, explains why it happens, and names the seeds that go with it. Each one is a ten minute read. Start with whichever problem you have in front of you.
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1Lesson 1 · Seed depth · 6 min
Stop burying your seeds.
Most seeds that never come up were sown too deep. The twice-the-width rule, and which seeds want light.
Read lesson 1 -
2Lesson 2 · Bolting · 6 min
Stop blaming yourself for bolting coriander.
Warmth, long days and dry soil send coriander and lettuce to flower. How to keep picking for weeks.
Read lesson 2 -
3Lesson 3 · Zucchini flowers · 6 min
Your zucchini is not broken.
Its first flowers are male and fall without fruit. Tell the two apart, and hand pollinate in one sunny morning.
Read lesson 3 -
4Lesson 4 · Soil, not calendar · 7 min
Stop planting by the calendar. Start planting by the soil.
Tomatoes go out when the soil holds about 16°C, whatever the date says. The kitchen thermometer test.
Read lesson 4 -
5Lesson 5 · Grow the unusual · 6 min
Grow what the supermarket does not sell.
A watermelon the size of a grape, purple carrots, a currant tomato and purple basil. All from a packet.
Read lesson 5 -
6Lesson 6 · Watering · 4 min
Stop watering a little every day.
A light sprinkle keeps roots shallow. Water deeply and less often, the finger test, and why morning matters.
Read lesson 6 -
7Lesson 7 · Thinning · 4 min
Stop being kind to your carrots.
Crowded rows grow thin, tangled roots. Thin to a finger apart, twice, and eat the second lot as baby carrots.
Read lesson 7 -
8Lesson 8 · Hardening off · 5 min
Stop planting seedlings straight from the windowsill.
Indoor seedlings are soft, and sun and wind shrivel them. A week of half days outside first.
Read lesson 8 -
9Lesson 9 · Flowers in the bed · 5 min
Stop growing vegetables on their own.
A bed of leaves gives a bee no reason to stop. Alyssum, marigold, borage and cosmos sown with the vegetables.
Read lesson 9 -
10Lesson 10 · Basil · 4 min
Stop letting your basil flower.
Once basil flowers the leaf slows and the flavour drops. Pinch above a leaf pair and two shoots grow back.
Read lesson 10
How to use this series
Read the lesson that matches what is happening in your garden, then look at the Grow it list at the end of each one. Every seed named there is a packet we pack ourselves, and the lesson tells you how deep, how warm and how often to sow it.
Not sure what to sow this month where you live? Type your postcode and we will point you at the right zone. More lessons are added as the season moves on, so this page is worth keeping.