Getting started with sowing and pre-sprouting

The first seeds are in the mega-yield raised bed. I am starting carefully with crops including sugar snap peas, which I pre-sprouted first.

It is time. Whatever the weather, I am getting started.

It is early March and the sun occasionally breaks through. The first seeds are going into the soil. We have waited long enough now, have we not?

Besides, I promised you that I would get a bumper harvest from one of my raised beds. So now I have to deliver.

In early March, you cannot sow everything yet. So I am taking it slowly with a few squares of lamb's lettuce, several types of lettuce, winter peas and sugar snap peas, plus the first radishes.

I use the Makkelijke Moestuin app to sow the empty raised beds. Even if you already know how to sow, it is very useful when filling the squares.

In the first row of the mega-yield raised bed, I sow lamb's lettuce in the square on the left. Nine plants fit in one square. In the squares next to it, I sow radishes (16), spinach (9) and winter purslane (9).

In the second row: rocket (9) and Mini cos lettuce (4).

In the third row: winter peas (9) and sugar snap peas (9). The latter is a compact variety that grows to about 50 cm, so it does not need to go beside the trellis.

Beside the trellis, I have sown eight snow peas in the square on the left.

I will sow the remaining squares later, because many seeds cannot go into the soil just yet.

Snow peas are the first vegetable you can sow beside the trellis. In previous years, I immediately filled quite a few squares with them.

I love snow peas, but after two months of eating them at lunch and dinner, in salads, soup and stir-fries, as well as boiled, I could not face another one. My mother was unmoved: "You sowed them, so you will eat them!"

This year, I am starting with one square of snow peas and one square of the compact sugar snap peas. I will do the same again in early April and early May. That gives me sensible quantities and lets me harvest them over a longer period.

You let the winter peas, snow peas and sugar snap peas begin to germinate indoors. This is called pre-sprouting.

The peas will already have a small root before you put them in the raised bed. This gives them a head start, so the seedlings emerge more quickly.

To pre-sprout them, use a plastic container and place the peas on a thin layer of damp vermiculite or a few sheets of damp kitchen paper. Cover the container with a lid or some cling film.

The peas will swell first. After about four days, you will see the roots appear.

Once most of the peas have roots, you can plant them. Snow peas grow quite tall, up to 2 metres, so plant them at the back of the raised bed beside the trellis:

It looks as though the weather will remain fairly cold for a while. Night frost is still perfectly normal in March.

All the seeds I have sown now can cope with that. If it gets very cold, the seedlings will simply take longer to emerge and will not grow quickly.

But if the weather turns pleasantly warm, they can grow very quickly too.

Do not try sowing seeds that should wait until April or May, as they are less able to cope with the cold. The correct sowing times are usually printed clearly on seed packets.

You can also use the Makkelijke Moestuin app or the sowing calendar in my book. Both show you the right sowing times.

Good luck!