In this blog, I'll show you how we sow in a Makkelijke Moestuin square, when it's better to sow seeds indoors, and what you can already do now: chit your early potatoes.
Sowing in a Makkelijke Moestuin raised bed
Are you itching to get started too?
In the community, we see lots of Makkelijke Moestuin gardeners getting busy. New raised beds are being set up, old ones cleaned and soil mix topped up. Some people are even sowing already. It's lovely to see.
We can't do that here yet: yesterday there was still a thick layer of snow. It's gone today, but the mix is still frozen solid.
Snow in the office garden on 16 February
We're still expecting to start sowing again on 1 March, as we do every year.
If it's still this cold, we'll start with a few squares, perhaps in some MM-mini raised beds, and do the rest later when the weather improves.
In the previous blog, I explained our sowing system: how we sow in 30 x 30 cm squares and take plant height, sunlight and position in the raised bed into account.
Once you've decided what to sow in a square, first loosen the mix and make sure it's moist.
Then make a number of holes and put a few seeds in each one. The number of holes depends on which vegetable you're sowing. For example, a square has room for 16 carrots, nine beetroot plants or four heads of lettuce.
Cover the holes, give the square a little more water and add a label with the plant's name.
Sowing directly in a square: make holes, add seeds and put in a label
You sow most vegetables and herbs directly in a square. But some are better sown indoors first.
For true summer vegetables, such as tomatoes and courgettes, that's because the young plants need plenty of warmth. If you wait to sow until it's warm enough outdoors, you won't start harvesting until the end of summer.
So these plants spend quite a while on your windowsill.
Tomatoes and other summer vegetables on the windowsill
Other varieties only need a short time indoors and can go outside very soon. You sow these indoors mainly to help them germinate reliably and to make the most of your squares.
We're not sowing indoors or outdoors yet, but you can already start chitting our early potatoes. The weather outside doesn't matter: you do this indoors.
Put them on the windowsill now and they'll start to sprout. When you plant them in your raised bed around mid-March, they'll emerge much sooner than potatoes that haven't been chitted.
Chitted potatoes on the windowsill
You'll find chitting instructions on the early potato page in the knowledge base. The app also explains what to do and what you'll need, step by step.
When this post was written, our potatoes had just arrived and were back in the shop that day.
I hope you have a lovely week. With nice weather, hopefully, or snow: that's possible too. If you're already working on your raised beds, I hope it's going well.
And you know what to do, don't you?
Give us a shout if you get stuck. You can ask us, or the community. There are plenty of experienced Makkelijke Moestuin gardeners who'd love to help.
Next time, I'll tell you more about the mix we use in our raised beds and what makes a good growing mix.
