Monty Don, the presenter of Gardeners’ World, has shared that he doesn’t always play by the rules when it comes to gardening timelines.
Monty says February 15 is a key day for British gardeners to begin sowing their first seeds of spring.
Speaking with BBC Gardeners’ World magazine, the 69-year-old gardening expert said by this date, all seeds should be ordered, delivered, and stored correctly, with the potting shed ready for action. However, Monty confesses that he can’t wait until mid-February and opts to ‘cheat’ to gain an early start.
He said: “A whole garden is spread out on the table before me. An entire year’s worth of vegetables and flowers, packeted up in little rattling parcels of promise, grouped into annuals, biennials, perennials, herbs, brassicas, legumes, roots and salads, with sub-divisions of type, variety and hardiness.
“Then they go into their draws in the potting shed and stand by until called. I cheat, of course. The middle of February is a long time to wait, although all experience shows that there is practically no advantage to starting any earlier on our cold, wet Hertfordshire clay.”
Gardeners can begin sowing seeds such as sweet peas, chilli peppers, and tomatoes as early as after Christmas.
However, the gardener warns that haste can be counterproductive, saying: “Sweet peas, chilli peppers, tomatoes, onions, leeks and early salads, can all be sown any time after Christmas – but it’s not a race, and a seedling stuck in its pot or cold ground will be set back by more than any delay in sowing, as well as being more susceptible to slug damage.”
This advice follows his warning against an early spring mistake, stressing the risks of overly nurturing seedlings during this period. Monty said: “It’s very tempting to mollycoddle seedlings, especially early in the spring. This is always a mistake.”
Instead of ‘mollycoddling’ young plants, he suggests removing them from heat from below and placing them under cover with good ventilation as soon as they germinate. Offering further tips for seed care during their initial compost phase before soil transfer, Monty said his preference is not to overfeeding seedlings.
This method, he believes, allows them to adapt more readily to the soil.
As the main presenter of Gardeners’ World since 2003 and host of Monty Don’s Spanish Gardens, Monty’s expertise has made him a famous figure in gardening circles.