Blog: News

Caption: Basil flowers

Caption: Basil seedlings ready to be pricked out

Caption: Lemon Verbena

In her latest seasonal blog on herbs, Stephanie Hafferty celebrates the flavours and fragrances of summer, from sowing basil seeds to making the most of fresh harvests from the kitchen:

The joy of basil and other herbs - sowing to eating!

Summer is my favourite season in the herb growing calendar, because it is the time when basil thrives. Here in the UK, our cool damp climate is not ideal for growing this fragrant, flavoursome, warmth and sun-loving herb during the rest of the year.

This year I am growing 16 or so varieties of basil, including lime, lemon, lettuce leaf, Thai, red and liquorice, as well as the more familiar classic Italian basil. The choice of seed available now is wonderful.

How to grow basil

I like to sow basil into a seed tray, and then prick out as many seedlings as I need. Basil needs warmth to germinate, so this way I am able to grow up to 20 different kinds of seedling in one tray, saving space on the heat mat.

Fill a seed tray with Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds and lightly water. Make 9-10 shallow grooves in rows across the width of the tray with your fingers. This is where you’ll sow the seeds.

Use old seed labels to make a ‘barrier’ down the middle of the length of the seed tray. This doubles the number of seed varieties you can sow.

Sprinkle the seeds in each groove, labelling with the variety as you go. Sprinkle some more compost on the top, just a light layer, and place on a heat mat or somewhere warm and sunny.

When the seedlings have germinated, prick out all that you want into module trays filled with seed compost. Then, place the tray with leftover seedlings back in a warm sunny place, and leave them to grow into microleaves: two crops from one tray. Cut when large enough and enjoy - a taste of what is to come.

Be careful not to over-water. Basil won’t enjoy being waterlogged, so keep the compost moist but don’t over water.

When the plants are big enough, 6-10cm tall, and after danger of frost has passed, plant out using a dibber in the ground, or pot on into larger pots. In much of the UK basil grows better undercover, in a greenhouse, cloche or polytunnel.

I enjoy the mindfulness of pricking out seedlings, but it is not for everyone. An alternative is to fill a module tray with seed compost and sow 2-3 basil seeds per module. Thin to 1 seedling when large enough to handle.

Try growing lemongrass

To accompany Thai basil, grow lemongrass, a popular ingredient in Thai cuisine. It needs a similar start in life to basil.

Fill a module tray or several small pots with Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds, lightly water and then sprinkle a pinch of lemongrass seeds on each module. Cover with a light sprinkling of compost and place somewhere warm, light and frost free to germinate.

Plant out when 8-10 cm tall in the ground (undercover is best in most of the UK) or in pots in a sunny location.

Lemongrass is easy to over winter if grown in pots. Bring the pots inside in the autumn and place on a sunny windowsill.

Lemon Verbena: the queen of lemon-scented herbs

If I had to choose just one herb to grow, it would be lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora). This perennial herb has intensively scented and flavoured leaves. Crush a leaf and inhale the fragrance for a hit of bright lemon sherbet.

I mainly grow it to make herbal tea, delicious dry and fresh. It is a very versatile herb. Use it to make cordial, syrup, a liqueur (infused in gin or vodka), sugar, salt, infused in vinegar, and more.

Buy plants from a good herb supplier which grows in peat free compost. You can also propagate it from cuttings.

Lemon verbena is a really easy herb to grow. It is happy in most soils as long as they are well drained, but does need a sunny spot. It is mostly pest and disease free, and ideal for growing in urban courtyards or balconies, as well as in gardens.

I grow all of my lemon verbena (I have five plants!) in pots, so that they can come outside in late spring and then return undercover (inside the polytunnel) in the late autumn. Very cold, wet winters can kill the plant, so I take this precaution.

It is very happy in Dalefoot Wool Compost for Potting (the red bag). Lemon verbena doesn’t like being waterlogged, so make sure it’s not sitting in a tray of water, and that the pot can drain as needed.

Lemon verbena is one of the easiest herbs to dry. Simply cut bunches, then hang in an airy spot. Store the dried leaves in clean, dry jars in a cool, dark place.

Steph’s recipes for basil

Each variety of basil offers something special in the kitchen, especially if you enjoy trying out different international cuisines. Large lettuce leaf basil has a wonderful typical basil flavour and can be used just as you would Italian basil in pesto, sauces, salads etc. Where it really shines is as a one-bite cup or wrap.

Lettuce leaf basil one-bite cups

A wonderful way of making leftover bits and bobs in the fridge into something delightful.

Finely chop raw summer vegetables and whatever else you fancy: cooked chicken, tofu, mushroom, etc.
Place a teaspoonful in each basil leaf.
Add a little sauce. I like soy sauce, chilli and lime for a spicy kick. Mayo, peanut sauce, hummus or your favourite salad dressing are good too.

To serve, leave the little wraps open, like leafy cups.

To eat, pick up the filled leaf, fold the sides in and pop into your mouth. Oh yum!

Make the most of basil flowers

To keep basil cropping and producing masses of fragrant leaves, it is important to pinch out the basil flowers. Otherwise, the basil will “think” that it is time to produce seeds, focusing on that stage of its life cycle.

Basil flowers are delicious. They taste like a lighter version of the leaves. Add to salads for a tasty, pretty garnish, or use to make salad dressings by infusing in oil.

Basil Flower Oil

Place the basil flowers to half fill a clean jar. Pour over a light oil, such as olive oil, ensuring the leaves are completely submerged.

Leave in a cool place out of direct sun for a week to infuse. Strain through a sieve lined with muslin, discard the basil flowers into the compost heap, and pour the oil into a bottle.

Use within a month.

About Stephanie:

Stephanie Hafferty is an award-winning garden and food writer, expert no dig gardener, homesteader, edible garden designer and inspirational public speaker. She grows at her homestead on half an acre in West Wales, from where she runs gardening and homesteading courses.

Stephanie writes for national and international publications, and is the author of three books. Her latest book The Productive Garden: An essential guide towards self-sufficiency was published in March 2026 by Frances Lincoln.

Follow her journey on her blog, Instagram and You Tube

Website and blog : www.nodighome.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehafferty/

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanieHaffertyNoDigHomesteading

Caption: Ade Sellars

Caption: Treat melons like cucumbers...

Caption: Strawberry Pineberry

Spring is the time to get sowing, growing and trying something new. Garden writer Ade Sellars shares his mix of trusted favourites and more unusual crops, with practical tips to help you make the most of the season:

Spring has sprung! So, it’s time to sow, grow and pot on. With daylight hours increasing week on week, it means we can be in our green spaces for longer. So, there’s no excuse to get out there and embrace all Mother Nature has to offer this month.

As a veg grower, I always have my yearly staples, the ‘go-to’ seeds that bring me such pleasure. I regard them as old friends, a growing relationship forged over many seasons. When they fall I prop them up, if they’re hungry I feed them, and when they need a Taylor Swift rendition I will happily appease my greenhouse ‘Swifty’ fanbase. In return they bring me joy, food and there’s never a bad critic when it comes to my singing. It’s the perfect relationship!

In my shed, I have an old apothecary cabinet. Every drawer alphabetically ordered, each holding the crème de la crème of my seeds. Centuries from now, a futuristic Indiana Jones figure will uncover these long-lost treasures from an overgrown veg bed, raising questions on ‘who was this mystic gardener?’. Joking aside, these precious seeds have been many years of tried and tested varieties, honing them down to what works for me, the kitchen garden and our palette. On this voyage of discovery, there have been wonderful successes and desperate failures. But, that is all part of the gardening journey, you are always learning, unaware at times it’s making you a better gardener.

However, I am a gardener of two halves, the other side of me is something quite different. He embraces the weirdness and the strange, yearning for individuality. He bathes in chaos and celebrates the unusual. I see him as a cross between Ziggy Stardust and Danny La Rue. A glittery trowel in one hand and feathery boa in the other. For this grower represents all the gardening kooks and flash gardening trends out there. And he is not afraid to be counted. So, when April comes around, and seed favourites are sown. I always make sure there are at least of couple surprises in there to highlight my kookiness.

Growing something different doesn’t mean you have to trail to the mountains of Tibet for the seed of the high-altitude Black Diamond Apple. Or, delve into the jungle depths of Costa Rica in search of the priceless Ruby Glow Pineapple. Start small, keep it modest, but do give it a go. And if you’re not sure what to try first, may I offer you a suggestion. So, to give you a head start, here’s a smorgasbord of oddities I’ve grown in my kitchen garden:

Strawberry Pineberry

A white fruit with red seeds, it looks like someone has reversed the look of the standard strawberry. Tasty, sweet and succulent, they hold a pineapple-like flavour. Although they are a hybrid of the Japanese white strawberry and Florida red strawberries, white strawberries aren’t something new and have been grown by the Indigenous people in Chile.

Easy to grow and winter hardy, they will thrive in beds, pots and containers and should be ready to harvest in June and July. Plant them up in a sunny protected area with Dalefoot’s Wool Compost for Vegetables and Salad and watch them thrive. Whilst the pollinators will enjoy their white flowers in spring, the later white fruit will hold no interest to birdlife, as they will think they are unripe fruit. Which means, you get to enjoy more of the fruit.

Melon

Not the most unusual fruit in grow in the UK, but as someone who grows them year on year, both indoors and outside, I still have people who don’t believe you can successfully grow them here.

I treat them as I treat the way I grow cucumbers. In April I sow two seeds into a 9cm pot filled with Dalefoot’s Wool Compost for Seeds. Once there are two seedlings, I remove the weaker one and allow the other to grow on in the greenhouse. When the last frost has passed, and plants have been hardened off, some will be planted on and grow in the greenhouse. But for the rest of the plants, they go outside into raised beds and large pots, often planting two close together. I also give them a structure so they can pull themselves up by their tendrils. Some gardeners will remove smaller fruits and pinch out shoots, but for me, all is welcome.

Loofah

Sticking with the cucumber feel, and also from the cucumber family is the loofah. Although it is edible, being high in fibre, rich in Vitamin A and packed with antioxidants, most people tend to grow it for its cleaning capabilities. Allowed to mature, this green fruit transforms into a coarse sponge which is ideal for shower time.

Like the cucumber, the loofah is a vine plant, so requires plenty of space to grow and latch onto. Originally found in tropical climates, it’s most happy grown in a greenhouse or polytunnel.

Before sowing, to help germination, try soaking the seeds in warm water for a few hours. Sow into a 9cm pot and once you have young plants, plant on. Their final growing position should have plenty of space to allow the plant to successfully grow. Also, with so much foliage, be aware of the possible onset of mildew and aphids. Therefore, greenhouses and polytunnels should have plenty of ventilation.

Samphire

Often regarded as a coastal plant, and firm favourite on menus in recent years, I can happily grow this edible plant it in my kitchen garden. However, I tend to grow it in pots, where it’s easier to dictate the growing conditions. Filling a large pot with a mixture of Dalefoot compost and plenty of sand for good drainage, I thinly sow across the surface. Lightly covering the seeds with vermiculite or compost, then place the pot into shallow water and allow it to soak from the bottom as to allow seeds to remain undisturbed. Once germination occurs, watering from this point should be with mild salty water, no more than a teaspoon at a time. If there is thick seed growth, thin out. Once plants are established, and the last frost has passed, place pots outside where they can sit in a sunny or light-shaded spot. I find the more you cut it, the more it comes back thickening the plant.

Peanuts

If you’re feeling a bit nutty, and really want to try something new, what about growing peanuts? Despite being nuts, they actually grow their nuts underground in pods and not on trees, unlike other nuts. This makes them legumes, and are related to peas and beans. Cultivated in South America since 3000BC, they are now a global favourite. If growing them from seed seems a bit much, why not buy them in plant form from online suppliers. Both plants and seed are now more readily available in the UK, so it’s well-worth giving them a go.

Again, large pots or raised beds in a sunny spot containing light, sandy soil are ideal for these plants. Plant them out in late May, they will grow to produce a striking yellow flower. Come late September onwards they should be ready to harvest.

This spring, embrace the ‘freaks and geeks’ of horticulture and give it a go. Afterall, as the legendary David Bowie once said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring”.

Ade.

BIOG

I’m Ade Sellars the ‘Good Life Gardener’, and I’m am award-winning garden writer, gardener designer, and filmmaker, with a passion for growing my own food in my kitchen garden. I’m also the garden expert presenter on both Must Have Ideas TV and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. As well as delivering gardening talks around the country, I shall be the stage host for Gardeners’ World Spring Fair on the ‘In Conversation’ Stage from the 1st-3rd May.

Website: www.adesellars.com
Instagram: adesellars
YouTube: @TheGoodLifeGardener
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ade-sellars-the-good-life-gardener-7429ba42/

Choosing the right plants for your garden starts from the ground up, and understanding your soil is the key to making gardening easier and more successful.

In this guide, author and ecologist Becky Searle explains how working with your soil type can transform the way your garden grows:

Planting for your soil type

One of the most important aspects of gardening, but one that is frequently overlooked, especially by beginner gardeners, is choosing the right plants for the right places. For example, we know that putting sun-loving plants into deep shade will not produce good results. But how often do you think about planting for your soil type? Plenty of plants will thrive in one type of soil but struggle in another. This can be put down to the individual adaptations plants have for life in different soils. Don’t forget that around half of a plant’s biomass is underground, in the soil.

Most plants we buy from garden centres will tell you they enjoy “moist, well-drained soil”. This is the holy grail of soils and is usually achieved by adding plenty of organic matter and letting soil structure build on its own over a period of several years. Some soils are naturally more moist or more well-drained than others, but the addition of organic matter helps to balance this out. For more on how this works, check out my blog on the power of mulching.

The thing with appropriate planting is that once you understand your soil type, growing becomes easy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s no such thing as green fingers, just those who want to learn and those that don’t.

Understanding your soil type

First things first, to make good choices about the plants you grow, you must first of all understand what kind of soil you have. This is the fun part as it involves going outside and getting your hands dirty.

Start by digging a small hole, a few inches deep and scooping out some soil from the bottom. Hold it in your hands and see how it feels. If your soil feels coarse and grainy and falls apart easily, it’s likely sandy. If it is sticky and smooth between your fingers it’s probably clay. If the particles are fine, but don’t hold together very well, it’s likely silt. Next, have a look at the colour. Is it a dark chocolate brown? If so, this indicates plenty of organic matter. If the soil is pale, pallid or particularly rust coloured, it’s likely lacking in organic matter. Now see if you can squeeze it into a ball. If it won't take shape at all it's likely to be sandy and lacking in organic matter. If you can squeeze it into a shape and it stays in that shape easily and does not crumble when squeezed between thumb and forefinger, it’s probably clay.

The next thing you need to do is test your soil pH. This is slightly fraught as soil pH can vary greatly from inch to inch within your garden. So, it's worth taking a few samples from different locations, to be sure. Most soils will be neutral, at between 6 and 7 on the pH scale. However, if you have soil that is below 6 or above 7, it's worth knowing so that you can plant appropriately. pH can determine the nutrient availability within the soil, and also which plants will thrive.

Choosing the right plants for your soil

Let’s look at some of the different types of soil, and how plants have adapted for life in those soils. This may help you to determine which kinds of plants will do well in the soils that you have.

Sandy soils

Plants that are adapted for sandy soils typically have strong, fibrous root systems and waxy or narrow leaves, like we see in lavender. These adaptations help them to stabilise the soil, and minimise water loss through their leaves, as water is often a limited resource on well-drained, sandy soils. Other plants that are adapted for sandy soils may have a deep central taproot, like carrots. These go prospecting for water and nutrients in the lower levels of the soil, while also anchoring the plant to the ground. They often set up strong relationships with mycorrhizal fungi that assist in finding water and nutrients, acting as a secondary root system.

Clay soils

In heavy clay soils oxygen levels can be low especially in winter when the ground is wet. Plants that cope well in these conditions often have robust root systems capable of tolerating temporary waterlogging. Some develop shallow, wide-spreading roots that sit closer to the surface where oxygen is more available. Others can simply shut down root activity until oxygen is more available. Plants such as Iris have this ability and often thrive in boggy or frequently waterlogged conditions.
Nutrients are abundant in most clay soils, as is water, so the problem presented to plants is spreading their roots out in the dense soil structure. By sticking to the upper layers of the soil where it is less compacted, they can achieve this easily. Plants that do well in clay soils include brassicas, hydrangeas and Japanese anemones, amongst others.

Silt soils

Silt soils are rich in nutrients but often prone to waterlogging and surface crusting. Plants that are adapted for silt soils can often tolerate having “wet feet”. Plants like alder, birch and willow can tolerate some waterlogging in the soil through specific root adaptations that allow them to get oxygen even when the roots are wet, temporarily switch off their root respiration, or grow specialised root structures that help them cope with waterlogging for longer periods. Many plants cannot cope with even a few hours of waterlogging, so it’s important that if your silt soils are prone to waterlogging, you get the right plants for the conditions. Silt soils that are not prone to waterlogging are often light and so, plants produce dense root systems that can anchor them securely and help to stabilise the soil.
Another factor with silt soils is that rapid plant growth can easily occur because of the abundance of nutrients. The problem with growth on these soils tends to be more to do with light and space. Many herbaceous perennials thrive in these kinds of soil.
Silt soils often work well for fast-growing plants as they are rich in nutrients that can support fast growth. Annual vegetables and flowers often thrive in silt soils, and during the summer waterlogging is usually not such a problem.

Calcareous soils

Another type of soil that often presents a challenge is calcareous soils. These are alkaline soils and include chalky or limestone soils. These soils are often thin and dry out quickly. They also lack nutrients and have a high pH. So, plants that are adapted for life on calcareous soils are very efficient with their nutrient uptake or have developed strategies to obtain more nutrients from the soil. Wildflowers are often well adapted to calcareous soils, as are many Mediterranean plants such as olives, pomegranate and fig. Plants on chalky soils often form beneficial relationships with fungi to help them find nutrients. Buddleia is another good example of a plant adapted for life on chalky soils.
Loam soil is one of the few soils where most plants will thrive. This is due to its high organic matter content.

Summary

So, if we want to improve our soils and make them more accommodating, it stands to reason that we should be adding organic matter. Dalefoot Compost will do this for you.

However, we also need to ensure that there are live plants in the ground as much as possible to support soil health and minimise soil disturbance. Regular, large-scale disturbance to the soil, such as turning, rotovating or digging over, releases organic matter from the soils and causes a breakdown of the natural soil structure.

Appropriate planting helps us to maintain the health of our plants and our soils as one, making gardening easier and more enjoyable. We can get around this to some extent by building raised beds, growing in containers and improving the soil, so you needn’t feel trapped into one specific type of plant. But if you want healthy plants that thrive easily and naturally, planting for your soil type is essential.

Click on this link for more info on which Dalefoot Composts products to use - https://www.dalefootcomposts.co.uk/our-products.aspx

Becky

Becky Searle is a garden writer and author of Grow a New Garden; Plan, Design and Transform any Outdoor Space. She trained as an ecologist and specialises in soil health and ecosystem gardening. You can follow Becky online at @Sow_Much_More.

Caption: Basil growing in a module tray

Caption: Basil microleaves

Caption: Green coriander seeds

Caption: Green shiso looks a bit like stinging nettles but is a delcious herb

Caption: Stephanie Hafferty

In the first of a new series, award-winning writer and grower Stephanie Hafferty explains the many benefits of herbs in the garden:

This year, I shall be writing about growing and using herbs - not just culinary uses, but also other ways of using these most versatile of plants.

Out of all the edibles that I grow, herbs most easily lend themselves to the smallest of spaces. They are as happy grown in pots on a sunny windowsill as they are growing in an allotment or community garden.

Herbs have the power to transform the humblest of meals into a delicious feast. Just think about how freshly chopped rosemary elevates roast potato wedges, or how just some fresh basil and olive oil makes a simple spaghetti dish into something extraordinarily fresh and flavourful.

Every three months I’ll be looking at what is in season, and what can be sown or planted now. Join me on a journey into the fragrant world of herbs.

Herbs to start from seed now: February to the end of April

Growing herbs from seed is the most affordable way of creating your herb garden. It also allows for the widest possible choice, with many seed companies now offering not just the more familiar chives, parsley or dill, but also more unusual varieties from across the world, including an extraordinary choice of basil colours and flavours. Definitely not your supermarket basil!

Speaking of basil, this is a warmth and light loving herb, and so I don’t start sowing the bulk of my basil until April. There’s just not enough daylight in February and March for it to really thrive, unless you have grow lights. To get an earlier hit of that wonderful basil flavour, grow it as a micro leaf. This method works for many other kinds of herb, including coriander, chervil and fennel.

Fill a pot with compost such as Dalefoot Composts Wool Compost for Seeds, water and sprinkle basil seeds lightly across the surface. Cover with a fine layer of compost, water and put in a warm, light place. Speed germination by popping a little cloche on top of the pot. A cleaned transparent plastic hummus-type pot is ideal. When the seedlings are a few centimetres tall, snip with scissors as used. You should be able to get two or three cuttings from these microleaves.

Start parsley, dill, coriander, chervil, and chives for growing on in the garden, or transplanting into pots, now. I start all of these except chives in module trays, with cells about 2x2cm. Put two or three seeds in each module. Once the seedlings are about 5-6cm tall, transplant to their final growing place. If you’re growing them in pots, use a potting compost such as the red bag Dalefoot Composts Wool Compost for Potting. I find the green bag Wool Compost for Vegetables & Salads works well here too.

Plant undercover in polytunnels, or outside. Cover outside planted herbs with horticultural fleece, or protect with a cloche, whilst they are getting established if the weather is cold and wet.

For chives, I sprinkle the seeds in a small pot and then plant that out as a larger clump when they are big enough (10cm or so tall.)

Later in April I’ll sow basil, and also the Japanese herb Shiso, in the same way as the parsley, dill, etc. These herbs are not frost hardy and must be kept warm until the last frost date has passed.

I grow some basil in pots, and the rest is planted alongside tomatoes in the polytunnel, or in large pots or grow bags.

Coriander easily bolts at this time of year - ie: it goes to flower - so choose slow bolting varieties of coriander in the spring such as “Calypso” or “Slow Bolt”. Chervil too will go to flower towards the end of April. I don’t know of any slow bolting chervil varieties (if you do, please let me know!)

When they do bolt, it is well worth letting them continue growing. The flowers of both chervil and coriander are edible and delicious sprinkled on salads. They also provide food for pollinators and attract beneficial predators such as hoverflies to the garden.

After flowering, they’ll produce edible seeds. Green coriander seeds are a flavour sensation, with a citrus zing. They are delicious sprinkled on top of hummus and pates made from broad beans or peas. Once the seeds go brown and dry, either save and use as seed for sowing, or keep in the kitchen to use as a spice. When it is time to pull out the coriander plant, use the roots in Thai and other Asian recipes.

Chervil seeds are also edible fresh and dried.

Perennial herbs in season now

Many of the perennial herbs that have overwintered dormant in the garden are putting on growth as the days get warmer and longer, including mint, lemon balm, chives (sown last year) and sweet cicely.

Sweet cicely have a sweet aniseed flavour and all of the plant is edible: leaves, stem, root, flowers and seeds. It likes to grow in a shadier spot: mine is under an apple tree. Sweet cicely has the remarkable property of sweetening (or rather appearing to) tart fruits. This means you can use a lot less sugar in pies and other recipes for tart fruit such as rhubarb or gooseberries, saving money as well as being better for our teeth. It also brings out the flavour of other ingredients, and doesn’t overpower dishes with its mild aniseed flavour.

The flowers attract many beneficial insects. The green seeds taste fantastic, like a liquorice sweet. I am often to be found in the spring nibbling on sweet cicely seeds.

From late May, once it has finished flowering, the plant starts to die back, but it emerges again. Sweet cicely is happy growing in a pot filled with potting compost, as long as the pot is able to drain freely. You can start sweet cicely from seed, or buy in a small potted plant.

Thyme, sage, rosemary and bay have been cropping outside all winter. They too are putting on plenty of growth in the spring sunshine. Every day nature is becoming brighter, more alive, noisier as the birds start nesting and then feeding their young. This energising feeling can often give us the urge to spring clean our homes. These powerful, fragrant herbs make a superb eco-friendly and non-toxic cleaner for windows, kitchen surfaces, bathrooms etc.

Spring Herbal Cleaning Vinegar

This household cleaner is cheap, smells gorgeous, and has anti-fungal, anti-viral and antiseptic properties too.

You’ll need:

a large jar with a lid
white vinegar
a bunch of herbs: choose from bay, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, lemon balm

Shake the herbs to dislodge any dirt or insects and place in the jar.
Fill the jar with white vinegar and replace the lid.
Leave to infuse for two weeks (or longer, for a stronger fragrance).
When it is ready, sieve the herbal vinegar into a clean jar. Label the jar.
Put the herbs in the compost.

To use:

Either use neat to clean toilets, sinks etc, or mix 50/50 with water in a spray bottle for a multipurpose spray.

Never use vinegar sprays on soft furnishings, natural stone, marble or granite. As with all cleaning products, keep out of reach of children and avoid spraying in the eyes.

About Stephanie:
Stephanie Hafferty is an award-winning garden and food writer, expert no dig gardener, homesteader, edible garden designer and inspirational public speaker. Stephanie is creating a no dig homestead on half an acre in West Wales, where she runs gardening and homesteading courses, at the homestead and online.
Her garden was featured on BBC Gardeners’ World in 2022. Her books include: The Productive Garden (pub March 2026), No Dig Organic Home and Garden and The Creative Kitchen: seasonal plant based recipes using ingredients you can grow on an allotment.
Follow her journey on her blog, Instagram and You Tube
Website and blog : www.NoDigHome.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehafferty/
You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanieHaffertyNoDigHomesteading

January may feel like the depths of winter, but there’s still plenty a gardener can be doing if you know where to start. In this practical guide, award-winning garden writer Ade Sellars explains what you can sow now, when to do it, and how to give seeds the best possible start to the growing year ahead.

Can, When, What Should I Sow?
By
Ade Sellars – The Good Life Gardener

We gingerly step into a New Year, putting behind us recent festive memories, moments and celebrations. Decorations are taken down, boxed and once again placed into hibernation. Across our fair land, Christmas trees are evicted from their warm homes, all too aware the festive cheer has dried up. Where once they were the heart of the family, firs, spruces and pines are now abandoned across pavements and driveways. Forced to fend for themselves, these lost souls wonder what they did wrong to offend their adopted families, but worry more on how their journey will end.

January can paint a very grey picture, heads hang low, pockets are shy of coppers and payday seems a lifetime away. Mother Nature does nothing to help the cause as her cold moods keep the skies bruised and temperatures low. Whilst many make offerings of New Year resolutions to try and appease her, we gardeners tell ourselves, 2026 is the year to be bold, take risks and be fearless. Grow large, grow wild, and grow your own.

But it’s the depths of winter, surely this is not the moment to throw open the garden gate with wild abandonment and sink our green fingers into the soil? If so, can, when and what should we be sowing this month?

MICROGREENS

For many gardeners, growing space can be limited. Also, when there’s bills to be paid, children to entertain and jobs to be fulfilled, time is precious. So, if you want to grow something quick and easy, then sowing microgreens might be the answer. Mustard and watercress make a welcome addition to any meal. Simply sow into a seed tray, or pot, filled with damp

Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds and place somewhere warm. Once they germinate, place your tray on a sunny kitchen windowsill and watch them grow. They’re also a fun activity for children to try. Why not encourage them to draw faces on empty eggshells. Then, fill the eggshells with compost and scattered seeds. Within days their eggshell characters will begin growing edible hair.

CHILLIES, PEPPERS & AUBERGINES

Chillies, peppers and aubergines need a long growing season in a warm environment, so consider sowing them now. Again, using Dalefoot Wool Compost for Seeds, fill either a small 9cm pot, seed tray or module cells. Gently tamp down the soil and sow your favourite seeds evenly across the surface. Cover them over lightly with compost, label and sit the sown container in a tray of shallow water. This allows the water to soak from the bottom up, which will leave the seeds undisturbed. Once thoroughly watered, remove from tray and place seeds somewhere warm to germinate, which should occur within twenty-one days. When shoots appear, remove from propagator, and keep them somewhere bright with a temperature of around 16-18°C. As it’s currently a low winter sun, grow lights are a great asset for the gardener, and you don’t need to be spending large sums of money on them. Failing that, try using kitchen foil or white carboard as this will help reflect the light.

Create three walls surrounding the pots, ensuring the seedlings have full access to the window or light source. As a DIY enthusiast, I use offcuts from insulation boards.

ONIONS

Although onions can be sown in sets in early spring, providing you have a heat supply in your polytunnel, or greenhouse, you can sow onions seeds now. With so many more varieties to choose from, you can really liven up your onion crop. For this, I use a plug tray, fill it with seed compost and sow no more than six seeds to a plug. I then finely cover over the seeds with compost and label. Either place them into a tray of water or, using a handheld water sprayer, give the soil a heavy misting of water. The tray is then placed somewhere warm, such as a warm greenhouse or kitchen windowsill to germinate.

Once you have your seedlings, then can grow on indoors with plenty of light. I tend to take mine back out to the greenhouse to grow on, ensuring the soil remains moist.

SEED POTATOES

If you haven’t done so yet, buy and order your first early potato tubers now. The sooner they arrive, the sooner you can starting chitting.

Chitting is speeding up the aging process of a tuber, and letting its eyes sprout. By the time you come to planting, ground temperatures still won’t be at their warmest, but those weeks of chitting will give your tubers a valuable head start.

Remember, stand the tubers apart (egg boxes make ideal holders), with their eyes facing upwards. Place somewhere warm, dry and with plenty of sunshine, such as a kitchen windowsill, porch or warm greenhouse. Try to keep sprouts down to three maybe four, so the energy isn’t too dispersed, thus producing weaker shoots. Six weeks on, and tubers should be ready for planting out.

BRASSICAS

I am a huge fan of brassicas, from swede to broccoli, I can’t get enough of these cruciferous beauties. At this time of year, my thoughts are with what to harvest in spring, and both cauliflower and Romanesco play a big part. I tend to use 9cm pots filled with Dalefoot Compost for Vegetables and Salad and sow anything from six to a dozen seeds. I don’t worry at this stage about spacing, as once they are seedlings with true leaves I prick out and pot on individually into pots to grow on. If you haven’t grown Romanesco before I urge you to give it a go. Not only does it have a nutty sweeter taste, often compared to its brassica cousins. But its green vibrant spire-like florets are a real eye-catcher on the veg plot.

SWEET PEAS

Some growers would have sown their seeds back in autumn, but for me, I’ve always done it in January. To help germination, leave seeds in water overnight, or, create a tiny nick in the seed so it can easily take in water. Using 7cm pots, fill with

Dalefoot Wool Compost for Potting and sow three seeds to a pot at 2cm deep. Cover over with compost, and water. Remember to label your varieties, then place pots in a greenhouse or cold frame. Keep soil moist, and once plants reach 10-15cms tall, pinch out the tips, just above a set of leaves, as this will create a bushier plant resulting in more flowers.

ANNUALS

And whilst you’re in flower sowing mode, why not fill a few seed trays with compost, tamp down and thinly sow across the surface. Cover over lightly, label and water. Whether its lobelia, snapdragons or begonias, they will require a heated propagator or greenhouse to germinate successfully. Check regularly for germination and keep soil moist.

On a final note, if you are about to give your Christmas tree its marching orders, instead of binning them, try recycling your tree by shredding it into chippings. This then can be spread across beds and pots and used as a general mulch. As the chippings are slightly acidic, they are ideal for ericaceous plants, such as blueberries, heathers and camellias. Chippings can also be used as an inexpensive option to help create garden or allotment paths. Try using the branches as plant supports for peas and broad beans. Your tree doesn’t have to be just be for Christmas, it can be with you all year round spreading its cheer throughout your garden.

Whatever you get up to into in your green spaces this month, I hope 2026 will bring you blousy blooms, rich harvests and gardening memories to treasure.

BIOG

I’m Ade Sellars the ‘Good Life Gardener’, and I’m am award-winning garden writer, gardener designer, and filmmaker, with a passion for growing my own food in my kitchen garden. I’m also a garden presenter on both Must Have Ideas TV and the QVC Channel. I regularly stage host and deliver gardening talks around the country.

Website: www.adesellars.com
Instagram: adesellars
YouTube: @TheGoodLifeGardener
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ade-sellars-7429ba42/