There's always something worth sowing or planting. Here's a month-by-month guide to growing fruit and veg through the whole year.
Created by jflgardens.co.uk
One of the joys of a fruit and veg patch is that there's always something happening — something to sow, plant, tend or pick, in every single month of the year. This calendar gives you the big picture so you always know what's worth doing next.
From late winter into spring, the ground is warming and it's time to get broad beans, peas, salad leaves and early carrots in. From March, as frosts ease, sow beetroot, radishes and early potatoes, and start tender crops like tomatoes, chilli and courgettes under cover.
It's also the classic window for planting fruit — bare-root raspberries, currants and fruit trees go in while they're dormant, and strawberries planted now will pick their first summer.
Early summer is the main sowing push: beans, sweetcorn, squashes and successional salads so you keep a steady supply rather than a glut. Plant out everything you started under cover once the frosts have truly gone.
By midsummer the harvesting really begins — early potatoes, peas, salad, berries and soft fruit. Keep sowing little and often, and keep everything watered and mulched through the warm weeks.
Autumn is the great harvest and putting-away season: lift maincrop potatoes, carrots, onions and squash, pick the last of the fruit, and store what you can't eat fresh — that's where preserving comes in.
It's also a second planting window. Onion sets, garlic and overwintering broad beans and peas go in now, and spring cabbage and salad can be sown under cover or cloches for an early start next year.
The veg bed largely rests, but the year isn't empty. Dig over heavy soil while it's workable, add compost, and plan next season's rotation and ordering of seeds.
Under cover or with a simple cloche, you can still grow hardy salad leaves and winter greens. And winter is the very best time to plant most bare-root fruit trees and bushes while they're dormant.
From planting & borders to a full growing-style overhaul, the JFL Gardens team works across Surrey and London.
