February’s Gentle Beginning - GIY Weekly Column, 3 February
You can tell by looking around you that nature is still very much in winter mode. There are very few signs of spring growth around – grass isn’t really growing yet in the garden, buds haven’t yet appeared on trees. In my garden, the veg patch is still very much in its winter slumber. There has been little to coax us out in to the garden so far this year - the weather has been changeable, lots of rain and wind, and fluctuating between cold snaps and occasional mild spells.
Despite this, once February arrives I am always itching to get started with my growing year and thankfully there are things we can be doing to experience the joy of the garden again. It’s still far too cold to be sowing seeds directly in the soil outside – realistically we need to wait until soil temperatures are consistently above 8 degrees C and we’re a way off that yet. It’s worth bearing in mind that it was well in to May before spring really arrived last year.
So for the moment I will be sowing seeds in my potting shed instead. My potting shed is a lean-to on the side of the garage, made from timber and Perspex. Inside, I have two waist-high benches where I can do my seed sowing, and where the little trays of seedlings spend about a month before being planted out in to the polytunnel or in the ground in the veg patch.
The potting shed has a gentle climate at this time of the year – it warms up nicely during the day (thanks to sunlight getting in though the Perspex panels), and with the doors closed at night it keeps the worst of the cold nights off the seedlings.
Low heat levels are the main reason that we don’t generally sow seeds in January. Most seeds just won’t germinate when soil and air temperatures are low. Even in the potting shed, the temperatures can still be too low in February for successful growing. Generally speaking therefore, you will need to provide some artificial heat to your seeds. You can, of course, raise your seedlings inside in the house (a sunny windowsill would be ideal), but I find I just have too many trays of seedlings and the house starts to look like a commercial nursery.
If you want to start sowing in early spring, it’s well worth getting your hands on a propagator, which is designed to increase the temperature for seedlings. Generally speaking a propagator is a shallow container in to which you put your seed pots and trays - it has a removable plastic lid (often with a vent) that you take on and off depending on the temperature (for example, you might take it off by day if it's mild and put it back on again at night).
Propagators can be (a) unheated, (b) heated or (c) heated with a thermostat control. An unheated propagator could be used indoors on a sunny windowsill at this time of the year. But it would probably be too cold at night to use it in a greenhouse (though you could put layer of fleece over the seedlings at night). A heated propagator is more beneficial (though more expensive). A unit with a thermostat control will automatically set the temperature to the desired level - a sensor will detect when it's too hot or cold and raise/lower the temp accordingly.
If you are raising a lot of seedlings and finding space in your propagator an issue, it might be worth investing in a heating mat. It’s a similar idea, but has a far larger surface area. My heating mat is about 2m long and has a heating element in it (much like an electric blanket) so the whole surface warms up. The mat rests on a worktop in the potting shed, and I place pots and seed trays on top to warm up. You can then cover the individual pots with cling-film or plastic covers (I find old fruit punnets useful here), or you can rig up a sort of cloche over them using coat hangers and some plastic.
At particularly busy times in the spring, I found even this mat wasn’t big enough to accommodate all my seedlings, so about two years ago, I built a heated propagation ‘bed’ on the bench in the potting shed. I made a simple frame using some timber offcuts, and then filled it with about 10cm depth of horticultural sand. In this sand is laid a warming cable (about €80), which then heats up the sand. Seed trays are left sitting on top of the sand. Even with this heat coming from beneath them, seedlings might still need a fleece cover at this time of the year if the nights are particularly cold.
In February, I focus on sowing just a small selection of vegetables. I like to think of it as a gentle beginning, brushing away the winter cobwebs and putting a tentative toe in the GIY water. It always feels very good indeed. First of all, I always sow my tomatoes, aubergine and pepper (chilli and bell) plants in February – all three benefit from a long growing season, and though they are the quintessential summer veg, their long growing journey begins this month. If you are growing onions from seed, you can also start them this month (though I typically grow my from ‘sets’).
Many guides will advise sowing celery, celeriac and leeks this month for later transplanting – I don’t bother with these until March at the earliest. I will however this month do a sowing of beetroot and spinach for planting out in the polytunnel in about 3-4 weeks. I might also do a sowing of early carrots direct in to the soil in the tunnel (with a fleece cover to encourage them along).
You can buy great-value seeds, seed potatoes, onion sets and garlic from the GIY webshop, and support our work at the same time. http://www.giyireland.com/shop.
Michael Kelly is author of Trading Paces and Tales from the Home Farm, and founder of GIY.