I know, February – it’s so cold and gray.
There appears to be mud and bare branches every where. But don’t despair. Below are 20 plants you can sow from seed in February that will make you feel like Spring is here now.
February is actually a really good month to begin setting your garden, patio, and balcony up ready for the new growing season. So ignore the wind, the rain and snow (what snow!), and instead gather your tools.
February is a month when all seeds bought/saved need to be sown indoors only.
It’s not warm enough outside to leave the little seeds fighting for warmth when there isn’t a lot going around. Instead you can start your garden off indoors and once the plants have germinated and grown they can be moved and planted outside.
By sowing a month early (assuming you take March to be the month to sow everything), it means you’re getting the plants into action without having to wait on water logged, or frozen ground in your cultivation space.
Plus it’s nice and warm inside, so what more excuse do you need not to sow
You’ll need:
- Pots, either a tray with cells, or individual 7cm pots, or just a potting tray. Simple pots can be made stright from the cardboard tube of toilet rolls which work really well.
- Dibber (an old plastic pen, without the ink nip will suffice)
- Potting compost – or potting
- Heated propagator (if you want to grow chillies in February)
- A well lit area in a room that is free from draughts. Window sill is excellent.
- Newspaper to catch all the soil!
Buy your packet(s) of seed and away you go with the instructions on the back of the packet!
It takes more time choosing your potting soil and your pots than it does to actually sow the seeds, trust me – I know!
Enjoy yourself!
Seeds to be sown in February
10 Veggies
- Broad bean
- Cabbage
- Carrot
- Chillies (require extra heat)
- Cucumber
- Herbs
- Leek
- Peas
- Peppers (require extra heat)
- Tomatoes (require extra heat)
10 Flowers
- Begonia
- Black Eyed Susan
- Cosmea
- Delphinium
- Geranium
- Inpatients
- Marigold
- Nasturtium
- Pansy
- Sweet Pea
Pretty much anything that comes in a packet for the flower side of the garden!
The thing with flowers is they can be grown in succession. They have a smaller flowering time than veggies to produce their bounty, so by sowing a few flower seeds now, and again every month to August, it gives you a complete supply of bedding, patio and hanging flowers all the year through.
There are big bonuses of sowing flowers and veggies over buying plug plants, or buying a tray of plants from your local garden center because:
- You can decide exactly how many plants you need for any area,
- It’s cheaper than buying full plants,
- You can control the amounts of feed they get, and more importantly -
- Seed companies found on the internet mean you can get super specialised varieties of plants you really want to grow in your garden, rather than always having the bog standard colours/types you see normally in a DIY/Garden superstore.
So, this weekend – get sowing and start to grow those plants you’ve always enjoyed looking at in other people’s gardens/parks. Now is the time to make them yours!
If you’ve already started sowing – please share and let me know below, also what country you’re from.
Perhaps we can create a ’round the world list’ of what’s being sown where
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Cover Photo courtesy of Brianna Privett