Gardening with Pat Duke: Now's the time to start sowing

In the garden  

Some people only venture into a garden centre once a year, and that group of people do so around now after much planning.

The garden can look a little dishevelled and hungover after its winter hibernation. The daffodils have mainly gone over now and the outdoor furniture has been retrieved from the shed ready for watching the blossom emerge almost overnight. 

There are some ‘quick wins’ in garden planning that are easy to achieve, inexpensive and will only take a morning or afternoon to complete. 

One of these is to sow circles of bee friendly seeds in the lawn when things warm up a bit later in the month. You can cut out the circles now and lay down a dusting of compost to deter weeds before sowing and covering with the same compost. A mix that includes cosmos, cornflowers, calendula, nigella and phacelia will offer colour, pollen and nectar until late autumn. 

Like a painting, a garden stands or falls by its edges and often this means fences or hedges. Painting a fence can mask all sorts of DIY misdemeanours and can be a more zen experience the longer you do it. If painting isn’t your thing or you are unable to then planting a climber might improve things and create a habitat for our smaller colleagues simultaneously.  

There’s nothing worse than having a skeleton of a climber against the wall for most of the year so choose an evergreen like fragrant Evergreen Star jasmine or a hardy climbing Tiger clematis. If you are more traditional then there’s the tried and tested combination of climbing rose, clematis and honeysuckle. 

Another great and inexpensive short cut is to plant snowdrops now as the shops are virtually giving them away as plants rather than bulbs and its the perfect time to plant them near the house for next January. 

On the plot

We are now in peak sowing season and you can set yourself the challenge of trying to have some salad crops available all year round. 

It is officially main crop loose leaf season rather than the early or late seasons for more hardy lettuce. If you have a system of propagation indoors or under glass that you then plant outdoors it’s entirely possible. You can leave the tray outdoors for a few nights to harden off before transplanting so they get used to the great outdoors. This will give them some resilience to chilly night temperatures so they know what to expect. 

Lettuce seeds are tiny and can be sown three at a time before thinning out to leave the most healthy seedling. The problem you might have is if you sow them in temperatures any warmer than 25C as they will effectively then become dormant thinking it’s too hot to thrive. It’s this kind of inherent intellect that makes seeds and plants fascinating as the human brain develops in a similar way. 

It’s possible to buy a mix of different lettuce leaves for a stimulating variety of salads which is often better value than buying individual packets. Try oak leaf varieties or ‘lollo’ strains like ‘Cancan’ with its broad frilly leaves that hold a dressing well. ‘Flashy Butter Oak’ will give you red and green leaves and grows at a pace. There is even a butterhead lettuce called ‘All The year Round’ which tells you all you need to know. 

Alongside the loose leaf lettuces are the headed varieties that have a heart like ‘Little Gem’, ‘Cos’ and ‘Romaine’. These are all well known and grown commercially for a reason as they are well suited to our climate and easy to grow. 

Whatever you decide to grow there is an impressive array of lettuce varieties that you ll never get bored of. Just investigate some independent seed catalogues and it will change your life and most likely diet.