A guide to the spring kitchen garden
When spring arrives many vegetable gardeners get the urge to sow new plants. We show you the way into the world of early vegetables. Because nothing tastes better than the first vegetables from your kitchen garden! Spring not only offers
tasty spring vegetables but also fewer insects to feast on your plants. This makes organic growing much easier. Our recommendations 👇
A green leaf
Not surprisingly but a classic that often ends up on our plates:
lettuce.
Lettuce can withstand a bit of cold, so you can plant it in a cold frame or greenhouse from the beginning of February. Would you rather let your lettuce enjoy the fresh air outside? Then you can start as early as March. Protect the lettuce in the open air with a (fleece) cloth against the severe frost nights. Besides the direct freezing cold, there is another threat to lettuce because from March onwards snails are also present. After all, they love a green leaf. After these obstacles, you can already serve your home-grown lettuce in April. However, it does not have to remain a simple cabbage lettuce because there are also many varieties on the market such as corn salad, oak leaf lettuce and sharp mustard lettuce.
Early cauliflower
Besides lettuce, cauliflower is also a popular vegetable on our plates. In specialised garden centres and in our shop, this type of cabbage is already available from February. This early variety is larger than the classic variety and has a short growing period. It can therefore be used perfectly as a pre-cultivation for tomatoes. To give your home-grown vegetables a bit more zest, you can also plant a few herbs in February such as thyme, chives and curry plants. Would you like to read more about growing early cauliflower? 🖱️ here for our article!
Seed potatoes
Seed potatoes are best bought early in the season in February or early March. They still need about three weeks to germinate. But how does this pre-germination work? You make sure that the potatoes lie next to each other in a light and cool environment of no more than 18°C. After following this step, the germination process can start. Before planting the potatoes, it is better to let them harden off in a room at 5°C. Is there a night frost just after planting the potatoes? Protect them with a (fleece) cloth.
An unexpected guest
An unexpected guest in this list is our Belgian pride, the strawberry. They are best planted in August. However, because many gardeners have little time to care for the plants in the autumn, more and more strawberry plants are bought in the spring. However, you should be on time because the earlier the plants are planted, the better they can root and the more fruit they will bear. The strawberry plants are protected against freezing temperatures so you don't have to worry about that. But which strawberry should you choose? We recommend the varieties Elsanta and Ostara. Do you prefer a special one? Then you can choose the Pineberry, a white strawberry with red seeds. The Bubbleberry also goes down well with children because of its light pink colour and sweet chewing-gum taste.
Click here to read how to grow your own strawberries!
View recommended products 👇
More tips for growing the tastiest greens yourself? 👇
More info? Receive all our gardening tips directly in your mailbox!
We'll only email you handy facts, green advice and our best promotions & discounts. You'll receive it about once a week and you can unsubscribe at any time. No spam, promise 🤞