Increasingly from now, and depending on your weather, you can sow seeds. Likewise, you can wait!. It's a fine line between starting a little earlier, and hopefully enjoying early harvest, or starting 10 days later, which can give stronger growth of certain plants. I'm being deliberately vague because so much depends on factors that are different every year, and between all of our varied situations

My main sowings before the end of February, spread out over the two weeks, are onions, salad, onions, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, beetroot, celery, and herbs such as parsley, coriander, and dill. Do read the small print of varietal suitability for sowing this early. For example, there are cabbages for autumn which do much better from sowing early May compared to now.

My 2026 Calendar has this information, for every month. Check out also the option of buying seeds for each month of the year, as here with Premier Seeds Direct.

I like to be sure of seed and potting mix quality before making the big sowings. Generally one can say that brassica and pea seeds as above, store well and should be good for at least one more year, if you purchased them last year. Onions and salad onions are a different matter as the next photo shows.

Another aspect of plant raising is the quality of a potting mix. Sometimes plants start well, but then stop! Depending at what stage that happens, it can be okay or catastrophic.

With the parsley below, growth in both pots last autumn was even and there was clearly reasonable nutrition in the peat based compost until this year. While now, the peat free compost looks so much stronger, and it’s from Gro Worm, based on a 30% content of vermicompost, and sieved to 3mm.

In this newly published video, see how the potting mix, varieties chosen, and sowing dates combine to achieve desired results. And sometimes, not desired!

Rhubarb loves the mild weather we have had. February temperatures so far average 10°C by day and 5.4°C by night, with no frosts at all - compared to eight in January. Rainfall is 80% above average, at 240mm / 9.6 inches in six weeks.

Is it worth forcing rhubarb? I've never got on with the process, but if you want blanched and bright pink stalks, which happens after about a month in darkness, starting now, find a large bucket or pot, and pop it on top.

Even though it's almost spring, I continue to value the wonderful Brussels sprouts, together with a delicious interplant you see of spring onions. Both were sown in May and transplanted at the same time last June.

They are one of the plant combinations in my new book Grow Together, appearing 9th April. This link takes you to preorder.

A follower Erica Rodriguez send me her new cookbook, called Nourished Kitchen, pub. Carnival 2026. This recipe caught my eye because we have plenty of sweet potato and parsnip at the moment.

Nicola enjoyed creating the dish, and it's as delicious as we had hoped.

Eating well is an important reason for my desire to grow delicious food in healthy and energetic soil. Another part of living healthily is working with our bodies’ energy systems.

My friend, Philly J Lay is putting on a wide-ranging health event in London on 1st March, near King's Cross. My own health issues this winter have led me to study and adopt many of these ways to wellbeing.