Our guide to sowing and growing your free seeds
Mizuna
Ever tried growing mizuna? This oriental variety produces mildly spicy leaves which taste great in salads as baby leaves. Or, let them grow larger and harvest to use in stir-fries.
Choose an outdoor cropping location where the soil is fertile and moisture-retentive. Give it a water before sowing. Then, sow thinly, 1.5cm deep, allowing 15cm between rows for cut-and-come-again baby leaves. Alternatively, you can sow seeds into 25cm pots. Protect early sowings with a cloche and wait for seedlings to emerge. They’ll usually appear within a week or two. Keep the plants moist and sow every two to three weeks for continuous harvests throughout the season. Mizuna will regrow up to four times once cut, so pick a few leaves from each plant to encourage plenty of growth. If you’re looking to grow mature plants, allow 25cm between rows and thin the plants to 20cm apart. Harvest entire plants from May onwards.
Tarragon ‘Russian’
Tarragon can add a unique flavour to so many dishes, and it smells great in the garden, too. This hardy variety does well in pots or borders – even those with poor, dry soils.
Indoors, sow seeds 0.5cm deep into small pots of compost and place somewhere warm, like a windowsill. Water the pots well and keep them moist. Once seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant each one to an 8cm pot and keep them in cooler conditions. Harden the plants off, avoiding frosts, until you plant them outside. Leave 45cm spacings between plants. The leaves can be picked as needed, but bear in mind that mature leaves are tastier. Mr Fothergill’s recommends protecting the plants with a mulch of straw or soil in the winter, and freezing rather than drying the leaves to store.
Broccoli ‘(Autumn) Green Calabrese’
This easy-to-grow autumn cropping veg is delicious steamed and stir-fried, and high in all the good stuff, including vitamin C and antioxidants. What’s not to like?
From March, sow directly, 1.5cm deep, into a seed bed outdoors. For best results, make sure the seed bed has been finely prepared with fertile soil and watered prior to sowing. After seedlings emerge – usually within 14 to 28 days – keep the plants well-watered until they are established. Once plants have reached 10cm in height and have four or five leaves, transplant into their final positions, 45cm apart. Also allow 45cm between rows and make sure you plant them in firmly and water them well. Alternatively, start this variety off indoors. Sow 0.5cm deep in a tray of compost and water well. Place the seed tray in a cool place like a cold frame or unhea
