Free seedlings for local growing groups
If you are a local food growing group, you can collect free baby plants from us throughout the year for your plot.
Our Greenhouse Manager, Fabrice, will advise you on the best plants for your plot.
If you'd like some food plants, contact Fabrice on [email protected].
Our Greenhouse Manager, Fabrice, will advise you on the best plants for your plot.
If you'd like some food plants, contact Fabrice on [email protected].
How to identify common seedlings
How to look after common vegetable seedlings
Stage 1: hardening off your seedlings
Got some compost? Consider immediately potting your plants into 3-inch pots. This will give you bigger and stronger plants.
Your seedlings have been grown in a protected environment. This means they are soft and vulnerable to damage from hot sun, wind and pests. You'll need to toughen them up before planting them in the open. This is called ‘hardening off’.
Find a lightly shaded and protected spot in your garden – such as against a west facing wall. Don’t put them straight into full sun yet. Keep them there for two weeks, making sure they don’t dry out or get knocked by animals.
Protect against slugs and snails by using organic slug pellets, or similar, and raising the plants off the ground on boxes/crates.
If a frost is forecast (unlikely now), cover the plants lightly with newspaper or horticultural fleece overnight. Watch out for pigeons, which will devour spinach and kale, although they usually go for larger plants.
Your seedlings have been grown in a protected environment. This means they are soft and vulnerable to damage from hot sun, wind and pests. You'll need to toughen them up before planting them in the open. This is called ‘hardening off’.
Find a lightly shaded and protected spot in your garden – such as against a west facing wall. Don’t put them straight into full sun yet. Keep them there for two weeks, making sure they don’t dry out or get knocked by animals.
Protect against slugs and snails by using organic slug pellets, or similar, and raising the plants off the ground on boxes/crates.
If a frost is forecast (unlikely now), cover the plants lightly with newspaper or horticultural fleece overnight. Watch out for pigeons, which will devour spinach and kale, although they usually go for larger plants.
Stage 2: planting your seedlings
After you’ve hardened off your plants, plant them out in their permanent summer positions.
Make sure you water them well both before and after planting.
They all prefer full sun – although perpetual spinach will tolerate a bit of shade. No vegetable will grow well in heavy shade.
They can be planted in large pots of 12”/300mm diameter or more – or large recycled containers, as well as in the open ground.
Make sure you water them well both before and after planting.
They all prefer full sun – although perpetual spinach will tolerate a bit of shade. No vegetable will grow well in heavy shade.
They can be planted in large pots of 12”/300mm diameter or more – or large recycled containers, as well as in the open ground.
​Kale: Black Tuscan, also known as Cavalo Nero
Spacing: 30cm apart if in the ground. You can plant closer, and then remove and eat the parts closest together after about a month. Separate the seedlings if you want more plants. Pot up each seedling in a 3-inch pot when you receive them. Then plant out 3 weeks later when the plant has established itself.
Harvesting: Harvest older leaves. Leave some younger leaves each time to allow the plant to grow back quickly. Growth will slow at the end of October. It will then start regrowing if the weather is mild in late winter to produce very good sprouting broccoli-like shoots.
Looking after: Always keep moist if in a container. Thorough watering once a week if in the ground and the weather is hot. If growth slows or older leaves become pale, feed with chicken manure – or a mulch of grass clippings (or other nitrogen source).
Pest control: Kale is attacked by pigeons, Cabbage White butterflies, and by slugs when young. Control slugs with organic slug pellets or daily picking over and removing slugs (in the evening is best). Control butterflies and pigeons by covering the plants with a mesh supported by canes etc. Look online for more protection methods.
Harvesting: Harvest older leaves. Leave some younger leaves each time to allow the plant to grow back quickly. Growth will slow at the end of October. It will then start regrowing if the weather is mild in late winter to produce very good sprouting broccoli-like shoots.
Looking after: Always keep moist if in a container. Thorough watering once a week if in the ground and the weather is hot. If growth slows or older leaves become pale, feed with chicken manure – or a mulch of grass clippings (or other nitrogen source).
Pest control: Kale is attacked by pigeons, Cabbage White butterflies, and by slugs when young. Control slugs with organic slug pellets or daily picking over and removing slugs (in the evening is best). Control butterflies and pigeons by covering the plants with a mesh supported by canes etc. Look online for more protection methods.
Perpetual spinach Erbette
Spacing: 30cm apart if in the ground. You can plant closer and eat the thinnings after about a month. Seedlings are best planted as a clump and thinned after a few weeks to the strongest plant (Your first harvest!.)
Harvesting: Harvest older leaves, leave some younger leaves each time to allow the plant to grow back quickly. Growth will slow at the end of October, but the plant will start regrowing if the weather is mild in late winter to produce new greens until the plant bolts (flowers) in the spring. Flowering shoots are edible.
Looking after: Always keep moist if in a container. Thorough watering once or twice a week if in the ground and the weather is hot. If growth slows or older leaves become pale, feed with chicken manure, or maybe a mulch of grass clippings, or compost, or other nitrogen source.
Pest control: Perpetual Spinach has rather few pests, but slugs do eat young plants and pigeons sometimes eat leaves on taller plants. Control slugs with organic slug pellets or daily picking over and removing slugs (in the evening is best). Control pigeons by covering the plants with a mesh supported by canes etc. but only if necessary.
Harvesting: Harvest older leaves, leave some younger leaves each time to allow the plant to grow back quickly. Growth will slow at the end of October, but the plant will start regrowing if the weather is mild in late winter to produce new greens until the plant bolts (flowers) in the spring. Flowering shoots are edible.
Looking after: Always keep moist if in a container. Thorough watering once or twice a week if in the ground and the weather is hot. If growth slows or older leaves become pale, feed with chicken manure, or maybe a mulch of grass clippings, or compost, or other nitrogen source.
Pest control: Perpetual Spinach has rather few pests, but slugs do eat young plants and pigeons sometimes eat leaves on taller plants. Control slugs with organic slug pellets or daily picking over and removing slugs (in the evening is best). Control pigeons by covering the plants with a mesh supported by canes etc. but only if necessary.
Spring Onion Ishikura
Spacing: 20cm per clump. Aim to have about 7-8 seedlings in each clump. They don't mind being separated or growing in small bunches. Can be grown in containers or in the ground.
Harvesting: These are Asian bunching onions. If you cut them off at ground level they will regrow (just like chives). Harvest when the stems are from pencil thickness, though you can let them get bigger. Plants will overwinter though growth will slow at the end of October, and plants will produce edible flowering shoots in the spring. They are perennial (the plant won't die and will come back), though this variety tends to be grown as an annual.
Looking after: Always keep moist if in a container. Thorough watering once or twice a week if in the ground and the weather is hot. If growth slows or older leaves become pale, feed with chicken manure, or maybe a mulch of grass clippings, or compost, or other nitrogen source.
Pest control: Spring Onions have very few pests and generally require no pest control.
Harvesting: These are Asian bunching onions. If you cut them off at ground level they will regrow (just like chives). Harvest when the stems are from pencil thickness, though you can let them get bigger. Plants will overwinter though growth will slow at the end of October, and plants will produce edible flowering shoots in the spring. They are perennial (the plant won't die and will come back), though this variety tends to be grown as an annual.
Looking after: Always keep moist if in a container. Thorough watering once or twice a week if in the ground and the weather is hot. If growth slows or older leaves become pale, feed with chicken manure, or maybe a mulch of grass clippings, or compost, or other nitrogen source.
Pest control: Spring Onions have very few pests and generally require no pest control.
Climbing French Bean Cobra
Spacing: this is a climbing bean and it will need support. If planting in rows, space 20cm apart up canes at least 1.8m tall if you have some, or strings supported by canes or some such.
Harvesting: Harvest when beans are about 20cm long but before beans start to visibly swell in the pod (this will all make sense when you get to the time). Beans on this variety remain tasty even when large. They will be bigger than the French beans in the shop but still good. It is important to pick over the beans at least once a week, twice is better, as ripening beans will tell the plant to stop making more flowers. Beans will crop until the end of September and should start in early July.
Looking after: Keep well watered and mulch with compost if you have some, or mulch with lawn clippings/green garden waste (not too thickly in any one application).
Pest control: Young plants are very vulnerable to slugs and snails so do protect with organic slug pellets. Some people use half plastic water or squash bottles as little greenhouses to keep slugs off. If you can pot your beans up in 4”pots when you receive them and grow them on for a few weeks before planting out, they will be much less vulnerable.
Harvesting: Harvest when beans are about 20cm long but before beans start to visibly swell in the pod (this will all make sense when you get to the time). Beans on this variety remain tasty even when large. They will be bigger than the French beans in the shop but still good. It is important to pick over the beans at least once a week, twice is better, as ripening beans will tell the plant to stop making more flowers. Beans will crop until the end of September and should start in early July.
Looking after: Keep well watered and mulch with compost if you have some, or mulch with lawn clippings/green garden waste (not too thickly in any one application).
Pest control: Young plants are very vulnerable to slugs and snails so do protect with organic slug pellets. Some people use half plastic water or squash bottles as little greenhouses to keep slugs off. If you can pot your beans up in 4”pots when you receive them and grow them on for a few weeks before planting out, they will be much less vulnerable.
Pumpkin Marina di Chioggia
Spacing: A big plant that will easily cover several square meters. Can happily trail over tarmac or concrete. Not appropriate for containers.
Harvesting: 10-pound pumpkins will mature after about three months. The stalk connecting the pumpkin to the stem turns woody when the pumpkin is ripe. Expect two pumpkins per plant. Flowers, leaves and young shoots are also edible and very good. Eat any shoots which outgrow the plant’s space, but leave at least two leaves above each ripening pumpkin. Cure harvested pumpkins in a warm room for 2 weeks. You can then store them for up to six months.
Looking after: A compost mulch or chicken manure to start the plant off will help. Give them an occasional thorough watering if the weather is really hot and dry.
Pest control: Protect young plants from slugs and snails with organic slug pellets. Only plant when your pumpkin is showing 2 or 3 true leaves. The true leaves are the hairy ones – the two rounded leaves, which first show, are the seed leaves.
Harvesting: 10-pound pumpkins will mature after about three months. The stalk connecting the pumpkin to the stem turns woody when the pumpkin is ripe. Expect two pumpkins per plant. Flowers, leaves and young shoots are also edible and very good. Eat any shoots which outgrow the plant’s space, but leave at least two leaves above each ripening pumpkin. Cure harvested pumpkins in a warm room for 2 weeks. You can then store them for up to six months.
Looking after: A compost mulch or chicken manure to start the plant off will help. Give them an occasional thorough watering if the weather is really hot and dry.
Pest control: Protect young plants from slugs and snails with organic slug pellets. Only plant when your pumpkin is showing 2 or 3 true leaves. The true leaves are the hairy ones – the two rounded leaves, which first show, are the seed leaves.
Tomatoes (various)
Spacing: They start small but get big. Air circulation helps prevent disease. Two feet between plants. Two bush tomatoes or 1 vine tomato per supermarket box – or large container like a 12” pot.
Harvesting: Ripe tomatoes should be ready after about 2 months from the first flowers opening. Green tomatoes in October may still ripen if taken indoors.
Looking after: Regularly water container-grown tomatoes, particularly in hot weather. In the ground they are much tougher – but we recommend giving them a thorough watering once a week in hot weather. Try to keep the leaves dry when you water. Give container-grown tomatoes a regular tomato feed when tiny green tomatoes start to sprout. Use a mulch of homemade compost for tomato plants in the ground.
Pruning:
1) Vine or cordon tomatoes
Tie to canes. Pinch or prune out the shoots that pop up in the join between the ferny leaf and the stem – this is a continuous process called side shooting that carries on all summer. Don’t remove the flower stems. Either leave the main stem to grow with no side shoots, or let a few of the side shoots grow on too (works well for cherry tomatoes). In August, nip out the tip of the plant. This stops the plant producing more tomatoes that no longer have time to ripen.
2) Bush tomatoes
DO NOT prune out the side shoots – just leave the plant to grow. This is where the fruit will form.
Pest control: Very few pests. Outdoor tomatoes are prone to tomato blight – a fungal disease that turns leaves and fruit brown and rotten. Blight is bad in wet summers – the fungus is blown around in water droplets. Keep foliage dry when watering. If your plant gets blight, quickly remove all green fruits (not brown ones) and use them immediately in making chutney, etc.
Our free seedlings offer is supported by City Bridge Trust, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation's charity, Bridge House Estates (1035628).
Harvesting: Ripe tomatoes should be ready after about 2 months from the first flowers opening. Green tomatoes in October may still ripen if taken indoors.
Looking after: Regularly water container-grown tomatoes, particularly in hot weather. In the ground they are much tougher – but we recommend giving them a thorough watering once a week in hot weather. Try to keep the leaves dry when you water. Give container-grown tomatoes a regular tomato feed when tiny green tomatoes start to sprout. Use a mulch of homemade compost for tomato plants in the ground.
Pruning:
1) Vine or cordon tomatoes
Tie to canes. Pinch or prune out the shoots that pop up in the join between the ferny leaf and the stem – this is a continuous process called side shooting that carries on all summer. Don’t remove the flower stems. Either leave the main stem to grow with no side shoots, or let a few of the side shoots grow on too (works well for cherry tomatoes). In August, nip out the tip of the plant. This stops the plant producing more tomatoes that no longer have time to ripen.
2) Bush tomatoes
DO NOT prune out the side shoots – just leave the plant to grow. This is where the fruit will form.
Pest control: Very few pests. Outdoor tomatoes are prone to tomato blight – a fungal disease that turns leaves and fruit brown and rotten. Blight is bad in wet summers – the fungus is blown around in water droplets. Keep foliage dry when watering. If your plant gets blight, quickly remove all green fruits (not brown ones) and use them immediately in making chutney, etc.
Our free seedlings offer is supported by City Bridge Trust, the funding arm of The City of London Corporation's charity, Bridge House Estates (1035628).