What to do in December

Container garden in snow

As we enter the dark, cold days of winter, you can still keep up your supply of fresh, highly nutritious food by moving some of your growing inside. With just two or three large jam jars for sprouts and four or five seed trays for leaves you can even be self sufficient in salad. The salad you grow will be more nutritious and far more delicious than any salad you buy in the shops at this time of year - and it will cost you a fraction of the price.

Jobs for this month

  1. Make a sprouter (or three).
  2. Create a mini microleaf and shoots farm.
  3. Maintain outdoor winter crops, harvesting them sparingly.
  4. Enjoy planning and scheming for next year.

1. Make a sprouter

Sprouts are an amazing and extremely healthy food. If you've not eaten sprouts much before, you may find it will take a little time to get used to them and learn how to use them. Persevering - to find which sprouts you like and how to use them in your cooking - is really worth the effort.

Working out ways you enjoy eating sprouts can take a little experimentation. This is a simple salad made with alfalfa sprouts, chickpea sprouts, radish shoots, sunflower shoots, avocado and lemon and olive oil dressing. Working out ways you enjoy eating sprouts can take a little experimentation. This is a simple salad made with alfalfa sprouts, chickpea sprouts, radish shoots, sunflower shoots, avocado and lemon and olive oil dressing.
Sprouts are so easy and quick to grow - and can be done at extremely low cost. All you need is a large jam jar - you can read all about how to do it here.
All you need to sprout is a large glass jar. These are alfalfa sprouts, often described as one of the most complete foods there is. All you need to sprout is a large glass jar. These are alfalfa sprouts, often described as one of the most complete foods there is.
To grow sprouts in any quantity you'll need a lot of seeds - and so you'll want to find an affordable seed supply. Many sprouts, including lentils, mung beans, chickpeas, fenugreek and peas can be sprouted just as well from seed pulses sold for cooking.  Alternatively, buying sprout seeds in bulk (eg 500g bags), will usually cost you a fraction of the cost of buying the small packs of seeds sold for sprouting (in the UK, I use Sky Sprouts).

2. Create a mini microleaf farm

To grow micro leaves and shoots inside you need a reasonably bright window or grow light. I grow mine on a four plastic trays on a small table, next to the window.

Radish and sunflower shoots in trays on the left; coriander and cabbage shoots sown and about to emerge in the trays on the right. Radish and sunflower shoots in trays on the left; coriander and cabbage shoots sown and about to emerge in the trays on the right.
Many crops are delicious harvested as shoots or micro leaves including pea shoots, rocket, sunflower shoots, radish, coriander, and cabbage. You can harvest micro salad leaves 10 - 20 days after sowing. Sow them thickly in a tray and you can get 150 - 300 gram of high flavour leaves from just one tray. You can use the same technique shown in this video here - just put the growing boxes on a tray to catch any drips. Sow a couple of trays every week and you can enjoy a continual supply of fresh leaves. Use them on their own or to add colour and flavour to shop bought salad leaves.

3. Maintain outdoor crops

As in November, remember to water during dry spells (it's easy to forget when its cold). The one time you don't want to water is just before a freezing spell - the water will freeze in your pots, potentially damaging the roots. You can harvest a few leaves from your winter salads over the month. They'll most probably taste amazing! So that you don't weaken your salads too much, harvest the leaves sparingly. You want your plants to retain strength so that when the weather warms in early spring, they will put on a growth spurt.

I'm harvesting the leaves of these mustards sparingly this month - because I want the plant to survive the winter and put on a growth spurt in the spring. I'm harvesting the leaves of these mustards sparingly this month - because I want the plant to survive the winter and put on a growth spurt in the spring.
 

4. Planning and scheming for next year

Long, dark, cold evenings .... What better time to reflect on your successes and learning of the year? Even when growing in a small space there is so much you can learn from your experience each year. Applying this learning is the route to abundance! You can also dream about what you want to grow next year, and plan where you'll get your seeds (any seed swaps in your area in the spring?), where to add more pots (there's nearly always space for one more!), and any new structures you might want to build.

Your turn

Are you eating home grown food this month? If so, I'd love to hear what you've been able to grow in the comments below.    

31 comments

Ann
 

I am awaiting a dry (er) day when I can go outside and see how big the Jerusalem artichoke harvest is this year! Also need to read up on how to prune the grape vine. The freezer is packed with about 4 kilos of grapes and I have 3 jars of grape jelly in the pantry.
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Janice Wood
 

My mum used to do this back in the 70's. Alfalfa seeds in jam jars on the kitchen window sill, spending hours up the allotment, mum and dad with their herbal baccy roll ups. Kind of Woodstock meets The Good Life. Happy days :)
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Yolanda
 

I have some nice kale in the garden, covered up with clear plastic held down with bricks. :)
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Lindsay
 

We have lots of kale growing on our balcony garden in San Diego- in a "city pickers" grower. It's working great so far! We also have mint and a very happy aloe vera plant... I planted a few carrots too but i've never grown them before so im not sure what's going on with them! :)
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meg
 

Kale is the big one here too, and chard. I have the remnants of this year's crop for picking in the coming weeks and some summer grown ones that will go dormant but sprout back to life in early spring. I must try sprouting some seeds this year! Just eating something homegrown helps keep my spirit up. And even if Mr M doesn't (initially) partake of the harvest, he usually adopts my 'oddities' in his own good time...
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mary ash
 

I have lettuce seedlings on my sunny window sill and sorrell in pot outside together with oca plants which are just losing their foliage ready to bulk up the tubers in other pots. I will try sprouts again - I haven't grown any since the 80's!
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Lora
 

I sowed some fennel seeds from a spice packet a few days ago and they have already sprouted. Next I want to try pea shoots from a packet of dried peas. As I'm limited for windowsill space, could I try this in my unheated greenhouse or will they do better indoors at this time of year?
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FEDERICO ESCALANTE G.
 

Hoy estoy consumiedo de la choyetara del jardin y, guayabas del jardìn, muy importante su comentario.
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Hi Lora, pea shoots are quite hardy and will often survive even light frosts - so they will probably grow OK in your greenhouse, it depends a bit on how cold it gets in there. Where are you growing? The speed of growth is very much determined by the temperature - so it may take a long time to get a crop when growing them outside at this time of year, and it will probably be much quicker inside. I reckon it would be worth trying in your greenhouse - if you do try it, do come back and tell us how it goes! Mark
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Oooh, Oca! I haven't tried that yet and really want to. Next year. Do try sprouts again, Mary, as I said it can take a bit of experimenting to find the best way to enjoy them - but the number or recipes and ideas online has exploded since the 80s so hopefully you'll find some you love!
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Do try sprouting, Meg - its a brilliant way of topping up the homegrown food intake, and its so quick and easy. The key to enjoying them - and perhaps enticing Mr M - is finding some great recipes to use them in. There are loads on the internet now, many are extremely simple and very delicious! If you do try it, would love to hear how you get on.
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Sounds like your winter balcony is a great success! Kale is a brilliant winter crop for containers - and high in vitamin C and antioxidants - great stuff. Over here we need to sow carrots in August time to get a crop for early winter, not sure about your climate - if your mint is still happy, it sounds like it may be a bit warmer than the north of England? Very good luck with them!
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Yummy.
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Wonderful.
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Jerusalem artichokes: delicious crop for winter - hope its a good harvest!
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Lora
 

I'm in London, but a hilly location so it's a bit colder than the lower lying/central parts. I might try a little of both and see how they compare. I'll let you know how it goes if I try it.
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Sarah
 

Hm, I find it harder in winter to care for my plants as it's dark and cold and I don't really want to go outside. So I tend to forget watering, as you mentioned above. That said, I've taken my pepper and physalis plants inside, so there's them plus some lemongrass (very great idea, yummy for curries and tea) and rosemary on my table near the window. Outside, most of my salad and radish plants have died. There's some fall/winter spinach growing super slowly, so I'm not too optimistic about it. The thyme and lavender are doing fine, as last year, although they come from a warmer climate. The beets I sowed (sew?) in spring are fine, but still have no roots worth picking, I guess their pot is just too small. They've given me some leaves over the summer, so that's ok, if not the most worthwile thing I've done. But the most amazing thing is my tomato plant. It's really looking kind of bad by now, but it's still blossoming and producing tiny tomatoes (smaller than the nail on my little finger). I pick them green, but I haven't done anything with them so far. On the seed package it was called a wild tomato variety, so I guess it's just really tough! So sprouts.. I just keep forgetting to rinse them and they go bad. But you're right, I should give it another try this year. When I'm back home from the weekend. Anything fresh one can get in winter which is not some sort of cabbage or flown across half the globe is kind of great, isn't it? Concerning those microplants/shoots you suggested, I'm just too sentimental. I get all these happy mummy feelings when something is growing and just don't want to tear it all out again. So I guess I won't try this in the near future. As always, good luck with your plants!
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Very nice to hear from you again Sarah, I was wondering how things were. I've had a similar experience with beetroot, I think its quite tricky in pots. Stuff does grow very slowly at this time of year - but often, if you can keep it alive during these cold months, they'll come back with a vengeance in the early spring. Fingers crossed for your spinach! With rinsing the sprouts.... One tip is to keep the jar somewhere where you will see it every morning and evening. I keep mine next to the sink and just rinse them while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil. You only need to rinse them twice a day - even once a day can sometimes be ok. I'm not sure what you're using to sprout but I used to use a sprouter with trays and that seemed to need rinsing more often - a glass jar seems better (and my wife loves those large gherkins so we always seem to have a plentiful supply!). Ha, ha! Your comment about shoots made me laugh... You're not alone. If you feel brave one day, do try sunflower shoots - very easy and quite delicious.
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Simonne
 

We've had a lot of "wild mushrooms", they tasted great, we'll surch for new culture. And of course a lot of herbs, lovely, we can't without them.
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Lora
 

Unfortunately I've had no luck at finding dried marrowfat peas yet - which I wanted to try rather than the more expensive seed packets of peas. We only seem to have them in tins down South! Oh, and my 'fennel' seems not to have germinated, but lots of small tomato plants rather too early! I think some seeds got in my homemade compost...
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Good luck in your search for marrowfat peas. Sometimes health food stores - or anywhere that sells pulses in large bags or bins (not that easy to find these days) - will stock them. Where are you Lora?
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Valerie
 

Hi Lora - I found dried peas in boxes in Sainsburys, of all places. You might have to rummage around a bit among the packets and tins, but they're around. Very cheap too,and mine sprouted every time I sowed them, living quite happily in trays on a sunny windowsill. Maybe try Lidl or Aldi too?
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

Well found Valerie! I've never seen them in Sainsbury's I will keep my eye out!
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Alexandra Campbell
 

I'm still harvesting chillies - and I don't have a greenhouse. Some are on a shelf in the potting shed, others are simply in pots outside. They've been cropping for about five months and are all in pots. And they definitely taste better than supermarket chillies in a lot of dishes. But I wish I'd got cracking on the salad...
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Grass Tiger
 

Very interesting post. What would you suggest is the best plant to grown indoors during the winter months, in regards to nutrition and ease to maintain?
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Abby
 

Sorry to say that as nice as they look and how easy it is for them to gorw, I can't stand the taste of sprouts! People always shout at me at christmas time because of this, still, very enjoyable read. Abby - Artificial Grass Birmingham
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

I would go for pea shoots - easy and fast to grow, high yielding (if sown close) and very nutritious. Grow best in not too warm a room and in the lightest spot you can find.
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Jeanne
 

Hi again Thanks again for an interesting post. I'm still harvesting leeks, marigold flowers, rocket and lambs lettuce. Also lemongrass (which lives in the living room during winter). With the rocket and marigold I made a fritatta the other day. Best regards Jeanne
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BenteDK
 

Hi Mark It is such a joy to follow your posts, thank you! I am into sprouting alfalfa and radise in one glass and peas in another. Earlier on I had some difficulties with sprouting altogether, they went bad way too often, and I didn't understand why. Then I learned not to use ice cold water from the tab, and now it works great. I would like to grow a little microleafs too, preferably a winter salad, do you know a good variety? But I have 3 very active and curious cats, so it is difficult to protect the trays from them. They eat them and pull the plants up, and I don't like cat noses in my food ; ) Maybe I should buy a little indoor greenhouse for my window. I tried to follow the link to the video about microleafs, but it leads to an empy page? Best wishes and happy christmas ; ) BenteDK
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Milka
 

Great piece. I am still harvesting kale, coriander, leeks, thyme, green onions and some radishes this month. Thanks to what I learned from you while living in my old apartment, I now have the ability to increase my yields in my new apartment.
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Annie
 

Hi Mark, really enjoying the tips.

I’ve just taken over a 1m2 planter which is full of weeds. What would be the best way to prepare this ahead of growing in spring? Thanks

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