Plant, sow or start seeds indoors?

When filling your Makkelijke Moestuin, decide for each square whether to sow directly outside, start seeds indoors or buy a seedling from a garden centre.

Before that, you have already considered several things:
  • how tall the plants grow
  • whether this is the right time of year
  • which plant family they belong to
  • how many plants fit in the square
Then it is time for the next question:

Daarbij houden we onder andere rekening met de hoogte van planten, met zonlicht en de plek in de bak. 

Hoe dat zaaisysteem werkt lees je hier.

Deze pagina gaat over de praktijk: dus over hoe je die planten in je bak zet.


Will you plant, sow or start seeds indoors?

You sow the vast majority of vegetables directly in their squares:
Seeds sown directly in a Makkelijke Moestuin square
Direct zaaien in een vak: gaatjes prikken, zaadjes erin en label erbij.

Starting seeds indoors

Summer vegetables that cannot tolerate cold, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, need to be started indoors. By the time it is warm enough outside, sowing them then would be too late for the plants to grow large enough to harvest.

Raise these plants indoors and move them into your vegetable garden once the weather is warm enough.

Most people use potting compost, but that does not always work well. I use our specially made MM seed-starting mix.
Young summer vegetables started indoors
Tomaten en andere zomergroentes in de vensterbank
I use small MM-Airpots because plants develop an especially healthy root system in them. Together, the mix and Airpots work brilliantly.

Read more about starting seeds indoors.

Planting seedlings

Other plants, such as parsley and many herbs, take an extremely long time to grow from seed.

You only need a few, so it is easier to put young plants straight into the raised bed. They cost very little at a garden centre.

Read when buying seedlings is useful and when sowing them yourself is better.
Young parsley planted in a Makkelijke Moestuin raised bed
Parsley is easier to add as a young plant
Putting home-grown or shop-bought seedlings into your raised bed is easy.

Use a trowel to push the MM-mix aside and make a hole, then place the plant in it with its root ball.

Gently press the MM-mix back around the plant. Do not press too firmly because the mix needs to stay airy.

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