Grow your
Christmas dinner
You can’t hurry a sprout — but you’d be surprised how much of the table you can still grow yourself. Here’s what’s in time, told straight.
Start these first
Plant now
Ordered by how soon the window shuts — the top one is the most pressing.
No rush
Any time, on the windowsill
A bright sill and a fortnight is all these need — do them whenever.
Worth the wait
Not this year
The classics of the plate are slow, spring-sown crops. Buy these in this year, and pencil them into the seed box for next.
There’s a particular pleasure in carrying something to the Christmas table that you started with your own hands — a bowl of buttered new potatoes in the dead of winter, a handful of sharp leaves cut that morning. None of it’s hard. It’s mostly a matter of doing the small thing now, while there’s still time.
Common questions
Can you really grow your own Christmas dinner?
Some of it, yes — and more than you'd think. New potatoes tipped out on Christmas Eve, winter salad leaves, windowsill herbs and a peppery radish or two are all within reach if you start at the right time. The showpiece roots and sprouts, though, are sown back in spring, so those are best bought in this year.
When do you plant potatoes for Christmas?
Plant cold-stored seed potatoes into a deep bag by the end of August. Keep them fed and watered, and move the bag somewhere frost-free before the first hard frost. Tip them out on Christmas Eve for new potatoes in the depths of winter.
Is it too late to grow vegetables for Christmas?
It depends what you fancy on the plate. Sprouts, parsnips and red cabbage need a spring start, so they've sailed for this year. But salad leaves, oriental greens, radishes and herbs can all still be sown for the table — the countdown above shows which windows are open.