• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

January

Happy New Year!  The days are slowing starting to get longer and it won't be long until its Spring and the start of another busy gardening season. While it's still cold and quiet take some time to plan this year’s plot. Sit down with some good seed catalogues and plan what you're going to grow. Think how much time you will have to grow and plan accordingly. If you're looking at a busy year ahead think about growing more crops that need less work such as potatoes, beans and courgettes. Plan for fruit and perennial vegetables including asparagus, artichokes and sorrel.

There's still time for the physical DIY jobs so choose a fine day to dig out stubborn weeds, sharpen tools, clean the greenhouse and repair sheds and raised beds.

Harvesting

• Kale, leeks, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, swede, winter radishes and hardy salad leaves.
• Purple sprouting broccoli will be starting to form heads now and be ready to harvest this month.

Planting and Sowing

• If conditions are mild plant fruit trees and soft fruit bushes.
• Start early sowings of lettuce, peas, broad beans, calabrese and cauliflower for planting out once the weather warms up.
• If you have a heated greenhouse, start sowing tomatoes this month for transplanting into the greenhouse in early March.
• Order seed potatoes.

Top Tips:

Feed the birds

Provide a source of water and food for birds. Fat balls mixed with seeds are cheap and readily available in shops but if they are incased in wire mesh it's best to remove this as it can trap birds or injure them. Fat balls are also easy to make. Mix one third uncooked suet or lard with a mixture of sunflower seeds, cooked rice, dried fruit, uncooked oatmeal and cheese. Hang in a wire bird feeder or smear onto pine cones and hang. See the RSPB website for more ideas and advice.

Keep on top of stored crops

Check food stores regularly and remove anything rotting to save other crops from being infected. If potatoes start to sprout, rub off the sprout and parboil before freezing for later use.

Forcing Rhubarb

Once you see the first signs of growth cover your rhubarb crown with a large flowerpot to keep out the light. The dark and warmer conditions will produce sweeter and more slender pink stems than uncovered plants and produce a crop at least a month earlier.

February

It's been a mild start to the year so far but will it continue? Take advantage of the sunny days to dig up those tough annual weeds, feed the soil with a good layer of compost or manure ready for your new spring crops.

• Keep picking kale, leeks, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, swede, winter radishes and hardy salad leaves. You should be getting a good supply of purple sprouting broccoli now.
• You can still sow and plant the same fruit and vegetables as listed on the January tips.
• Start planting Jerusalem artichokes this month in mild conditions.
• Check any stored produce for signs of decay and throw away withered or rotting vegetables and fruit.
• Keep harvesting rainwater and storing in water butts in case it's a dry spring.
• Start off onions from seed under cover for planting out in early April.

Top Tips

Cut back Autumn Fruiting Raspberries

Cut back all last year's canes to ground level this month. New canes will send out shoots in early spring and these will produce fruit later in the year. Autumn fruiting varieties are often largely left alone by birds, unlike summer fruiting varieties so there's more fruit for you and they don't need protecting.

Greenhouses

Clean your greenhouse so it's ready for spring planting. A clean greenhouse helps keep diseases at bay and destroys any fungal diseases that may have overwintered in the milder, inside conditions. Clean windows also let in more light which is really beneficial for growth in early spring.

All about potatoes

Chitting early potatoes: ‘Chitting’ or sprouting your potatoes before they go in the ground will give them a good start and produce strong, healthy plants. Stand the potatoes in an upright position, egg cartoons are good for this, and put in a cool light place such as a kitchen windowsill. After a few weeks the potatoes will start to grow small green sprouts, when these are about 2cm long they are ready for planting.

Potato Groups: Potatoes are planted at different times depending on the variety. There are three main groups called Early, Second Early and Maincrop. Early potatoes are the first group of potatoes planted in the season and are planted mid-March. These are ready to harvest in June and July. Second Earlies are planted early to mid-April and are ready in July and August. Maincrop potatoes are planted mid to late April and are harvested in September and early October.

March

• Apply compost and well rotted manure to your beds to give your crops a really good start.
• This a good month to plant your onion and shallot sets and the last chance to plant garlic cloves.
• Plant early potatoes this month (see February top tips).
• Sew broad beans, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, radish, parsnips, peas and chard: but if it’s feeling too chilly wait till later in the month to sow or protect outdoor sowings with cloches and fleece.
• Now is a good time to sow your greenhouse crops under heat. Try sowing tomatoes, aubergines and peppers in an electric propagator or under cover on a warm windowsill.
• With the recent cold spell you still have time to prune and plant fruit trees, bushes and cane fruits.
• Harvest leeks, broccoli, winter salad, Jerusalem artichokes and scorzonera.
• Parsnips should also be harvested this month before they start growing again.
• If you don’t have much time to grow try planting a few lower maintenance crops this month. Try Jerusalem artichokes, globe artichokes plants and potatoes and fruit.

Top Tips: Slug and snail protection

It’s not just the plants that spring into life this month but slimy pests ready to eat your crops too. To stop slugs and snail demolishing your new vegetables start them off in modules and then plant out once they are a few inches tall so they will resist attacks better. Use organic slug and snail pellets such as Growing Success Slug Pellets which are safe around wildlife and children and easy to find in garden centres.

Try adding nematodes to your soil. Nematodes are a type of minute parasite which kill slugs. Simply water the mixture into your soil and it will protect your crops from slug attacks for at least 6 weeks. This is available at some garden centres and online at places such as the Organic Gardening Catalogue.

April

• Protect tender and young crops against frost with fleece or cloches
• Start sowing tomatoes for outdoors in a heated propagator or on a windowsill from mid April. Start cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and french beans by the same method towards the end of the month. All these crops can be damaged by frost so don’t plant them outside until the end of May onwards.
• April is a good month to start sowing outside but tbe conscious of the weather. It’s worth waiting a couple of weeks until mid April to start sowing in the ground when the temperatures have hopefully improved and the soil has warmed up. Beetroot, peas, spinach, chard, kohlrabi and early carrots can all be sown outside this month.
• Start sowing in a seed bed, ready for transplanting later, brussel sprouts, sprouting broccoli, kale and cabbage.
• If you can’t wait to start sowing, any of the above crops can be started in small pots in a greenhouse or windowsill to plant out later.
• Sow second early potatoes and mains from mid April.
• Plant asparagus crowns.
• Try sowing edible flower seeds such as Pot Marigolds (Calendula), Cornflowers and Borage. These colourful petals make a tasty addition to salads and cocktails. Marigold flowers can be used instead of turmeric to colour food.

Top Tips: The Cut-and-Come-Again Salad Box

This is an easy and economical way to keep yourself in salad throughout the summer!

• Start with a packet of seeds (lettuce, mizuna, rocket, mixed salads, or peas for pea shoots), some compost and a container at least 4 inches deep.
• Fill the box or pot with compost, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top, water and allow to drain.
• Scatter seeds across the soil or sow in 'drills', cover with about 1/2 inch of soil.
• Keep the compost moist and the box in a sheltered, sunny position (indoors or out).
• In about 3-4 weeks, when the leaves are about 3 inches tall, you can make the first cut. Leave at least an inch of the plant or pick only the outer leaves.
• The salad can be cut about two more times.

More Top Tips: Companion planting

Planting different types of plants next to each other can have many benefits. Taller plants can provide wind protection and shade for more vulnerable plants and pests and diseases can also be deterred. There are many different combinations to try and some are more effective than others, so here are a few ideas to experiment with:

Plant lettuces under the shade of sweet corn or climbing beans to help prevent the salad bolting in the summer.

Try planting flowering marigolds with tomatoes. The strong smell of the flowers will help keep white fly off your tomatoes.

Nasturtiums near beans can help deter black fly. The nasturtiums will attract the flies and decrease attacks on beans.

Plant chives with strawberries. Chives are thought to enhance the flavour of strawberries and help protect them from fungal diseases.

Want to know more? Check out the range of Harvest training courses, our links to other websites with growing adviceor our case studies of other growers in Brighton.

May

Has summer come early? April saw temperatures climbing into the early twenties and many mild nights. As a result plants are galloping into life but gardens and allotments are dry so don’t neglect watering. Will May follow the same trend or will it turn cooler again?

• Last year we still had frosts in mid-May so protect any vulnerable crops with cloches, fleece or net curtains until the end of the month.
• There is still time to sow half hardy annuals, nasturtiums and marigolds have edible flowers and you can snack on the seeds of Nigella and sunflowers. Let a few of your winter crops flower too, parsnips and leeks produce stunning flowers and they will all attract beneficial insects
• There’s so much to sow outside now so pick out your favourites from the following list. French beans and runner beans, cabbages, cauliflowers, peas, kale, carrots, parsnips, scorzonera, broccoli, kohl rabi and lettuce.
• Stagger sowings of vegetables such as mange tout, beans, carrots, kohl rabi, beetroot, lettuces and radishes. Sowing a little of each crop every few weeks will spread your supply of fresh vegetables over the summer and avoids having a glut of vegetables at one particular time.
• In early May sow sweet corn, pumpkins, French beans, courgettes, and cucumbers under cover. You can sow also sow them all straight into the ground in late May when the soil warms up.
• Towards the end of the month and beginning of June start planting out your young frost sensitive plants such as courgettes, French beans, celeriac, pumpkins, tomatoes and oca.
• Try to plant main potatoes by mid May
• Harvest early salad leaves, rhubarb, asparagus this month.
• Cut off flowering stalks from rhubarb crowns as it weakens the plant and reduces the crop.
• Be sure to keep watering in dry weather - seeds won't germinate unless kept moist! Try to conserve water and your time by covering the soil to conserve water. When the ground is moist cover it over with a thick layer of compost, organic hay, and cardboard or thick landscape fabric.

Top Tips: Try growing pea shoots!

• These are expensive to buy in the shops but easy and cheap to grow and give a delicious, nutty taste to your salads.
• Plant peas about 1 inch deep and 2 inch inches apart in good soil, either in the ground or in a pot.
• Keep the peas moist.
• When the plants are 8inches high cut off the top two inches. This will encourage side shoots to grow. As the plants grow keep harvesting the top 2-6 inches of the peas every 3-4 weeks. When the shoots start to get a little tough and bitter this is the point to stop harvesting.

More Top Tips: Potatoes for less work!

• Plant your potatoes 6 inches deep, add compost or manure if the soil isn’t that rich to feed the potatoes and retain water.
• Water thoroughly then cover the area with cardboard.
• Cut a hole in the cardboard above the potatoes so the leaves can come through. Growing potatoes under cardboard is economical, and keeps the soil moist and dark so you have less watering and earthing up to do!

June

Harvesting

• Keep harvesting salad leaves, radishes, rhubarb and beetroot
• Harvest asparagus but stop cutting mid-month
• Start harvesting the first early potatoes towards the end of the month. They will be ready when the flowers appear and the leaves start to die back.

Maintenance

• Keep watering during hot, dry spells. Give your plants a really good soak rather than quick water. This will ensure the water reaches the roots and doesn’t just evaporate on the soil surface. Water early in the morning or in the evening to give plants a better chance to access moisture.
• Keep earthing up your potatoes. Cover the foliage with soil until only the top few inches of leaves are showing. This stops the potatoes going green and toxic in the light and can help keep down diseases.
• Protect soft fruit from hungry birds and cover it with netting. Use fine netting or micro mesh to protect brassicas from birds and butterflies from laying their eggs on the leaves.

Planting Out and Sowing

• Keep sowing salad leaves. Try and sow these in a place with some light shade during the day as the hot weather can make them bolt (turn to flower and become bitter).
• Plant out brassicas
• Sow carrots, French and runner beans, calabrese, beetroot, kohl rabi, swede and turnips and Florence fennel this month.
• Outdoor tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and sweet corn plants can go outside at the beginning of the month. If you didn’t start these plants under cover you can sow courgettes, cucumbers, and sweet corn directly into the ground at the beginning of the month under a plastic cloche.
• If you are planting on an allotment try to plant your tomatoes under cover as blight spreads quickly on allotment sites. (Find out more about blight.)

Top Tips: Conserve water

As there’s so little rain mulching, or covering the surface of the soil, can help keep in water. There lots of materials that can be used to mulch fruit and vegetables such as cardboard, organic straw, fine layers of grass, or wilted comfrey and nettle leaves. Pick grass, nettles and comfrey before they set seed so they don’t self-sow in your vegetable beds. You can also half bury a plastic bottle or plant pot next to your plant so the water gets to the roots rather than running over the soil surface. This provides more water to your plants and deters slugs and snails!

July

We have had a real mix of weather over the last few weeks, heavy downpours and the hottest day of the year so far. So keep slug protection measures in one hand and a watering can in the other! Make sure you’ve got good air circulation in your greenhouse during hot days and keep an eye out for blight, especially on outside tomatoes, as it has a tendency to thrive in humid conditions.

This is a great month for crops so enjoy the following:

• Harvest delicious, early potatoes.
• Peas, beans, garlic, onions, artichokes, broad beans, beetroot, lettuce and perpetual spinach are all ready now.
• Fruit: pick strawberries, currants and gooseberries.
• Start picking courgettes this month.

Sowing

• You still have time to sow fennel and carrots this month.
• Sow chard, perpetual spinach and kale for fresh leaves through winter.
• Other crops that can be sown now include chicory, turnips, kohl rabi, swede and radishes.
• Sow spring cabbages towards the end of the month.
• If you have any bare soil sow a green manure such as Phacelia or red clover to protect and nurture the soil.
• Oriental stir fry greens such as red mustard, pak choi and Chinese cabbage can be sown later this month, these are great raw in salads as well as cooked.

Top Tips: Caring for Tomatoes and more...

• Download our guide to caring for tomato plants (pdf, 74Kb)
• Harvest your first early potatoes when flowers appear and the leaves die down and turn yellow.
• Stop harvesting rhubarb this month as it will weaken the plant and reduce next year’s crop.

August

July has been a mixture of sun and much needed heavy showers.  Make time to sit down, enjoy the weather and cast your eye over all the great vegetables and fruit now ripening.

Harvesting

August is another great month for lots of tasty salad crops and there’s a wealth of other delicious fruit and veg in the garden right now too:

• Harvest fresh, tangy tomatoes
• Beans, onions, shallots, garlic, perpetual spinach and chard are all ready now.
• Cucumber should now be producing good fruits
• Harvest carrots and beetroot
• Keep harvesting courgettes or they will become marrows and stop fruiting!
• Pick  raspberries as soon as you can to encourage more fruit

Sowing

• Broccoli raab, Spring cabbage, chard,  kale, winter radishes, Chinese cabbage, turnips and kohl rabi
• Early August is a good time for sowing oriental leaves as they often prefer the cooler weather. There are a huge variety to try such as mizuna, pak choi, mustard and mibuna
• Keep sowing salad leaves such as lettuces, rocket, land cress, claytonia, chicory and lambs lettuce.
• Plant out cauliflowers, cabbages, broccoli, and kales.
• Leeks need to be transplanted this month.

Top Tips: Look out for Blight and more

• Blight often attacks potatoes and tomatoes this month and can ruin your crops. Find out what blight looks like and what to do if you spot it.
• Look out for caterpillars on winter greens. Cover them with fine netting to stop butterflies laying their eggs.
• Sow Claytonia and lambs lettuce for dual purpose crops. Not only do both of these supply fresh salad leaves over the winter they also act as green manures. Protecting the soil from harsh weather and releasing nutrients into the ground through their roots. Cut or dig them into the soil before they flower.

September

September is harvest time and it’s a busy month for picking, pickling and storing. After the hot, early spring we’ve had a mixed summer so far, but the lack of frosts and well-timed downpours have given great conditions for bumper crops of fruit and many vegetables.

Harvesting

• Apples, pears and some plums will be ready now. Late raspberries and blackberries need to be eaten on the same day they are picked. Otherwise wash and freeze them for later as they won’t keep.
• Beans, cucumbers and courgettes all need regular picking to make sure they crop for as long as possible.
• As soon as your tomatoes go red pick them to encourage the green fruit to ripen. Towards the end of the month pick the rest of your outside green tomatoes and store in paper bags with bananas. The bananas release a gas which will help the tomatoes turn red.
• Pick young kale, chard and spinach leaves.
• Main crop potatoes are ready to harvest now. If blight appears on your potatoes chop all the foliage to the ground straight away and leave the potatoes for two weeks before digging up.
• Harvest sweet corn and onions.

Sowing

• Try sowing hardy salad crops such as lambs lettuce, winter purslane, land cress, rocket, mizuna and mustards outdoors.
• Under cover sow rocket, winter lettuces such as Winter Density and Rouge d’Hiver and oriental salad leaves such as pak choi, mizuna, and mustard.
• Japanese onions can be planted now. Protect them with netting if birds start pulling them out.
• Sow hardy spring onions such as white Lisbon now.
• Sow green manures to protect the soil over the winter.

Top Tips: Pumpkins and storing your harvest.

• Pumpkins are ready when they have turned colour, usually from green to orange depending on variety.
• You can tell they’re ready if they sound hollow when tapped and the pumpkin’s skin and stalk have hardened.
• Leave the pumpkins for as long as possible before harvesting them - if the weather is good hold off harvesting until towards end of September or early October, but pumpkins are killed by frost so be sure to harvest before the first frost!
• To give pumpkins the best chance of ripening in the sun, remove the leaves shading the fruit. Raise the fruit off the ground by placing flat stones under them; this will stop the fruit rotting on moist soil.
• To help pumpkins last through the winter place them on a sunny windowsill or greenhouse to ripen and cure for 2 more weeks after harvesting.
• Leave potatoes in the sun to dry for a few hours before storing them in a cool dry place.

The Autumn issue of City Food News, the Food Partnership's quarterly newsletter, contains more information on gardening tips for autumn and for making your crops last longer (see pages 10-11). Read it here.

October

According to the weather forecast the Indian summer has arrived and is here to stay for a bit longer. Make the most of the late sunshine and keep picking those late, prolonged crops. Take advantage of the warm conditions to let seed pods dry on the plants so you can store them for sowing next year and it also saves some money on buying new seed.

Harvesting

Still lots to harvest in these warm conditions, such as:

• Pumpkins
• Kale
• Carrots
• Sweet corn
• Beans – French and runner
• Apples
• Soft fruit
• Salad and oriental leaves
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes (make sure you harvest these this month if you haven’t already done so, an early frost will destroy the flavour and they will get slug damage if left in the ground too long)
• Swede

Sowing

October is a good time to start sowing garlic and Japanese onion sets. Fruit trees and soft fruit can also be planted now. If the weather continues to be dry and warm don't forget to water any sowings regularly. You can also sow broad beans and peas now but protect them from cold weather and bird damage with fleece. Note that broad beans can give unreliable results when sown at this time so if you have the patience wait until late winter or early spring.

Indoors

There is still time to sow your stir fry and salad leaves in a greenhouse.

Top tips for increasing soil fertility

Maintain your compost: Turn the compost bin and leave for the winter so that any hibernating wildlife in your compost bin is undisturbed.

Make Leaf Mould: Autumn leaves are a falling and are a valuable resource for the gardener. One of the simplest ways to make leaf mould is to fill a black dustbin bag with leaves, sprinkle with water and mix. Seal the bag and punch a few holes in the bottom and sides and leave for a year. Next autumn the leaves should have turned into a rich, crumbly plant feed.

Green manures: There is still time to sow a few green manures such as field beans and grazing rye. Green manures will protect the soil from the hard winter weather and can be cut back and added to the soil to help replenish it. Click here for more information about green manures.

When are my Apples ready to be picked?

Hold the apples gently in the palm of your hand and gently twist the stem. If it comes away easily from the tree the apples are ripe.

November

We've had a mild start to the beginning of the month but as the days get darker and the weather gets colder growth will slow down and plants which are frost tender and susceptible to harsh weather need protecting. Food for birds starts to be in short supply so protect brassicas and green with netting and get some ideas for how to feed birds here.

What to Sow Now

Garlic, over wintering onions and shallots.

Green manures to protect and feed the soil. There's still time to sow field beans and grazing rye.

Plant hardy peas, two good varieties to try are Meteor and Feltham First and hardy broad beans such as The Sutton and Bunyard’s Exhibition.

November is also a good month to plant fruit. Plant one year old rhubarb crowns this month. Also plant young fruit trees and soft fruit such as blackcurrants, gooseberries, white currants, and raspberries.

Harvesting

Harvest swede, carrots, beetroot, leeks, jerusalum artichokes, radishes, salsify and scorzonera.

Harvest the last of any crops which are vulnerable to frost e.g. basil, tomatoes and pumpkins.

Collect flower and vegetable seeds for sowing next year. Dry them inside if necessary and store in paper bags or envelopes.

Jobs to Do

This is a good time to do any digging jobs before the wet weather makes the ground too soggy and the frosts make it too hard.

Cover any frost vulnerable vegetables such as broad beans and winter lettuces with cloches or horticultural fleece once the weather turns cold, but leave some space for air flow.

Feed soil. Cover the surface of any bare beds with 2 to 3inches of well rotted manure. This will gradually break down over winter ready to feed your spring crops and saves you the work of digging it in.

Top Tips

Collect Water: We've had some very dry spring weather recently so start collecting and storing rainwater. Collect any over flow from gutters in water butts. Make sure there is a lid on your water butt as it stops some evaporation and stops animals from getting trapped and drowning. Here's a link for cheap water butts.

Planting Rhubarb: You can find one year rhubarb plants, or crowns , in good garden centres, or online.Choose a sunny site and add compost or well-rotted manure to the soil. Plant the crown with the growing tip just above the soil level.

Don’t pick stalks the first season as this will weaken the plant. Start harvesting lightly in the second season then regularly pick in the third year. Harvesting usually starts in April and finishes in July.

December

Last year it was unusually cold at the beginning of December and this year it’s unusually mild! Temperatures are beginning to fall so cover any crops which may be vulnerable to harsh weather and frost. The gardening year is slowing down so spend some time relaxing, browsing through seed catalogues and planning your next great gardening year. Or, alternatively tackle those jobs you haven’t had time to do. Use the winter months to dig out those tough brambles and weeds, fix your raised beds and give your shed a face lift.

Harvesting

There’s still plenty to harvest to give you the freshest vegetables for your Christmas dinner. Harvest parsnips, winter cabbage, Jerusalem artichokes, scorzonera, swede, turnips, kale, kohl rabi, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, leeks and horseradish. Also under cover harvest winter lettuce leaves, oriental salad and stir fry leaves.

Sowing and Growing

• Garlic (see top tip below for how to grow garlic)
• Rhubarb
• Plant fruit trees and bushes

Other jobs to do

• Sit down with a seed catalogue and a glass of mulled wine and plan next season’s crops.
• Check stored potatoes and any other vegetables and throw away anything which is starting to go damp or mouldy.
• Make a composting trench to enrich soil
• Start making compost to fertilize next year’s crops
• Dig out weeds on vacant areas
• Cover new ground with a mulch, such as cardboard or thick landscape fabric
• Do your cleaning and repairing: clean and sharpen tools and clean out your greenhouse to destroy over wintering pests. Also remove any leaves and debris that could harbour disease
• Fix fencing and raised beds
• Build a bbq and pray for a good summer

Top Tips: Building a Compost Trench

Trench composting is a way of composting by burying food scraps that you would normally put into the compost bin directly into the soil. This is a great way to fertilize your soil and to feed your plants at the exact place they need it – at the roots.
Trench composting is especially good for crops which need heavy feeding such as beans and pumpkins and courgettes.

• Dig a trench about a spade deep (30cms) and about a spade’s width (30cms).
• Fill the bottom with a 6inch layer of food scraps you can also include nettle and comfrey leaves but do not include meat, or dairy products or cooked food. Then cover with 6 inches of soil.
• Continue filling the trench with alternating layers of kitchen waste and garden soil. When full, cover with soil and let it settle for one to two months before sowing or planting.

How to Grow Garlic

Buy garlic from a garden centre or online, if possible, as it’s specially bred for the British climate and less likely to carry diseases.  Garlic grows best in fertile soil so add some compost or manure before planting if necessary. Break open the bulb and select the fattest cloves to plant as these will produce stronger, bigger plants. Plant the cloves with the flat, rough end down in the soil and the tip of the bulb just showing above the soil. Birds can pull up garlic cloves so plant the cloves with the tip just below the surface (up to an inch) if birds are a problem. Plant the cloves about 6 -8 inches apart. Garlic is ready to harvest when the leaves go dry and yellow, usually about late July and August.

How to Harvest Horseradish

Harvesting horseradish after a sharp frost is supposed to increase the flavour. But you can also harvest it at any time when the leaves have died down, normally between November and February. Horseradish produces a very long root so dig around in the soil and find a thick root ideally at least 2inches wide. Then dig up a piece about 8-9 inches long. Cut the root with a spade so that the bottom piece is left in the ground, this will grow back the following year.