Now " Portugal 🇵🇹 " my beloved polytunnel is to use a golf course term: GUR. I am taking my seed sowing adventures back to what use to be a bedroom.
Regular readers will recall we used this little box room last year to chit a 55 Kg hessian sack of Homeguard potatoes 🥔.
We enjoyed them very much. Particularly Diesel our Bernese mountain dog. She loves eating them with her Yorkshire Puddings.
So now tiz the season to start collecting our seeds from the German garden centre and beer providers and supermarket in Bantry town
I must purchase some seed compost. But none of that cheap stuff that's made of composted bark and peat.
A good John Innes number 3 type of loam soil based compost full of nutrients and nice to work with your fingers. The better the compost the better your veg plants grow.
It's a tad bit early to start germinating seeds but I am very very tempted. Nothing gladdens the heart more that some tender seedlings 🌱 growing in a potting tray during gale season.
Anyone else collecting or even started sowing their vegetables seeds yet?
Collected here. Quite a nice stash. I've got my starter trays here and my starter medium. Like you, I'm trying to be sensible and wait. Like you, I am anxious to 'get the party started'.
ReplyDeleteGood to read Debby. Lettuce are supposed to be cold weather vegetables and don't mind cold temperatures. So I will start sowing half a dozen of them for the rabbits and me. I pregerminate my Parsnip seeds in damp kitchen towel in a plastic takeaway tray with the lid on and place it on top of the cooker hood. Usually when sown they take 28 days to germinate. Mine sprout within 5 days to a week. Have you started building those raised beds yet Debby?
ReplyDeleteWe've a foot of snow on the ground still. Best to wait until that's melted off.
DeleteWinter vegetables like parsnips and leeks would love your snow and ice Debby. Turning the starches into sugars and tasting delicious.
DeleteSomething to consider once the beds are built, but the actual construction will simply have to wait until winter is over. The pile of compost is too frozen to dig into, and we want the beds built on the ground. We got five more inches of snow over night. Bleh!
DeleteIf you want to quick way of half filling the raised beds. Take a loot at Hugelkultur gardening Debby. You can fill the raised beds with tree trunks and branches.
DeleteI have packets of seeds from a magazine subscription which I won't use, I will pop them to our local junior school, they have a small market garden. I'm waiting, our wet start to each year is no longer good for early sowing.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that the school has a garden for the pupils to learn to sow and plant and water and tend Marlene. I think starting onion sets off in trays indoors is better than planting them in the wet and cold soil of the veg plot. Last year I pregerminated my parsnips in April. The old gardening books writers use to sow them I February with a plank over them fo keep dry. I think I will sow some cabbage seeds so I have strong plants to plant in March. I must invest in some good seed and potting compost. The cheap stuff is just bark and peat and forms a crust.
DeleteI've given up on cheap compost, it's a waste of money and time. The school regularly sell veg boxes, which are very popular.
DeleteTotally agree Marlene. There is no point sowing seed in a poor compost medium. Seedlings will struggle to grow and will lack essential nutrients. I hope you write a post about the schools market garden and veg scheme. The pupils will be the veg gardeners of the future.
DeleteI'm thinking of it! I ve emptied a couple of big pots and weeded the raised bed. I do prefer to plant seedlings though. I'm waiting to plant lots of basil. Something that always does well. And a few tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteThe rocket is still doing well. Tasty and peppery
Hi Linda. I've been wanting to weed my repurposed raised beds but everything is cold and wet and in gutter. We are still eating our leeks and making leek and potato soup. Roll on Spring and Summer. We have a bank holiday weekend this week: St Brigid's Day. The Irish saint who made crosses from rushes. One of the few things anyone could do with them. I won't be sowing any Rush seed. They sow themselves!
ReplyDeleteI shall be sowing basil and parsley seeds when I get home. They like my south facing kitchen windowsill.
ReplyDeleteTomato and basil soup?🤔 Yes JayCee it's good to have fresh herbs growing I the kitchen. I can't because our cats like to sample them before us. The shops are starting to stock the middle aisles with gardening stuff like seeds and onion sets.
ReplyDeleteI have too many old packets of seeds! I must check the germination on them in March and give the reluctant germinators to the birds!
ReplyDeleteYes GZ I remember you saying you pregerminate any old packets of seeds to see if they are worth sowing. I always tend to buy new seeds every year. Our seeds only cost 99 Centa a packet. Much cheaper than buying vegetable plants.
ReplyDeleteI haven't decided what to grow yet, this year. I'll have to give it some serious thought.
ReplyDeleteWe don't grow anything really exotic Jules: New potatoes, tomatoes, parsnips, brassicas, parsnips, swedes, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, onions both summer and winter, Jerusalem artichokes and lots and lots of leeks. We also freeze tomatoes and onions when we get a glut. We also have pigs.
ReplyDeletePlease don't feed me to Diesel The Bernese Mountain Dog! Surely I am more than mere dog food! I am not even thinking about vegetable gardening yet but our efforts will be paltry compared with yours.
ReplyDeleteI won't YP. I am itching to get sowing and growing again.
ReplyDeleteSome gardeners are show-ers, others are growers.
DeleteYou're a poet it and you know it!
DeleteToday I hope to plant seeds of tomatoes, sweet peppers aubergine and torpedo shallots, but in the conservatory , not the tunnels. I shall be pruning in the tunnels. The buds are beginning to show a little colour on the peach trees, spring is definately on the horizon. I usually plant these seeds earlier than this, but with all the storm damage we have been busy. anyway I dont think the weather would have encouraged the seeds to get out of bed yet.
ReplyDeleteMany of my seed potatoe are beginning to shoot, so may plant some up.
No spare time from now on.
Hope you can repair some of your tunnel to give a little cover, Dave .
You have been very busy Kathy. I am thinking of turning the tunnel frame north to south instead of West to east like it is now. That means emptying it. What a prospect?
ReplyDelete