I’ve always wanted my own branded seed trays, just like Monty at Berryfields. But it’s one of those things that you never see for sale in the shops and much less the opportunity to put your own name on it. And even though I did find somewhere online selling traditional seed trays, and also somewhere offering personalised branded trays I felt that they were charging too much to make it really worth while. After all, I am only going to fill it with dirt and leave it in my cold frame all winter!
So, in these cash-strapped times there was only one solution – to make my own. I used part of an old packing box for the tray and bought a stencil and permanent marker. I’m pretty proud of the result. After one season of dirt and moss it will look just as good as the real thing, I’m sure.
Ack! Some of my Radish came up blind (didn’t bulb up properly). It’s my own fault – I forgot to thin the row so they ended up overcrowded, which Radishes hate. It makes sense. They don’t have enough room to grow sideways so they grow up instead. So, make sure to thin your Radish to at least 2-3 cm apart, and keep them watered. They are easy to grow but that doesn’t mean you can sow them and forget about them like I did. Otherwise all you get is a nice row of lush green leaves, but no Radishes!
When I first started vegetable gardening I was very confused about what constituted a successional vegetable. Gardeners on TV shows and in books were always harping on about ‘carrying on with your successional sowings’ like everyone knew what to do. I didn’t.
So, now that I get it I thought it would be helpful to do a short post on what is successional sowing and which vegetables will benefit from being sown in this way.
Sowing successionally means that you sow a small amount of fast maturing crops at around 2 week intervals to give you a harvest the summer long instead of a glut at one particular time. These are normally vegetables that don’t store well in the ground or go to seed easily. For example, it’s a good idea to sow veg like lettuce in this way unless you really need 79 lettuce to be ready all at the same time.
It’s a good idea to separate your seed packets into those you need to sow once and those you need to sow successionally. I keep my successional veg packets on the potting shed bench throughout the growing season to remind me to sow a little of each every couple of weeks.
Vegetables that you might consider sowing successionally will include:
- Lettuce
- Radish
- Spinach
- Peas
- Spring Onions
- Carrots (especially early Carrots)
- All Salad Leaves
- Rocket (in early Spring and late Summer)
Some people make two sowings of these vegetables throughout the year to ensure that the crop spans the growing season:
- Tomatoes
- French Beans
- Runner Beans
- Beetroot
If anyone else has any successional veg to add to the crop then add them to the comments.
I planted my Cauliflowers today. I sowed them with the tomatoes back in March and now they are about 10cm high. Because we have a walled garden the temperature is a little higher inside than outside so it’s totally safe to plant out Cauliflowers.
I watched a show once where they suggested mixing lime with potting compost. The idea was to dig a big hole for each Cauliflower and put the lime mixture in the hole before planting. Lime helps combat Club Root which, if you have it in your soil, can ruin your chances of growing Cauliflowers or other Brassicas for a good few years to come. So needless to say I’m taking every precaution to avoid that.
Despite taking these precautions, Cauliflowers are still difficult to grow well. If the club root doesn’t get at them then the Cabbage White butterflies will, and if their caterpillars don’t munch through the whole lot then Cabbage Root fly will make the leaves wilt and die. The reality is that Cauliflowers will probably take up a lot of your time and attention – probably more time and attention than is really worth it if we’re being honest.
Honestly, I haven’t had that much success with Parsnips in the past. I have either sown them too early (no germination) or too late (very small Parsnips). Or slugs have eaten them, or they have just plain failed. This year I’m trying again and hoping that now my garden is literally on my doorstep that I can tend them sufficiently well to produce something edible.
I’ve read several tips on how to grow them successfully. The first is to use fresh seed. Apparently, Parsnip seed is notoriously flaky when it comes to germination and if the seed isn’t fresh then you run the risk of very patchy growth after weeks of waiting. So, I bought some seed of the Tender & True variety and cracked it open.
The second piece of advice I found was to sow the seed in a hole made with a dibber and filled with seed compost. It seems that Parsnips (like Carrots) have a hard time breaking through tough soil and so like to be sown in a bed of nice soft compost.
The third piece of advice is to wait, wait, go and make a cup of tea and wait some more. Parsnips are not exactly early starters so expect to wait some weeks before you even see a glimmer of germination. Some people even say you can sow a catch crop (a faster growing crop) of radish along side in the time it will take the Parsnips to show.
Just to be on the safe side I have done all of the above. Here’s hoping we will be enjoying some roasted Parsnip later in the year.
It’s time to replant the Tomato seedlings that I put in the heated propagator a few weeks ago.
I’m growing two cherry tomatoes (Sub Arctic, and Gardeners Delight) and one standard variety (Robin). I may also buy some yellow variety tomato plants later on from the garden centre. I always end up with more tomatoes than planned.
Usual rules apply; always handle seedlings by the leaves rather than the stalk, take as much soil with each one as possible etc. Special rules with tomatoes include: plant them a little deeper in their new pot than in the seedling tray and water with tepid water so as not to shock them. Then cross your fingers.
If, like me, you sowed some peas in guttering in the cold frame then now’s the time to put them in the ground. They’re pretty frost hardy and so should be able to cope with just about anything (even snow in April!).
Don’t forget to water them before you attempt to slide out the seedlings to enable them to come out in one piece. You don’t want to disturb that lovely root system as peas hate that and will respond by checking their growth for a few days.
In go the shallots for 2008. I planted the biggest specimens I could find from the batch I grew last year. I was careful to walk on a board (like Monty does) so as not to flatten my precious fluffy soil. I’ll be scattering some wood ash on there once they start growing, to give them a boost. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain constantly this summer and ruin all my onion plans!
Despite the demolition that is going on in the garden right now I’m still managing to do a little preparation for the coming season. I planted up some onion sets (Red Baron) in small pots. Normally, I’d put them straight into the ground however since I don’t have any beds to put them in right now I’m opting for the pots with a view to transplanting them later.
I’ve learned that there are a couple of tricks to growing successful onions. The first is not to plant them too close together. People will tell you that if you want smaller onions to just plant them closer – which is true – but if you plant them too close then you can’t get your hoe in to weed in between them and the result is a messy onion bed overrun with weeds. Onions hate to compete – they give up the fight and let the weeds take over. They suffer badly.
The other tip is that they like a rich soil with lots of nitrogen. Either grow them in a bed that was previous used for Legumes or apply a nitrogen fertilizer around a month before harvest. This will give them a great boost. Lastly, I would recommend growing them from sets. Seeds are fine if you have the time and you want a particular variety that is not available in sets but if you just want some nice onions then go for sets every time.
If you look really closely (possibly with the aid of a magnifying glass) you can just about see that the first signs of life in the garden are showing. The Garlic that I planted back in November is showing its tiny green, pointy head and so are the Tulip bulbs that were planted just afterwards. Yey! I’m so excited about the next growing season.
