Kitchen Garden Forum

Up in the back room this afternoon potting on & planting more seeds. Been amazed at some & disappointed by others.

Success to date:
Tomatoes - 4th potting on as doing so well, Cucumbers looking strong, Aubergines doing well (bought a cheap packet of 'mixed' which unfortunately were not in separate bags in the packet) & still look identical so expect I've got all the same varieties coming up. Leeks look fine too & Celeriac, although teeny looks strong. Petit Posy looking good as well.
Failures:
Chilies are in the compost, slow to germinate & weak seedlings (new seed), Cauliflowers leggy & joined the Chillies, Calabrese got a second chance but If not looking better next week will also be binned.

I'm being tough & quite proud of myself as I do have a tendency to feel sorry for the wee plants, but finally I have taken notice of your good advice. (Won't stop me buying the sad older plant at the garden centre though, but generally these just need a decent drink & romp away again).

Westi

My radishes, red onions and cress (had tto let my little girl grow something fast) are growing a treet. But my sweet corn and carrots not so much... But they have only been in a week...

My seedlings arn't doing anything, big reason for that

I haven't sown any !!! yet.

Onions that I sowed in January are past seedling stage, other than that I try not to get sucked in to sowing far too early

This next week will see me start limited sowing in greenhouse.

Same here Pa Snip....i'm going to save the greenhouse, seed sowing until the Easter weekend, when it will be raining heavily from start to finish....

Pessimist,

Same as me,

but I go on theory I will not be disappointed if right and can only be pleasantly surprised if wrong.

Sweet peas just coming through - was shocked at the price for a pot of, maybe five at the garden centre!

I've got quite a bit coming on nicely. Tomatoes, Aubergines, Peppers, Cucumbers, Courgettes all growing away in the propagator. Salad leaves (Mustard, Mizuna, Curly Cress, Rocket, Lettuce) all ready for cutting in heated greenhouse. Sweet Peas potted on, Beetroot and Lettuce for use as plants and Pea Shoots just germinating also in the hgh. Onions, Shallots, Mangetout Peas, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Calabrese all growing on nicely in pots and rootrainers in the cold greenhouse which has direct sown salads just germinated in a cloche. The tunnel has Coriander and more salad in one cloche and early Potatoes in another, it's amazing how much further on the Potatoes in the middle of the tunnel are compared with those at the wall.

today, I saw the first of my lettuce seedlings poking their heads up in the greenhouse, and maybe a carrot or two, or that might be something in the compost ... lol

Broad beans well up on windowsill and peas starting to shoot there too. All I can do.

On an unrelated note, my 2apple trees, and my cherry tree are looking alot better after a few days in the ground they looked a bit the worse for wear after an 8 hour car journey from my friends down in Oxford, so glad they have picked up in the soil and water

Hopes of digging yesterday again foiled; the huge gorse fires were out but the dreaded slurry spreading was in progress up here a few feet from my front door and the air was putrid. Not quite as bad this morning and looking forward to kindly rain later this week. Small patch I have so it will wait and today I will add to the seed trays on the windowledges.

Marigold

Is the slurry something you could purloin bucket loads of and use on your plot.

Pa Snip wrote:Marigold

Is the slurry something you could purloin bucket loads of and use on your plot.

Nice idea but if you smelled this stuff! Fresh from the slurry pit the cattle have been filling while inside and would scorch the air from you. Methane gas..The air is still putrid as no wind. Last year they dumped almost atop the house well here and got heavily fined for breaching the buffer zone.. Pray for rain.. cannot be outside in it. Now if it were well rotted solid manure, yay! This is liquid s**t.. anyways, my broad bean seedlings have been out on the outside windowledge all day starting the hardening off process....Looking good they are too.. LOVE broad beans...

Most of my seedlings are the hardy varieties which I started in the cold greenhouse (with fleece cover overnight when necessary) and are now slowly being accustomed to the big outside: early peas, broad beans, sweet peas. Others in the greenhouse now include leeks, loose-leaved lettuce, rocket, night scented stock, sunflowers, other hardy annuals and more sweet peas. On a bright windowsill in the house are pots of sweet pepper, chilli pepper and celeriac.

In about a fortnight, I shall start to heat the greenhouse (with a tubular electric heater) when the last named pots will go in here and will be joined by tomatoes, still to be sown. French beans, runner beans, courgettes etc I don't sow until the end of April, otherwise they get too large before it's warm enough for them to go outside.

I've only got leeks, sweet peas and a tray of my own mix of baby salad leaves (using up odds and ends from last year) germinated so far.

I sowed the Stereo broad beans last week and the tomatoes and peppers yesterday. I'm going to start a few brassicas off in cell trays this week but wait until May to sow the main brassica seed bed outside. I also sow sweetcorn, courgettes, beans etc in pots and deep cell trays in the greenhouse in April.

I also sow a few small rows of beetroot and radishes in the greenhouse borders.

There's plenty of time for everything to grow and ones sown when the light and temperature increase usually catch up and generally do better than earlier sowings.