Long awaited Spring Bits and Bobs…

[oldherbaceous]

I wonder what Clive is doing today!

[Westi]

It felt a little more spring like today, but looking forward to tomorrow's sunshine. Got the brassica beds weeded, fed & dug today, but these are for the really long term residents like the PSB & chard etc. The 'normal' brassica seedlings are big enough to go in & their beds are ready so as I need space for the next sowings they can go in tomorrow.

I've put the staging where the sweet potatoes will go to buy extra time, so some of the next sows can go into big pots on the ground in there - not any beans though; not giving the rats & mice a smorgasbord! My plan for them is under construction & quite proud of thinking of it which is no more than some cheap small plastic troughs which I have drilled holes in so I can hang them off the tunnel roof bars out of the pesky critters way! (Hopefully)!

[robo]

Thank you all for your best wished

[tigerburnie]

Having trouble getting Hungarian Hot Wax peppers to germinate, normally grow like weeds, just done a second sowing, got the seeds from 'tinternet, so no idea if they are good or not, the writing on the package looks to be Polish, oh well the others are growing.

[Primrose]

Possibly old seed tiger, but in the past I,ve germinated H Wax seeds about four years old but learned to give them a bit of a soaking first. May depend of course on where the seeds have been stored, especially for long periods like too warm, etc.
I think most seeds prefer cool and dry although many tomato seeds seem to almost last for ever and still germinate. They probably come with a Garden of Eden lifetime guarantee!

[Clive.]

I wonder what Clive is doing today!

Forking over some ground that hadn't been attended to over winter, planting a couple of rows of potato Casablanca and row of Colleen. Then pushed some green longpod broad beans in. ..and a myriad of other bits and bobs along the way that makes the day go around...

...and the bonus of yesterday when I was having a bit of a mowing day was a Dakota aircraft right overhead...low, such that it was filling the sky.!

C.

[oldherbaceous]

Now that sounds very productive, Clive….i’m sure the Dakota pilot must have done the fly past especially for you,

[oldherbaceous]

How are your allotments doing, Peter?

[oldherbaceous]

A good frost out there this morning…..only have the electric heater in the glasshouse on a very low setting but, it is working out very expensive.

[Primrose]

OH. The heating costs certainly make raising your own plants and seedlings by this route a most costly operation than previously. Obviously the more you grow the more you manage to lower the cost but growing your own when heating is involved is no longer cheap, is it?

[tigerburnie]

A lot of chat on 'tinternet of folk improvising with putting candles inside clay flower pots to make small heaters for greenhouses, I guess in a blowaway they'd be quite efficient, not sure you could heat a whole glass house with candles. Under soil heaters are a cheaper way of helping plants along, my small propagator uses very little, about 20 watts I think.

[oldherbaceous]

Just got back from my first job, to a very welcome site, the automatic vents are open on the big glasshouse….everything looks instantly better with a bit of sun on them, and that includes me.

[oldherbaceous]

How are you progressing, Burnie?

[tigerburnie]

How are you progressing, Burnie?

Not bad thanks, I should have some of the pipe work removed this week and back in hospital as a day patient to have a stent removed the week after, there's quite a lot of blood about where you don't expect it, but luckily no real pain.

[oldherbaceous]

I’m so glad you are getting there, Burnie….hopefully the blood bit will settle down soon, I remember that bit only to well….don’t go doing any break in’s, as they will be able to follow the trail back to your home…