Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi again people, well I have heeded the advise and cleared the green house . . . Almost clear . . . about 80% of the 20x10 available space now clear. Thats the best I can do, I like it too, dont like working in a mess. All I have to do now is a trip or three to the dump in the week.

So we have many packets of seeds, 200 litres of fresh potting compost and about 80/90 litres left over from last year.

A couple of questions:
1, The compost from last year, has been stored in a plastic dust bin with the lid on, will it be OK to use this year? I need lots to fill various containers outside the kitchen, herbs and things?

2, Its been very cold, the GH is not heated. Is it OK to start sowing seeds in the GH in the next couple of weeks, some have recommendations, some don't or is it better to play safe and wait until April?

CJS

Afternoon CJS, the old compost will be o.k for your out-door pots.

Regarding the seed sowing, anything hardy like onions, leeks, cabbage, cauliflower, broad beans and peas etc, will be fine sown now, for planting out later.

Anything tender like tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes runner beans etc all need frost free conditions, so yes hold fire on these until the weather warms up.

We are going to play safe and wait - we never sow seeds until at the earliest the end of March and the seedlings seem to catch up - they may be a little later in becoming mature but on the other side we have watched felow plotters who have sown early watch their plants wither and die.

In my opinion if the seedlngs suffer a set back due to either becoming cold or becoming pot bound they struggle later. In the days when people heated their greenhouses it maybe wasn't a problem sowing early but nowadays it's too expensive and keeping seedlings on wondowsills has never worked for us even with something set up to through light back seedlings have always ended up being leggy.

No doubt lots of people will disagree but that's e nature of these things.

Hello CJS
Some seeds like broad beans and early peas could be sown under cover now but I'm mainly with GL on this one. If you wander around the forum you will see that it is littered with postings about early sowing problems. Also we are coming out (hopefully) from a pretty cold winter but night time temperatures are still very low - warm days and cold nights don't make for successful seed sowing.

John

PS Sow seeds thinly, thin out as soon as they have their first pair of leaves and keep in full light.

though the suns out, theres still a cold wind and the nights are a wee bit chilly.. ive this week sown a few beans and salad leaves that will be raised in the tunnel.. but anything destined for outside and all the soft stuff for the tunnel is still in its packets. i start toms and peppers in a propagater then grow them on in the conservatory.before planting out in the tunnel. i reckon its still getting too cold in the conservatory at night to start sowing yet

Like I said under "Seasonal tips", I am holding off this year from sowing too early because the ground is so cold (we have actually not had any daytime temperatures in double figures since well before Christmas!). The only thing which will go into roottrainers shortly will be some broad beans "Witkiem" and some peas "Kelvedon Wonder" to plant out at home under cloches and I am starting some early potatoes ("Rocket") off in the greenhouse in large pots and misticanza lettuce in a growbag. Even then, no doubt they will need covering with fleece at times.

The seeds I have planted are all brassicas and I have done some toms and lots of flowers too, although I've held off on doing the sweet peas just yet until the end of the month. They're all snuggled under a thick layer of fleece and tucked in around the edges. I light my log burner in the greenhouse daily too, just before I leave to help keep them warm

Big Andrew said that I sometimes show more care to my seedlings than I do to him. What Can I do? I'm a gardener and lotttie holder