So after telling you I did 'not very much' sowing before April, what have I sown since? And where? Well, quite a lot actually and already with varying degrees of success.
Let's start by explaining the 3 options for sowing I have. Certain seeds have to go straight into the ground because they don't like being disturbed and potted on. For general sowing, I have an unheated greenhouse in my garden and a cold frame (made utilising a discarded folding shower door) on the allotment. Finally, for the really tender stuff I come inside the house and utilise windowsills or the conservatory we have which doubles up as a place where I grow my Mediterranean plants (Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, Jacaranda and Hibiscus for those who are interested).
This is also the place where my wife, Mags, spends her Saturday mornings with a cup of coffee and the weekend papers, and where in the winter and spring in particular, I am challenged to empty the area as quickly as possible so it can be returned to its original purpose!
So let's start outside, in the ground. The veg I tend to grow straight in the ground are root veg (where the veg tends to grow as an extension of the root in the ground). We are talking parsnips, carrots, radishes and beetroot. Now first of all, sowing outside will take longer because its colder. Secondly, you run the risk of losing early sowings to the late frosts, a couple of which we have had this last week. And then there's insects and animals; slugs and snails in particular. When it's wet the slugs are out in force clearing most small green vegetation in their path, and when its dry they seek out the green stuff anyway. I am an organic gardener so pest control methods have to be natural (although I do use organic slug pellets). In fact slug and pest control will be another blog later in the year (when they're out in even more force - grrrr).
I had also forgotten the pain that cats can be for gardeners. This year Mags, (the aforementioned conservatory enforcer!) has, for one year only, allowed me to use some of the beds in our garden for veg growing. My first sowing went into some pristine soil, only to be visited in the night by a local cat that found said patch and 'did its business' there disturbing all the seeds in the process in its attempt to 'bury the evidence'. I'd forgotten about this downside to living without your own animal to protect your territory. So cat lovers had better look away now, as I have an organic deterrent. Each year we have a real Christmas tree, which after the festivities are over I leave outside for a couple of months where it drops all its needles before we cut it up and recycle it...but not before I've collected a pile of pine needles for scattering over freshly seeded areas. The cats will still visit, once, then finding their toileting significantly more painful, visit less frequently in future...well that's the plan, anyway.
However, I digress. The ground sown veg, if it survives the above hazards, will need to be thinned (apart from beetroots which tend to like battling it out between themselves and are quite happy to muscle each other out from wherever the competition is). But we're a while away from that yet as it's only the radishes that have started to pop up out of the ground 3 weeks on.
And one final thing about sowing in the ground. You need decent free running soil as a rule. Now most of my 'roots' are grown in raised beds where I can control the soil much better. The allotment soil (above) is clay based so clumps when wet and concrete when dry, neither of which are conducive to good growing - so If I do sow direct into the ground, it tends to be into a drill filled with compost or ex grow-bag soil to give the seed something to get its roots into.
The greenhouse sown seedlings are a little more successful, but still with some failures. I tend to sow brassicas (cabbages, broccoli etc), leeks, tomatoes, dwarf beans, sweetcorn and lettuce under glass as they are much more tender. This year it took a good fortnight for anything to appear and one month on there are clearly some failures. The sweetcorn hasn't germinated at all and the tomatoes too (although I have a suspicion part of that may be down to the seed being too old). I am trying to sow individual seeds into purpose built trays to minimise disturbance when you move them on - seeds are pretty resilient to my heavy handed splitting as a rule but if you can just move the whole root-ball in one go when potting on, that's best.
The real successes have been in the conservatory though where I have sown, cucumber, tumbling tomatoes, squash, courgettes and chillies (above) - all with remarkable success. I hate throwing seedlings away so the fact that I have successfully germinated every single one of these seeds means I'll try to find a place for them all somewhere so there could be plenty of all these veg later in the year. And if you read my previous blog you'll remember me saying how good nature is at 'catching up'. Well because I could see the greenhouse sweetcorn sowing had been a disaster, I sowed some more directly into pots (below) in the conservatory. Most of them are all up a week later. So that just shows, the later you leave it and the warmer the 'climate' the better chance of success you have.
Before I go, just one more thing. Although I tend to start my lettuces individually in a greenhouse, you can sow these directly into the ground too. In fact, sow a drill of lettuce, rocket, beetroot all close together and just leave them. If they germinate successfully and get going, you can keep cutting all the baby leaves as fresh salads - they will keep coming back for as long as you keep cutting them (you can do exactly the same in a pot on the windowsill if you don't have much of an outdoor space too).
Anyway, that's it for now - happy sowing.
Ian
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