Ok. I know we're playing a bit of catch up here as I'm posting one of my first updates in mid April. Especially when you read most other weekly updated gardening blogs, will be filling their posts with loads of stuff about what they've sown in February, March and April...
I say "Don't worry!". In my experience, unless you've got a fleet of electric propagators in heated greenhouses (I don't!) all that happens when you sow veg seeds early is that (1) it's too cold for them to germinate (2) they do germinate but take so long doing so that they ultimately rot in the compost or (3) you finally get them going, only for an early April frost to take everything out in one cold early morning. However, what nature takes away with one hand, it gives back with the other, and in particular, nature is brilliant at catching things up. So, the later you sow, the more likely and quickly seeds will germinate and the stronger they will grow on. So now is not too late to sow - in fact its a good time. And I'll talk about what I have been sowing in the last couple of weeks, next time...
That said I do have a couple of things already in the ground on the allotment plot. I put in garlic and onion sets in the autumn to establish over winter and then grow on to harvest around June/July time.
And around the end of March (just as we were all about to be put in lock-down) I put all my seed potatoes in the ground. Now, you get 2 types of potato - earlies (salad or new potatoes) and main-crop (baking and mashing potatoes)- and whilst I would usually put my earlies in the ground in March, I'd leave it another month before the main-crop go in. Not this year though, the threat of being in total lock-down forced me to put everything in early, so it will be interesting to see if it makes any difference at all come harvesting times later in the year.
As you can see (right) I have hoed them up (raised the soil level over where the potatoes are planted) to protect early growth because as soon as the first leaves start to show through the soil they could be cut down by the frosts we are still having and damage the plant.
It's not just for frost protection that you pile the soil up though. As the potatoes will grow in the ground, so the more ground you give them, the more potatoes you should get. Well that's the theory. Of course they will also need moisture and as it hasn't rained for the fortnight since they went in the ground, and I haven't been up there watering every night, I guess we'll have to wait and see!
And for those of you who don't have a lot of room to work with here are a couple of other onion and potato ideas...You don't need big spaces to grow some things. We stumbled upon on an old kitchen sink when we converted the land into an allotment plot (that's another story for another day!) so I've got some onions growing in soil in that this year.
And because I had some seed potatoes left over, I have filled up some small black potato growing bags with a mix of well rotted manure and soil and put one potato in each and set them on the garden patio. They wont take much space up, will be easier to harvest and apparently crop pretty well too. I'll let you know how well later in the year.
Next time I'll show you what seeds I have been growing this month; some sown in pots and trays and some sown straight in the ground.
Until next time....
Ian
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