Cunning plan

My plan of attack for the next couple of weeks is:

• repot enough seedlings to start hardening off
• put them somewhere cooler than my windowsill
• plant them in final location
• plant more seeds
• Rinse
• repeat

Anyone ever had any luck with physalis giving fruit? I want to grow to eat, not for decoration, although that's an added benefit.

I have also been given a load of carrot seeds, are carrots hard to grow? I have heard of carrot fly...

The small is obsessed with watering and weeding. This is mostly good, however, what she wants to weed isn't always quite right. Luckily I have more than my fair share of rocket seedlings.

Our exciting planting venture of the week was to put loads of fresh potting compost into the planter that lives on the shelf in our porch. Normally we regrow morning glories there every summer. This year we're trying morning glories AND dwarf peas. Both lots are coming up already, after being planted and heavily watered on Thursday. Impressive!

Photos

See, I do sometimes take pictures, honest!




What a difference a couple of weeks makes. Look at the size of my chives!









Notice my little mutant sweetcorn? One of them is coming up twisty and turny...



























These pictures are of the teeny tiny raised bed that my mother-in-law gave me as a birthday present. We filled it with two growbags, and the small and I planted a whole load of mixed lettuce type things: red mustard, pak choi, rosette pak choi, lambs lettuce, and some beetroot. The things in pots are the rosemary we're rooting from the giant and straggly rosemary bush we got rid of, and the black grass (Ophiopogon nigrescens, I think) that lived where we've put the bed. I think it looks lovely in that turquoise pot.

Buying Seeds... a mini-review

Being a non-driver, my seed shopping so far has been restricted to Wilkinsons and the pound shop, seeing as none of my local garden centres are accessible on public transport.
This is all fine for the basics, but part of the reason for wanting to grow my own veg is to be able to have more exciting things than I could get at the supermarket.
So, after mooching around online a bit, I found two places that I decided to order from.
Both appealed to me because of their cheeriness, and the fact they were utterly non-threatening to a newbie gardener: a lot of places I looked sortof screamed "serious knowledgeable people buy seeds here", and put me off.
But you don't want to hear about those do you?
No!
You want to know about the lovely newbie-friendly cheery ones don't you?

The first that caught my attention was Moreveg, which was simple and straightforward but had interesting things like Spaghetti Squash and Atomic Red Carrots. I also liked the 'what to grow this month' page and the fact that the seeds are listed alphabetically. I also loved the fact I could pay by paypal.

The second drew me in with an offer of a freebie, but then held me with its general niceness. This was Vegetable Seeds. Again, there were interesting things to be had, pleasingly presented in a newbie-friendly way, and I could pay by paypal. The seeds were cheap, and there's free postage too. But then it got better. Straight away after ordering, I got an email with the instructions for my seeds, which just made me smile, but the best bit is the lovely customer blog space (beautiful example here).

I'm now just waiting for my seeds to arrive, so I can get planting!

Pease! Groweeeeeng!

The title is a quote from my small person, who has developed a passionate and perhaps dangerous interest in what is sprouting in our seed trays. It is unlikely to be dangerous to her, but let's see how the toddler level trays last out the spring. I'm betting we have at least two potting compost across the floor type collapses.

Anyway, she's wrong, the peas are outside, sitting in the cold cold ground, and I hope that the hard frosts haven't killed them. We keep looking for them though, every time we walk past.


Groweeng in seed tray no1 we now have Salvia horminum, common basil, greek basil and Calendula all sprouting. In amazing, planted on Sunday, seed tray no2 we now have sweetcorn, and parsley just starting to go.


Seed tray 2 also contains:

• Viola- johnny jump up
• Coriander
• Chives
• and Rocket.

There was a definite spring-y softness to the air this morning, despite the -2 °C thermometer reading while we walked to nursery, and the Small is pointing out buds, and flowers. I get so excited this time of year, as the clouds of the February blues start to part, and I can believe that the light and the lovely smells and colours of the year are coming round again.