At last, I've sown some tomatoes! It's a little late but I'm sure they'll catch up. I've also sown a few lettuce (red and green mixed) and three varieties of sweet pea that I found I had left over from last year. I don't know if they'll germinate, or indeed where I am going to put them if they do, but it felt like a good idea at the time!
Most of the seeds I've sown recently have started to come up - the butternut squash have been taking their time, and are just starting to show, but the rest have been pretty quick to germinate. I saw a good tip the other day - those free plastic shower caps that you get in hotel rooms fit nicely over a standard seed tray (or a group of pots) to make a DIY cloche/propagator! Worked a treat on my sweetcorn. Hotels around the country will suddenly find that their complimentary shower caps are actually being used! Any that I visit certainly will!
As an aside, on Easter Saturday I visited Oaktree Nurseries near Bracknell with my Brother-in-Law. I haven't visited many 'proper' nurseries, and it was a real eye-opener. It's a fantastic place, loads of plants and not just a handful of each varieties like your average garden centre, but huge swathes of plants in massive polytunnels/greenhouses that stretched over 25 acres! Everything from the tiniest bedding plants to huge mature trees. Definitely worth a visit if you're over that way and in the mood for plant shopping.
As I half-expected, I didn't get down the plot today! The weather has been alternating between sunny and chucking it down all day, so the ground would have been unworkable. My muscles were complaining this morning as well, so going out for Sunday lunch with a friend was an acceptable alternative!
However, I did sow some seeds indoors, as the picture shows. At the far end I have 12 loo roll tubes into which I sowed sweetcorn - the plan is that I can plant the entire thing, roll and all, into the ground when the time comes. Sweetcorn needs to be planted in a 'block' rather than a row to aid pollination, so hopefully 12 will be enough. I actually don't like sweetcorn much myself, but the wife does and you never know, I might like the stuff I've grown myself! If we've got it coming out of our ears (sorry) come harvest-time, I will probably be able to offload the excess on friends and family.
Other pots contain: Two type of courgette (Zuboda, which give green fruit, and Gold Rush, which are yellow), butternut squash and pumpkins (Jack Be Little variety this year). In each case I sowed more than I have space for on the plot, in case they don't all germinate. If they do I might give the extra plants to my brother or my folks.
The two square pots closest to the camera contain four seed each of Brussels Sprouts. I have not been able to get Sprouts beyond the seedling stage since I've had the plot, they never seem to survive on the plot for some reason - but I'll try again this year!
I finally managed to get myself down to the plot today. I don't mind saying that it's looking a bit of a state, but nothing that a bit of weeding, digging and pottering about won't cure. Now the clocks have gone forward I am hoping to be able to get down there for an hour so a few evenings a week, which should help.
I started by digging over one of the beds. Couch grass was rife. I removed most of it, and buried the rest (I know it'll pop up again, but I'll be ready with a hoe when it does). I'm intending to plant my seed potatoes there tomorrow, depending on whether I can move in the morning!
The bed that had spuds in it last year was still miraculously weed free, so I raked it over and planted my broad beans in there. They've been going great guns in their rootrainers, and needed planting out before they got too leggy. As it was quite windy today I covered 2/3 of the (35!)plants with ex-water bottle cloches (until I ran out of bottles). If the remaining exposed plants don't make it then I should still have enough protected to give a decent crop of beans. The bottles will stay in place for a week or two, until the plants have come on a bit.
I also attacked the grassed area on the plot with my hand-push lawnmower (definite glutton for punishment today!). Just a rough cut, I'll have to have a go at the paths and edges with my strimmer soon.
It was nice to get down the plot again for a good few hours. I've actually been missing it, so hopefully I'll be able to get down there a bit more from now on.
