Sowing more seed. Busy time...

I have sown some Cucurbita pepo "Rouge Vif d'Etamps"; Cucumis sativa "Wautoma";  Cucurbita pepo ovifera "Black Beauty" ;  Phaseolus vulgaris "Cherokee Trail of Tears" and "Cobra"; Brassica oleracea rapa "Oasis"; and  Zea mays "Northern Extra Sweet".

I thought that it was a little early for squash and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) so I will delay sowing these for a couple of weeks.

The dill, cumin, chamomile, marjoram, tarragon, have finally all been pricked out into trays.  They are tiny seedlings and very fiddly.

I am hardening off celery, celeriac, shallots, asparagus, onion, chamomile, lettuce, cauliflower and cabbage.

I will be planting out cauliflower, cabbage, turnip, lettuce, broad beans, and onions in the allotment garden.  The weather, which is very showery is not being as kind as I would like it to be.  It looks like I am going to have to plant out in the rain.  The plants are outgrowing their pots and should be planted as soon as possible.

I will be protecting the cabbage and the cauliflower from pigeons using hoops and enviromesh.  This will be left on over the summer to keep cabbage white butterflies from laying eggs on the brassica foliage.  Using barriers is a much more effective way of protecting vegetables than using sprays.

Seed potatoes have come.

The seed potatoes from JBA came on Tuesday. www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk  I am keeping them in the house at the moment because it is too cold  to put them into the greenhouse.  They are of a good size for seed potatoes.  I have only got Kestrel this year because I grew too many last year.  If I stick to my plan and just plant these, I should have more than enough.

I will chit these potatoes by putting them into trays and leaving them on the staging in the cool greenhouse.  This will help them to develop small buds.  It is suggested that this encourages the potato to produce more or bigger tubers.  (Tubers are stem swellings at the end of rhizomes.  You can tell that the tubers are stems because roots do not usually have buds on them.)  I don' t know if chitting makes any difference to the yield of potatoes but I think that reducing the number of buds will give larger tubers.

I am not going to take any of the buds off.  I will grow them as they come.  I hope that I get as bigger yield as I did last year.

I am going to wait until after the cold weather to plant any more seed.  The ones that I have are growing well still but they are getting a little drawn because I cannot put them out into the greenhouse yet without them getting damaged by the cold.

The sweet peas seem to be surviving at the moment.  They have been knocked about by the cold weather and they need to be watered.  I cannot water them at the moment so I will have to wait until it warms up a little.  Watering now may lead to the water freezing on the plants which is not a good idea.  Also it encourages fungal damping off.

This cold weather is not good for gardeners.  You cannot get onto the allotment or garden to do any jobs.  Having said that I may go to the allotment today to get some more vegetables.  I want to get the rest of the carrots, some parsnips, beetroot, salsify, scorzonera, Brussel sprouts, rocket and American land cress.

One of the worst jobs in gardening is harvesting Brussel sprouts in this cold weather.