Early leek sowing

I sowed a 5 inch pot with a fairly thick spread of King Richard leeks today. Jack's compost used and a good spray on top. The compost was warm after a couple of days in the conservatory and so was the water. The pot is in a plastic crate "greenhouse" to keep it moist. (First seedlings up on Jan 28th)

The onions are well up now. About 3 cells with none, mostly 2 or three, some with more, may need to thin.

VERY hard frosts this last week. 

Seed tests.

I watched a YouTube video from "Home Grown Veg" yesterday on testing old seed for viability. It prompted me to copy him and do a test on all the outdated seeds I might be using this year. The seeds under test are in a plastic VHS case with a paper towel lining, alll given a good spray of fresh water.

I'll be checking them over the next three weeks to see what the results are.

Here are the seeds and my recording sheet:

Sowing onions

40 cells of Tropea Rossa Lunga (last year's seeds) sowed in Jack's Compost. 3/4 to a cell for multiple planting. Left in the conservatory to germinate. (First germinations visible on 15th January)

Solstice sowing

Well, the solstice was yesterday morning so we are on the up now! I decided to grow some garlic. I took 2 good cloves from a supermarket bulb today and planted them in small peatpots. They are sitting out uncovered and I await results?
(They were planted out into the plastic bed in late January or early February.)

Autumn sowing

On November 17th I prepared my centre vegetable bed. It's 30 x 27 inches. I dug it over, incorporating weeds, dosed it with some blood, fish and bone, added a layer of 2015 leaf mould and topped it with garden compost.

Then I sowed 30 broad bean seeds, The Sutton. I finished the job by covering it with netting to keep out the squirrels, voles and mice who tend to visit this area. Now to see when they germinate. (First three up on Dec 18th.)

I must remember to give the plants plenty of support early this time.

New gardening year again...

...always begins when I plant my elephant garlics. The four "rounds" that I lifted in July went into the plastic bed in the first week of October. The plot was cleaned out after the dwarf beans and a handful of BFB added at the garlic end before planting. The area was topdressed with sieved garden compost too.   (3 came up on 8th December.)

I have nice seedlings of godetia and saved hollyhocks coming along and some anemones from saved seed too. The foxgloves, hesperis and honesty have been planted out at the equinox and are looking good in their beds.

I have prepared a new bed to become my herb garden. It had thyme in already. Lots more to go in.
(Lovage, sage, marjoram, oregano, lemon balm, mint, chives and garlic chives in a few days later.)

Apple trees and greengage have all been mulched with 2014 leafmould and the apple tree bed has been dressed with my spent potato pot composts.

First Sarpos

My ten-inch pots with a single Sarpo Mira seed potato have yellowing foliage and don't look like there's much more in them so I decided to drop one of them today and see what was inside.  The roots were very strong with a lot of potatoes looking very healthy. Perhaps they would have done a bit more. But still it gave 600g of good potatoes, more than the average of my Pentland Javelin pots. So I have high hopes for the other two pots and even higher hopes for the 30 litre bags to come later.

The pot was planted up on 31st March,  118 days ago.

The empty pot has been replanted with six leeks using the same compost rejuvenated with some blood, fish and bone.

Update: The other two 10 inch pots gave 610g each. So a good average for a small pot.

The first 30l sack was turned out on 12 August. Only 840g with a lot of scab so not very successful. The haulms were dying but the potatoes were very immature. 2nd sack gave 1092g with some good big ones! 3rd - 703g !  4th - 944g 5th 578g in one big one!

Xtra!  A sprouted "shop potato" was grown in a clay pot with unimproved garden soil and a handful of blood, fish & bone. Harvested on Oct 19th it gave 880g of good size and quality potatoes. I won't be paying for seed potatoes any more!

The fridge saved pentland javelins planted in July have been harvested. They gave a fair crop of very good quality.