4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[henny penny]

Hi just wondered what everyone was doing now sowing wise?

 

I have sown some broadbeans this week in toilet rolls

Started chitting my potatoes

Sowed some winter type lettuces, chilli peppers,small early caulis and early cabbages

and hoping to get some peas going and some beetroot too( in modules)!

any one else?

[chickencam]

If we get the chance we will be clearing the greenhouse out and cleaning it this weekend.

 

With another cold snap forecast we will leave sowing for another week or 2, then we will get radishes, spring onions, spinach, early carrots, and lettuce into the raised beds which are quite sheltered in the front garden.

 

Then on the allotment in the next couple of weeks we will be planting parsnips, early carrots, shallots and onions.

 

We will put peas into pots in the greenhouse and some broadbeans which will get planted out in early march to follow on from the autumn planted ones which are about 3 inches high.

[moochoo]

Got the garlic, onions and broad beans in the ground already. Just waiting for my week off in a fortnight to get some chillis and artichokes sown. I tend to wait until March for most seeds. Especially as I like to direct sow most things.

[Happy chickens!]

I've just sown cucumbers, tomatoes and chillis in a small, heated, propagator bought in a sale last year - never tried so early before! Was thinking about sowing some other stuff, but forecast is for a very cold start to feb, so may delay.

[sparkysmum]

I wonder if we could keep this thread going, a bit like "what have you been cooking today"although I haven't started sowing (it's much too cold up here) it is a good motivator seeing what ither people are sowing / and in time harvesting What do you think Allisonx

[Redwing]

In my greenhouse:

 

Shallots

Onions

Lettuce (growing and just sown)

Garlic

Sweetpeas

Dahlias

Ecinaecia (sp?)

 

In a heated propagator:

 

peas

Lavender

Beetroot

More lettuce (the chickens love it!)

Strawberries

1 poor bean seed (as the mice got to the packet in the shed and ate the rest!)

[henny penny]

redwing have you sown your onions and shallots in modules?

I have sown some garlic and shallots like this- Ive not done this before but understand that you get good root growth and so a head start when they r planted out?

 

i also have some lettuce in pots in the greenhouse. I sowed these about October time I think and they r starting to look less pathetic!

[henny penny]

Chickencam- How r u going to plant your parsnips?

 

I had problems last year - and must have sown three or four times . I resorted to the seed tapes in the end and they came good.

I may have a go at both normal sowing and seed tapes this year-would be interested to hear how others sow them.

[moochoo]

Parsnips are a nightmare to germinate. You MUST always use new seed with parsnips as it's very rare to get last years seed to germinate.

Some people start them off on a piece of moist kitchen towel or cotton wool in the airing cupboard. I tend to wait until the ground's warmer,April or May and sow direct into the ground.

[Redwing]

redwing have you sown your onions and shallots in modules?

I have sown some garlic and shallots like this- Ive not done this before but understand that you get good root growth and so a head start when they r planted out?

 

 

Yes, I have used big modules for the shallots and garlic and small ones for the onions as they are smaller, I read somewhere (maybe on here??) that if you start them in modules so they get a root system it makes it harder for birds to pull them out of the ground when they are planted out.

[Lesley]

Like Moochoo, I always like to start late - it all seems to catch up in the end

 

....apart from garlic - I always get that in the ground in October.

 

I will sort out the heated propagators on Sunday - ready for tomato seeds. I haven't got my act together the last two years and have ended up buying tomato plants, this year I will be back to starting with seed.

[surferdog]

I have baby carrots, lettuce and leeks in the unheated greenhouse and aubergines, strawberries, basil and sage in the heated propagator. Potatoes are chitting on younger son's bedroom windowsill (must move them before he comes back from Uni...)

 

Yesterday sowed all the remaining sweet pea seeds (about 40 pots containing 2 seeds each). Got over-excited by the thought of all those fences at the allotment and I want to have a cutting patch as well. Mind you I've never had much success with sweet peas so not sure how many will come up!

 

I'm going to get the onions, garlic and shallots into modules in the cold-frame today as it's likely to be a week or two before we have a bed ready to plant them into.

[henny penny]

Hi surfer dog you are organised!

 

We got our allotment one Easter and werent that organised however it was previously a field and we had to start from scratch but still managed a good crop.

 

happy sowing! I am still besotted with my allotment three years on!

[Christian]

Mind you I've never had much success with sweet peas so not sure how many will come up!

 

Try watering them with seaweed extract. Works wonders on my sweetpeas

 

I need to get planting today. Will pot up my onion sets, I always start mine off in small pots until the roots start to poke through the bottom.

 

Also want to sow broad beans in modules. The mice eat anything I sow direct, so will sow peas in guttering too.

[surferdog]

Try watering them with seaweed extract. Works wonders on my sweetpeas

 

Thanks for that Christian. I've just been reading Urban Gardener and it certainly seems as though seaweed is a miracle feed but hadn't thought of putting it on the sweet peas!

 

Edited to add Shallots, garlic and red onions now in last year's modules in the greenhouse

 

Henny, I am not that organised just 'have to be doing something' this week so glad it is being channelled into something useful. I also have a surfeit of seeds from years of only being able to grow a few bits in pots. 2500 carrot seeds less a few in a pot = lots and lots left over!

 

.

[chickencam]

Chickencam- How r u going to plant your parsnips?

 

I had problems last year - and must have sown three or four times . I resorted to the seed tapes in the end and they came good.

I may have a go at both normal sowing and seed tapes this year-would be interested to hear how others sow them.

 

I'm not really the person to ask, after 2 sowings last year 3 germinated and I pulled 2 of them up when I was weeding so we had 1 lonely parsnip which we ate at Christmas

 

I usually start too late I think the seed I have got this year says begining of Feb, but with the forecast it will be mid Feb I think before it goes in along with a good sprinkling of slug pellets, they ate a lot of carrots last year and I suspect the parsnips too.

[Matthew]

Chickencam- How r u going to plant your parsnips?

 

I had problems last year - and must have sown three or four times . I resorted to the seed tapes in the end and they came good.

I may have a go at both normal sowing and seed tapes this year-would be interested to hear how others sow them.

 

 

My technique is as follows:

 

Fresh seed only never re use parsnip seed

 

prepare furrow

 

water

 

station sow every 8 inches

 

few radish in furrow between stations so I can weed between rows as radish shows itself

 

fill furrow with dry soils

 

tamp down... do not water

 

Then wait patiently

[Happy chickens!]

I've found they work well when sown in loo rolls or paper tubes, then you only plant the ones that have germinated!

[henny penny]

I think i will try the loo roll method but will have to save more inners as have just planted my broad beans, early peas and sweet peas in the last lot!

 

Anyway today I tidied the green house and planted some shallots and summer onions in modules which are now next to my over wintering onions also in modules ( oh dear!) (I would do a funny face but every time i choose one I just get the goobledy gook and not the face in my text)

 

I have also sown some carrots the little round parmex ones in modules

I need to sow some aubergines and peppers - not sure if my propagator i got from father- in law is going to be warm enough - you must be able to get thermometers to indicate the temp inside or i may just use my airing cupboard- What do other people do?

[craftyhunnypie]

Christian, how do you sow peas in guttering? Bought some seeds today & also some kohlrabi & sunflower seeds. I can't put anything on ground level this year, because of my naughty chickens - any suggestions on growing stuff this year would be helpful.

Thanks,

Emma.x

[Matthew]

Christian, how do you sow peas in guttering? Bought some seeds today & also some kohlrabi & sunflower seeds. I can't put anything on ground level this year, because of my naughty chickens - any suggestions on growing stuff this year would be helpful.

Thanks,

Emma.x

 

 

I'll jump in here.... basically you are using the guttering as a great long extended pot to get your peas started off in...

 

pop soil into the guttering and plant your peas the distance you want them apart where you want them... keep them away from the mice and when they are big enough you can dig a furrow and then slide the whole row straight from the guttering to the furrow. Never tried it myself but I dont seem to suffer from pesky mice

[Matthew]

I've found they work well when sown in loo rolls or paper tubes, then you only plant the ones that have germinated!

 

 

The only downside of loo rolls is the fungi that always seem to grow on them

 

And when you plant them out you must make sure all the roll is below the surface or the visible cardboard will act as a wick and draw the moisture out of the soil

[Valkyrie]

So far I only have the spuds chitting - we had one that flatly refused to show any sign of growth, but after scowling at it daily, it has one little greeny-yellow dot. The others are all up and running. I am itching to get into the greenhouse, but I am waiting for this cold spell to end. I normally have toms and peppers under way by now. Still, FIL starts his when he comes home from SA in April and his always seem to catch mine up anyway!

Winter onions and garlic are already in and growing - impressed with the garlic - lots of strong shoots in that patch.

As soon as this snow melts I will cover up the empty beds with plastic to warm them up ready for planting. Greenhouse is still in darkness - 3 inches of snow still left to slide off onto the whingeing girls underneath! Harrr! Actually it'll probably fall on me.

[sparkysmum]

My potatoes are chitting nicely ready for my compost bag experiment and my polytunnel cloches have just arrived I won these on ebay and although I probably paid too much for them I hope they will help warm up the soil a bit. Happy gardening Allisonx

[Redwing]

At gardening club this evening someone said that soaking peas in paraffin before planting will keep the mice away and putting a thin layer of garden lime on the soil after covering the seed will ensure that the seedlings take up enough lime to prevent the rabbits eating them so you are guaranteed a crop of peas.

 

Not sure about the paraffin bit....

 

If you can't find me you can't sue me!!