sowing and chitting

I sowed some alpine strawberry seeds today. The packet had been in the freezer for a couple of weeks as the seeds need a prolonged cold spell to break their dormancy. They are very small so my normal practice of sowing seeds individually went by the board as I just scattered them on the surface of damp compost. They shouldn’t need much heat to get them to germinate but they are a first for me so it's a case of wait and see.

The idea with the alpine strawberries is to use them as ground cover around the currant and gooseberry bushes. If I’m going to have ground cover plants I might as well have something I can eat!


All of my onion and leeks trays in the propagator are now showing strong germination which is good as I really need the space for other early crops. A sowing of AYR cauliflower is first on the list then the first of the summer cabbages, to be followed later in the month with the first sowings of tomatoes and peppers. I've lost some of the early sowings in previous years but the gentle heat of the propagator should solve that problem.

My potato order from JBA has been delayed as they won’t send them out during hard frosts so I picked up a bag of Lady Christl in town which I now have chitting in the spare bedroom. These will be the first of the first earlies and will go in containers in the greenhouse to give us a crop from early May....fingers crossed.

Today's pic shows the snow-covered north-western fells near Cockermouth. Very pretty but I'm glad I don't have to do my gardening up there.