winter returns

A cold wind today with snow forecast for the fells tonight but pleasantly warm in the greenhouse.

I sowed the first  lot of parsnips (Palace) in the flower bucket that will be their home for the next eight or nine months. Germination is usually pretty good and I aim to thin to leave about a dozen or so plants per bucket which should give a couple of pounds (1kg) of roots.

parsnip seeds

Sweet peppers and aubergine seeds have gone into the heated propagator, along with three cucumbers. Early March sowings of cukes last year all died on me but I didn’t have the propagator and they were on a window sill which got quite cold at night. Fingers crossed!

The first tomato sowings are up and away in my home-made paper pots. I must say this was the most useful present I got last Christmas. Turned from solid oak it should certainly outlast me if I don’t lose it and it's quite therapeutic making the pots as well.

tomato seedlings in paper pots. Three varieties, hence different germination

These AYR cauliflower seedlings will soon be going into individual pots to develop a strong root system before planting out on the plot. This enables them to get established much quicker and does seem to help in the fight against club root. Good strong plants seem much more able to cope with pests and diseases. 

I managed to squeeze another bag with three Lady Christl potatoes into the greenhouse. That’s now twenty-five first earlies in and the first plantings are just poking shoots through the compost. If the weather behaves itself we'll be eating new potatoes by the end of April/early May.