Sprouting seeds

A week ago, I sowed a whole load of seeds and they are already sprouting well. The only exception being the peppers - no sign of them yet. The courgettes and basil are doing really well as you you can see:

Courgette seedlings

2 types of basil seedlings

The sweetcorn in the propagator

are growing well:

and the sweetcorn that were chitting in the airing cupboard have also done well, with all but 2 having lovely long roots. I've potted these up into 3" pots now, and put them in my growhouse outside.

Busy weekend

Well, finally the sun has decided to shine, and the wind is somewhat less fierce, so maybe Spring has finally sprung! I've made the most of it and been busy planting.

Home Guard potatoes before being covered
(with garlic and onions in the corner of the bed)

Yesterday morning I planted out 12 of my "Home Guard" early potatoes. I think I probably could have risked putting them in earlier, but hopefully the extra chitting time will allow them to catch up quickly as they've got lovely shoots by now. I've still got some more to plant, but can't decide where to put them, so they'll have to wait.










In the afternoon, I put in a wide row of 30 mangetout (Delikata) and 2 rows of parsnips (Lisbonnais on a tape, and Duchess F1). I'm going to make a big effort to thin them out this year in the hope that I get better roots. I also sowed some sweetcorn (Applause F1), courgettes (All Green Bush), chillis (Hot Cayenne) and 2 types of basil Red Rubin and Sweet Genovese). These have all gone into my windowsill propagator in the kitchen.

Today I had more of a flower day, with a trip to the local nursery to buy some plug plants to grow on. I've put some sweet pea seeds in to soak overnight and some more directly into toilet roll tubes. I'm also trying another method for sweetcorn - they are sitting on damp kitchen towel in the airing cupboard until they sprout. It will be interesting to see which method does best.