Basil

I made the most of the weather when I got home from work this afternoon and potted up my basil. The "Red Rubin" seeds came free with Kitchen Garden magazine and their advice is to sow thinly and grow them on as a clump rather than individually - apparently this prevents stem rot. So, rather than splitting up each cell, I potted them on as a clump. Fingers crossed!

Basil "Red Rubin" seedlings before potting on

Basil "Genovese" seedlings before potting on

The "after" shot!

Cabbages

I hadn't really intended to grow cabbages, as no-one in the family is that keen on them. However, I've started  buying Kitchen Garden magazine and it invariably comes with free seeds. Well, it would have been rude not to plant them  - wouldn't it?! So, the first seeds I planted this year were cabbages - DT Brown Golden Acre (primo II). I got a bit carried away, and although I didn't plant the whole packet, I have more seedlings than we are ever going to eat! The ones in the ground are growing away nicely, despite the birds best efforts, so the potted ones are going spare. I cannot bring myself to throw them away (it's hard enough thinning my crops) - so what to do with them? I gave a few to my friend Sara (Sew Appetising) at the weekend, but that still leaves quite a few. So, I decided to give some away...

Sara pointed me at a website to make paper pots (higgledygarden.com) so I sat down with an old newspaper and wine bottle and this is the result. I wasn't sure how well they'd stay together, but once I'd put a bit of soil in they were pretty sturdy. Definitely worth doing again.

A bit of re-potting later and I was ready to put out my stall!






I initially put 8 out, and so far 6 have gone :-)

DIY cloches

I read a magazine article recently (Green Times Issue 1, free with Kitchen Garden May issue) suggesting that you use plastic pipes to support covers over your raised beds. Well I've gone one step further in the thrift stakes. Now is the ideal time to prune forsythia, so I've used a couple of the longer stems to keep the fleece off my rapidly growing salads. Finally, a free bit in this project :-)