To sow or not to sow?

I am waaaay behind on where I want to be with my sowing schedule, but there was a frost last night and the local council has tweeted that the gritters will be out tonight so I'm still a bit wary about doing too much if the weather is against me. It is difficult though when the sun is shining like it has been most of today.

So, I did a little bit more sowing, and everything is in the greenhouse so fingers crossed.

I opened up my brand new seed packets of baby brassicas: matsuri (broccoli), ruby perfection (cabbage) and fremont (cauliflower). The idea behind these is that they will take up less room than the varieties I have previously grown. I also sowed calabrese, evesham special sprouts and dwarf green curled kale.

Courgettes were also started off today, 12 in all, a mixture of black beauty, gold rush, all green bush, tondo di toscana and zucchini. Now, I am not expecting all 12 to flourish on my plot. I don't have the room to grow that many plants to maturity, plus as much as I love them there is no way this household could cope with the number of courgettes that this many plants would produce. If they do all germinate (which is unlikely) friends and family lookout as you may find homeless plants appearing on your doorsteps.

I finished off today with a couple of butternut squash, a couple of hunter squash and a couple of outdoor wonder melons. I have never managed to produce a single melon and every year I try one variety or another, so I'm hoping that this will be the year for me.

Succession Sowing

I am trying to get into the habit of succession sowing this year; this weekend I have sown another row each of white gem parsnips, chantenay red cored carrots and mammoth snowstar leeks in the raised beds along with a large tub of white gem parsnips.

I also added to the brassicas by sowing some more kale and purple sprouting broccoli as I'm hoping they will provide fresh veg throughout the winter and into spring when there is not a great deal around - essential if I'm going to achieve self-sufficiency.

On the subject of brassicas, I planted out another batch into the raised beds; mainly cabbages, golden acre primo, offenham flower of spring and kalibos, along with some kale and purple sprouting broccoli. 

My plug plant enterprise has had a 50% success rate so far; the beetroot has germinated very well, but not one single turnip has come up. I'll give the beetroot another week before planting out though, hopefully that should be okay; they are still a lot smaller than the plugs sold in the garden centre and I need to strike a balance between them being strong enough, but not so advanced that the roots are damaged by transplanting.

Spring progress

The clocks have sprung forward, so I think it is an opportune time to write about the progress of some plants that I haven't mentioned recently.

I am really pleased with how my brassicas are coming along. This is the first sowing; cauliflower, raab and brussels sprouts:

even the slug-munched raab (bottom left) is making a comeback!

This is the second; kale, various cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli:

Lettuce is also coming on nicely; as well as the cut and come again varieties I also have reine de glace, little gem and lollo rossa seedlings under cover:

Outdoors I spotted a couple of beetroot seedlings from my first sowing and some spinach beet, so progress is definitely being made and the soil must be warming up now.

I also started off some sweetcorn yesterday... I'm trying a babycorn variety this year; Minipop - so I placed 9 seeds into individual pots in one of the propagators.

Delayed posting...

... hmmm, this does not bode well for when the season is really in full swing, I'm already getting behind with blogging what I have been up to - must do better!

Anyway, what I should have posted about a week ago is that I continued my indoor sowing with:

• Okra (Clemsons Spineless) x 5
• Cucumber (Miniature White) x 5
• Gherkin (Cornichon de Paris) x 5
• Courgette (All Green Bush) x 2
• Tomato (Sub Arctic Plenty) x 5
• Mint
• Thyme

and a selection of brassicas:

• Cabbage (Kalibos) x 2
• Cabbage (Offenham 2 - Flower of Spring) x 2
• Cabbage (Golden Acre / Primo) x 2
• Broccoli (Early Purple Sprouting) x 2
• Kale (Dwarf Green Curled) x 2

Outdoors I sowed a row each of:

• Spinach Beet
• Turnip (Purple Top Milan)
• Beetroot (Boltardy)

I have never tried to grow gherkins before but am hoping they are just the same as regular cucumbers and therefore don't pose too much of a challenge. I have tried okra in the past, but just ended up with greenery and no flowers!

There is so much to do this month, but I do enjoy it when it gets busy... and it is totally worth it once it comes to harvesting time.