Tuesday 24 March 2015

Planting, more planting and some sowing...

Last Thursday I planted out my Broad Bean seedlings.


You may recall that I had sown them in pairs in little pots. Now I just tipped them out of the pots and popped them into holes made with my trowel. Look at the healthy roots they have!


I have left the plants together in their pairs, and given each a 5-foot bamboo cane for support.


One of the "pairs" is still a singleton - the second seed never germinated - but I think I will probably have enough anyway.


Just to be on the safe side I have also sown some seeds for some "Stereo" Broad Beans. Whether I will need them, or even have space to grow them, is a moot point, but at least I will have the option.

I have also planted some more potatoes. They are Second Earlies "Charlotte", and I have put them in some of the new big black plastic pots. As you can see, they are now in the second of my new "Seedling Greenhouses":


The pots are (intentionally) a lot bigger than their predecessors, and only four will fit into the greenhouse.


The design of the new greenhouses is quite different to the one I had before. I won't be able to keep plants in them as long as previously because the lid will obstruct them. This is a pity. In the previous version the openable lid was the full width of the greenhouse. I hadn't known about the changed design before making my purchase, and it might have influenced my decision if I had.

This pair of pots contains tubers of First Early "Vale's Emerald". Notice my cunning plan for protecting them from frost!


Here is a tray of Lettuce that has recently germinated:


The tray is sown with half each of "Cervanek" and "Devin", the two varieties sent to me by blogging friend Dominika in the Czech Republic. They both did really well last year, so I'm hoping for a repeat performance this year.

And these are my Leeks, looking good so far...


So as you can see, there is already lots happening in my garden. April is probably the busiest month in the gardening year here in the UK, so expect more stuff like the above!

10 comments:

  1. April is one of my busiest months too. So much goes on then. And I really like those big pots. I bet the potatoes will grow very well in them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've held back on planting my potatoes so far, the ones I planted last March didn't do anywhere near as well as those planted in April. It's still very cold here for lots of things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Like , Jo our potatoes planted yet and our broad beans have just been sown in plots

    ReplyDelete
  4. The new season is just about to get into high gear over here as well. I was wondering about the spacing on your broad beans - it appears that you space each duo around 30cm apart; have you tried spacing them more closely? I often see recommendations for single plant spacing at around 15cm apart and I have also read that you could use that same spacing for groupings of 2 or 3 seedlings per spot. Having never grown broad beans before, I'm now trying to figure out the plan for their bed as well as the timing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I must show your good photos to Roger , my husband. Being Mexican, I think, gives him an extra gene or two for gardening, but he does not read English well so the pics will be good.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We use a lot of onions, so we will plant those. Also, cilantro. I could kick myself for not at least TRYING to grow cilantro year 'round. We uuse so much. (It is good on shredded beef with onions on a taco. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  7. How good you can plant out seedlings already, we are still having frosty nights, so any veg seedlings are still tucked up in the heated greenhouse :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Early varieties of things like broad beans, peas onions etc are frost hardy, so can be planted early.

      Delete
  8. Gosh you are way ahead of me, I might plant my potatoes on Good Friday & my broad beans are still a little too small to plant out & my leeks haven't germinated yet. It is still very exciting though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lots of springyness Mark,
    Brilliant to see all of your new shoots and plants.
    Oh my goodness I better get on... diddledee dee...diddledee dee ;D

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to leave me a comment! Please note that Comment Moderation is enabled for older posts.