Potting

Just noting that today I potted-up a dahlia and some lily of the valley which I had bought.

The parsips are coming along fine and the onion/leek are still alive. I have put them in the cooler balcony room.

A couple of Seville orange pips have germinated too.

Up already!

Just checked the seeds and was excited to see that some are already germinating - less excited to note that they are the basil and broccoli :-) Oh well, at least the system is working.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Seed time

I sowed the following in the Aerogarden today
               
Broccoli    Calabrese       4
Rosemary             3
Parsley    Moss curled         4
Sage        14-28        2
Strawberry    Alpine       8
Kale    Toscana            4
Busy-lizzie    Safari       10
Delphinium    Magic        6
Petunia    Purple lady      10
Geranium    Pelargonium     12
Basil    Large leaf            2

I miscalculated so actually have one station un-sown, need to fill that tomorrow.

The onion/leek and cucumber are now upstairs and I will move them into the cool balcony room as soon as I can.

I am planting the parsnips as they germinate, still need a few extra seeds. One has come up but no leaves yet.

Parsnips

I decided to try germinating parsnips indoors this year. A guy on Gardener's Question Time BBC radio said that you could germinate them on damp kitchen paper and then when roots appear use tweezers to transfer them to open-ended peat pots to grow on indoors. then plant out when warm enough. He said to put three seeds in each t and thin to one once established outside.
If I can do this then it could give me an extra month or so of growth, even longer maybe. Today some of the seeds have already germinated so I have potted them up. Normally I would be looking to sow them outdoors in May so if they don't suffer any shock going outdoors I will have gained as much as two months! Hm, perhaps I started them off too early.
I potted them up in newspaper puts - wrapped double paper around a narrow jam-jar. I put potting compost in the bottom and firmed it well, then topped up with seed compost so the seed will start in that and grow down into the stronger mix.

Cucumber and onion/leek seedlings all doing well.

Now it is March

Right then! For starters I am going to be much better at updating this blog!

On 27th Feb I sowed a few seeds -

Cucumber (Emile F1)
Onion (Bedfordshire Champion)
Leek (Starozagorski kamus)

The cucumbers (only two seeds sown) zoomed up and emerged on the 3rd day. The onions/leeks are not up yet but they should take minimum of 14 days so not really expecting them!
The cucumbers have a put each. Gardener's Question Time said that one plant of an all-female type would provide enough cucumbers for the whole summer so I may give one away if they are both producing. At the moment the plants are under lights in the kitchen, I will move them up to the sun-room when they are bigger and there is less risk of frosty nights chilling them.
Thought it would be fun to try onion from seed. Each will have  a pot of its own and then I hope to get them in the garden but I am not sure if they will do any better, or even as well, as the onion sets. Just wanted to try.

The kids gave me an Aerogarden for my birthday and we have enjoyed fresh herbs all winter. It came with various herbs, ready to start. The garlic chives did not germinate at all and the parsley and thyme did not grow as strongly as I expected - or possibly I over-cropped them too early. the two types of basil were great though and the dill was also very good. I have tried transplanting the basil, thyme and mint into pots of compost, not sure if that will work or not but the Aerogarden had finished its supplies of plant food and in any case I want it for seedlings.

I bought a seedling starter kit which has spaces for 72 plants so the next thing is to decide what plants to have in there and when to sow them. They don't all have to go in at the same time and I don't want them ready too soon.

This is the plan for now:

Name	Type	Germination	Plant out	Number
Strawberry	Alpine	14-28	Frost-free	8
Broccoli	Calabrese	14-18	When large	4
Rosemary			Frost-free	3
Parsley	Moss curled	14-21		4
Busy-lizzie	Safari	21-28	Frost-free	10
Sweet-pea	Jet-set	12 to 10	Frost-free	6
Petunia	Purple lady	14-21	Frost-free	10
Geranium	Pelargonium	7 to 10	Frost-free	12
Stock	10 week	14-21	Frost-free	9
Delphinium	Magic	21-42	Frost-free	6

Autumn already!

Actually it is more like winter now, with a good 3cm of frost in my square-foot beds.
I decided to get the garlic planted just in case it stays this cold for the rest of the month.
I planted four squares of garlic in the right-hand shallow box. In one square I put the small bulbs which I planted as cloves last autumn; I planted two squares with cloves from my 2nd-year garlic; and in one square I put cloves of a purple garlic which I bought at Frú Lauga. It will be interesting to see if any of those cloves mature in just one season or not.

Hmmm! Can't recall when I wrote that but obviously I forgot to publish it. I added another square of Italian soft-neck garlic from Frú Lauga.
 

Soft neck
1 year-old
M y cloves	Frú Lauga	My cloves