Hello all
Welcome to blog two!!
I do hope that everyone one is very well.
In these strange times, I hope that you
have had time to enjoy whatever outdoor space that you may have and bathe in
the little bits of Sun shine that is being offered up to us in compensation for
the world going mad!
I, for one, have been getting outside
when I can.
Teaching the kids about the garden is
all part of my cunning home-schooling plan!
Wife thinks I’m doing my part to educate, but in reality, I am just
having quality time in the mud!
So, what have I been up too of late:
I am still sowing lots seeds in my greenhouse,
and I am approaching the stage where I need to prick out plants in the seed
trays. Before your imagination goes wild, pricking out is a gardening term and
is where you plant the individual seedings into their own pot, in order for
them to continue to grow into healthy strong plants and not have to compete
with all the other plants in the tray.
In order to do this gently hold the leaf
of your plant and tease it out slowly from the soil. If you break the stem then that plant will
not survive, but if you damage the leaf it has a fighting chance of survival. Just be gentle.
Also bare in mind that when you move the
plant from the seed tray to its own individual pot old Pammy plant will be a
bit startled. She may well sulk for a
bit and sit in her new pot not doing anything.
This is ok. Give it some time and,
fingers crossed, Pam will come back to life and begin to thrive again! (No idea
why I picked the name Pam!) I always
water them into their new home. This can
be done by watering from above if you want to get that job done quick or be a
little gentler and place the pots into a tray of water for them to soak up.
So why go to all that effort of moving
the plant from tray to pot to just have to move them to the ground later, I
hear you ponder.
Think of it like the couch potato to 5K
challenge that everyone considers doing at least once in their lifetime, basically
it’s baby steps!
I am not sowing the seeds out in the
garden just yet as the soil is still cold, suggesting that it is far too cold for
seeds to germinate in the ground. How I tell when to plant seeds outdoors is a
very in-depth scientific method and may take you years to fully master but here
goes, get your notepad and pencil to the ready….I put my hand on the soil and
if it feels cold to touch, then it’s too cold to plant in! Mind blowing stuff!
Also, another little tip…now apart from
slugs (and my kids and wife) what is the one thing we are meant to dislike
being in our gardens? Yep, Weeds (although I can also lecture you on the fact
not all weeds are bad, but I’ll save that for another joyous time!). BUT get
this…. when weeds start to grow that is another good sign that it is ok to
start sowing seeds outdoors. If the soil is warm enough for weeds then it’s
warm enough for seeds (bit of gardening poetry there thrown in for free).
When sowing seeds, don’t limit
yourself. It doesn’t have to be a case
of once it’s done, then never again. If
it’s something you like you can plant more and more and more of it as time
continues. By working like this you won’t be overloaded by lettuce one week and
then digging around desperately looking to furnish your families plates with
food and coming up empty handed a week later. If you sow seeds in time sections
then you can have succulent salad crops all summer long. Salad is not just for
summer! You can also grow salad crops in
winter, but I shall leave that for another blog.
So, I sow lettuce seeds every 4 weeks. I
prefer to sow little and often. I will grow three lots of carrot seeds throughout
the year and I have just planted in my early potato crop, which I plant into
grow bags (these are a bit like a small bin liner, with holes already made in
the bottom). I use grow bags as I only
have limited space to plant up all my dream veg so by using these bags, I can
save space in the actual ground.
I put 2 seed potatoes per grow bag,
anymore and they will be too crowded out and this can reduce the number of
spuds produced.
Oh look at that smooth link to my next
topic….
If space is an issue for you, look about
your house and garden. I am willing to
bet that you have a few containers that you can commandeer in the name of
planting! An old bucket or abandoned large
flower pot is ideal for carrots. You
simply need a deep container with drainage in the bottom.
Toilet rolls are great for seed planting,
simply fill with soil, pop the seed in, water and wait. A plastic strawberry punnet can work
too. Just think about what you are
growing and select the right depth container i.e. if its something that grows
under ground like carrots or potatoes then you need a container with
depth. If the plant grows above the
ground like strawberries or lettuce you may need a container with less depth
but space for the plant to flourish. You
don’t need to spend loads of money; it doesn’t need to be the latest garden
centre must have. Recycle what you have
and use your imagination!
So here is the next important
lesson. This has taken me years to
accept. In gardening things don’t always work.
Don’t be disheartened. Sometimes
they just wont grow. I have planted
parsnip seeds 2 years running and only got 1 or 2 plants from all my seeds, but
last year I did exactly the same again, didn’t change my method in anyway and
got more a less a full crop. Don’t think
of it as failure, think of it as learning.
Its what makes gardening such a fun challenge. As my kid’s teacher taught her class “Do your
best, and your best is good enough”
My new weekly segment…. It’s called ‘Cheeky Challenge’:
If you’re looking for something to do
with the kids, or even for your own entertainment, this week, check out the
latest Gardeners Question Time show on Radio 4 (Friday 10 April 2020). There is a fantastic idea on growing Avocados
from the seed inside. They also tell you
how to do this with a Mango. I shall be
trying this with my kids as our science challenge! Why not give it a go too and see how it goes?
