Given the relatively late time of year I picked up my allotment I decided to leap straight into buying some plants and sewing some seeds, even before I'd sorted my house out!
Right priority I think: plants first, garden first, house second (well at least house aesthetics, it's warm and dry so that much is safe at least!).
I bought a fair few goodies from the local massive garden centre (which is an awesome place to take a trip around for sure!):
Three tomato plants....
These are always easier to buy in anyway around late April, rather than sow from seed, and one of my first tasks was to pot them on given that they were already getting root bound when I bought them - two climbers and one tumbler, hopefully they'll be OK in their medium pots until I can get them in their grow bag.
I also bought TWO sweet potato plants. Never tried these before, climatically they are the same as tomatoes. I'm hoping they don't need potting on before they go out, they certainly look OK ATM.
The only downside of all of these is that I can't put them out until the risk of the last frost has passed, which is the third week in May.
So I've got a month of having them inside at night and putting them out during the day, ATM once it's warmed up enough after cold mornings - I actually took a 20 minute round trip from the co-working space yesterday just to put my plants outside in the sun for 5 hours!
Herbs and chillies..
I also bought two thyme and two chilli plants, these are, as with the above, inside at night until the night temperatures are above 10 degrees celsius.
I bought a couple of trays for the smaller pots to make it easier to move them in and out, but I can already tell this is going to be a chore, roll on late May!
Already outdoor plants
I got some strawberries, lavender, mint and borage, all able to handle it outdoors already, and sitting comfortably in a nice sunny spot in my back garden already!
New sewings...
This is just about getting ahead, for the most part I will be sewing direct on the allotment, once we get a decent weather gap, and that might be a week by the looks of it, tough year!
I sewed...
- two rows of beetroot
- three rows of spring onions - these are great, you chuck 7-10 seeds in a module which results in classic bunches, love this!
- two rows of purple sprouting broccoli - although I'm reliably informed this doesn't stand a chance due to some aggressive pigeons, maybe just some in pots in the back garden?!?
- lots of spinach, one of my mainstays!
- three rows of broad beans (in the larger modules) these are spares for what doesn't come up sewn direct, hopefully this week, time is pressing!
- one row of butternut squash, larger modules
- four small pots of butternut squash (one seed per pot)
I didn't bother labelling these as I know what the plants look like when they come up as seedlings!
A good start!
Overall I was happy to get some stuff in last week, it's just about the right amount to manage indoors and give me a head start, any more would just be too much hassle.
Now I just need a bit more warmth and sun, maybe next week, this week is a right off already sun wise, but at least we've got some decent late teens temperatures coming up!