Sowing in the Shed & Allotment TV

The weather was hardly wonderful, although not quite as bad as they were predicting, so it was up to the potting shed. Now I know I’m really late with some of these but I think I’ll get away with it.

First of all some hot chilli peppers and sweet peppers (Gypsy F1) went into pots along with some Burpless Tasty Green cucumbers (I love that name as well as the cucumber itself). I’ve been sent some Romanian and Egyptian cucumber seeds by forum member Haz so I hope I do them justice. I do love the way someone you’ve never met will do you a kindness like sending seeds.

Next I sowed some butternut squash. I’ve always done well with Wilko’s butternut squash so I’ve sowed some of them and some of Hercules F1, which I’ve heard good reports on. It will be interesting to see what they’re like.

The brassicas plants I picked up the other day all got moved on into 3″ pots. They’d got a good root system so I’m hopeful they’ll come good. Because I seem to have acquired club root, I’ll bring them on a ways before planting out. If you’ve got club root, this article might be useful – Coping with Club Root.

Then I sowed some Pavillion F1 cauliflowers and Aalsmeer cauliflower. The Pavillion are quite expensive seeds but I’ve done very well with them in the past. I’ve sown in modules, 2 seeds per module and about 3 or 4 seeds per module for the Aalsmeer.

I only want one plant per module so I’ll just snip off the second if it germinates. You can never tell with seeds, hence sowing the spares.

Next were my Brussels sprouts. I’d seeds left from last year of Revenge F1 and Falstaff, a red sprout that we rather liked. They all went into modules. I’m about a month late but with a little luck we’ll have some ready for Christmas.

Leeks (Porvite) went into a deep trough. That was fun, I filled the trough with multi-purpose compost and went into the shed for the seeds. When I came out Rowan cat was busily excavating the soil. We discussed the fact that this was not a litter tray but I don’t think she believed me so I covered the trough with some twigs and so forth to keep her and her pals off.

The cucumbers, peppers and squash all went into the heated propagator in the greenhouse . As I write this I can see the propagator lids steaming up now. Our home greenhouse is on the back of the office and the window looks out into it.

The tomatoes I bought are all in the Vitopod propagator, but I’ve not got the heat on. They’re in the greenhouse and unless it gets quite cold a night they don’t need extra heat now. I do like the fact that both my propagators are thermostatically controlled. I’ve lost more seedlings to cooking than to cold with uncontrolled electric propagators!

The brassicas went into the mini-greenhouse. It’s one of those plastic tent affairs and although they don’t need keeping warm, it will keep the birds from eating them. I might have cats but they’re not much good at keeping the birds off. Perhaps I feed them too well.

Tomorrow it’s bean sowing (especially if the weather is as bad as they reckon) in the shed. I don’t think we’re doing sweetcorn this year. Val’s going to check the freezer but I think we’ve enough for another year in there.

We’re still eating garlic but it’s getting a little ropy now. Rather than waste it, I think we’ll crush and freeze it in ice cube trays. Then we’ll just take out a cube as needed for cooking.

Must admit it’s great having some time again for the fun important things in life. Most of the seeds are available on the site by the way – vegetable seeds.

Finally, fancy watching some allotment television? It’s online now.