Seed Sowing in the Potting Shed

Well nothing ever goes to plan, does it?  Instead of going to the plot I ended up in the potting shed at the end of the garden.  To say I’m a bit behind with things would be like describing the Titanic as being somewhat delayed.

Never mind, better late than never as they say and  it’s surprising how things often catch up. Often sowing too early doesn’t seem to work out anyway, cold weather or not enough daylight  means the plants don’t develop as they do when planted  later.

I’m trying to be firm and only grow enough this year but already I expect I have enough tomato plants going for a small garden centre.  What I don’t have sown yet is any cucumbers so mult-sowed  Burpless Tasty Green into two 3″ pots, which I will thin to one plant per pot.  This is my favourite cucumber. A spiky skin that has to be peeled but a real flavour. I did the same with Lockie’s Perfection, another tasty variety dating from the early 1900s.

Next pumpkins and butternut squash. I’ll be fine with one established pumkin and a couple of squash plants will provide more than enough. We got  over a dozen  pumpkins (Jack O’Lantern) from one plant last year and they were all a fair size.

The squash were a disaster last year as I tried  the three sisters method for the second time. I noticed they were mentioned on Gardeners World  TV programme the other day. You may have heard me shouting ‘it doesn’t work in England,!’ at the screen.

I’ve two sorts of butternut squash, one from Wilkos and one from the HDRA. I suspect there will be no difference apart from the price of the seeds. I didn’t sow any of the yellow Sunburst squash  this year. We didn’t like them so it seemed a pointless exercise.

Onto the beans. As others plant out their runner beans, I sow mine.  Again into 3″ pots, two per pot which will thin to one. I’m just doing two varieties. Polestar and Streamline. They’re both stringless  modern varieties and good croppers.

Next to the courgettes. All I want is two plants, one of Golden Dawn a yellow variety and one of Black Beauty. My neighbour on the site has planted, I kid you not,  dozens (I think she said 120!)  courgettes. She told me they like them as chips cooked in olive oil. I suspect they won’t  cope with the crop.

Sowed some Swedes in a 15 cell moduIe. 15 Swedes would be more than enough for us. Last year’s Swedes looked more like carrots, so here’s hoping  I do better this time.

Finally onto the last of the climbing beans. We’ve got a Root rainer module, 32 deep cells in a seed tray so  that seemed ideal for starting the Firetongue Borlotti climbing beans. We like beans so I’m hoping for a good number to dry.  I used a dozen of  the cells for the climbing French bean Blue Lake and  eight 3″ pots got climbing bean Cobra.

I laid them all out on the lawn,  explained to my little cat Aphy that they were not a cat toilet and watered thoroughly. Popped the lot into the greenhouse  to germinate, at least something got done.