Thanks to Lewisham Gardens for letting us know well in advance about their Seed Swap Sunday event in Hither Green on Sunday 23rd February in conjunction with the Golightly Gardens blog. Admission is a pound donation or bring seeds to swap and it’s held in a nice pub, how good is that? We’ll be there and I’ll be searching for some Brandywine Tomatoes and Cherokee Trail of Tears beans. Please spread the word on this great event!
I’ve been ill all week with the dreaded flu so I treated myself with a nice big bag of seed potatoes (earlies) for £4.49 from Shannons and stuck them in a cleaned out seed tray to give them a head start. They’re in a cool dry room by the window getting some light and they’ll sit there for a good few weeks while they develop some nice small green shoots (aka “chits”) which aren’t those horrid long yellow ones that old spuds get when they start sprouting in a dark cupboard. Just stick them in an egg box/tray with the blunt end (the one’s with the “eyes”) upwards in a cool, light room and wait until the danger of frost has gone (late spring) then stick them out.
Thanks to Lewisham Gardens for getting in touch about their forthcoming seed swap, the actual date is still to be confirmed but they are looking at possibly Sunday 23 February in Hither Green and it’s FREE! More details nearer the time. We’ll be there!
Also thanks to Mick Matthews who emailed us today about the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group (CSSG) Potato Day/Seed Swap on 15 February 2014 and it’s at The Commemoration Hall, 39 High St, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE29 3AQ and also FREE, so if you’re in that area, support it! There’s 40 varieties of Potatoes available at £1.00 a kilo and children’s activities as well to keep the little ones happy while you swap your unwanted seeds. Cheers for getting in touch, Mick.
***STOP PRESS*** We’ve just had another email from Mick who mentioned: “Our potato day is not only free but we sell by the kilo so people can buy enough for a row or two without breaking the bank. It’s £1-00 per kilo and that’s been the price for the last four years. We did have a young lady visit the year before from Croydon who had missed the South London potato day and she commented that it was the best potato day she had been to and we only had 25 varieties that year!” Brilliant!
Also he passed on a great tip which is: “Spray the tubers with a weak solution of liquid sea-weed once in the egg trays just enough to wet them, this encourages stronger shoots and roots. Also if necessary plant out with sections of the tray attached as the roots sometime grow into the trays” Cheers again Mick, very helpful!
Thanks to Lewisham Gardens (it was great meeting you!) for inviting us to the Edible High Road event in Forest Hill last Saturday. Due to having a stinker of a flu combined with an argumentative child in tow, I turned up too early to see Matthew Wilson from GQT but I did see some of the fruit trees in pots with their accompanying herbs, great stuff! I also picked up a couple of freebies that are always appreciated here, three runner beans (from the nice people at friends of Hornimans or Forest Hill Society? sorry I can’t remember which one they were) which went in the back garden as soon as I got home. Only one plant survived the night though (slugs? moths? cats? I have no idea, but they ain’t there now!)
I also got some tomato plants (one a sweet cherry tomato called “Vilma”) from the nice guys at Dig This Nursery in New Cross which is situated next door to the Hobgoblin pub opposite the New Cross Gate train station. It’s a great place, they have plants galore, lots of varieties of tomatoes, their own brand of seeds (Happy Seeds – aimed at the younger market, all with great illustrations, bright packets and info you possibly wouldn’t have known about the plant), some gallery space (to Marc B and Marc G, it might be a good place to show your work) and to cap it all, some boxes of second hand records. What more do you want out of a nursery?
Although I only stayed a short while, it’s brilliant there are events like this, making people more aware of gardening and how easy it is to grow your own food! Big shout to all involved and for the free plants and seeds, ta!
As requested by lewisham gardens (a great blog by the way!) here’s the few seeds I swapped yesterday. The potatoes are chitting in an egg box in the back room, the daffs are in the front garden and the raspberry canes are getting a soaking as we speak! Big up the potato fair and seedswap!
Weeds up to me knees 