This week we read a facebook post from Real Seeds about why it’s best not to rush into starting seeds off too early, even though some chillies do benefit from an early start. The main point was that you usually end up with leggy plants far too soon, with nowhere to put them. As they said: “Resist, unless you have ample heated space and use grow lights.”
We have been in this position a few times before. We start the year being very keen and then in March end up with leggy tomato plants sitting on the windowsill (above). Seeing that the frost down here can be as late as mid April that ain’t much cop. To get a bit of an idea of when your last frost could be, stick your postcode into lastfrostdate.co.uk here. This is what we got:
We are going to resist for the time being, and have ordered some seed compost and in a couple of weeks time will get the heated seed tray out and start off some chillies, but until then we will do little and often in the garden if the weather allows. We got two big bags of multi purpose compost today and filled a couple of raised beds just before the sun went down. Total time in the garden, ten minutes. It’s a start!
It may be some while before we can get back out there again as there’s a cold spell coming. To cheer ourselves up we can always open up the seed tin and read the back of seed packets. Here’s a few nice packs we got for Christmas (below). Better (weather) will come!
It’s been just 8 days since we received some egyptian/walking onion bulblets and as soon as we got them, we put them in a pot as directed and stuck it on the packed kitchen windowsill. We ordered our bulblets from Real Seeds, and although we only paid for one, they kindly included a few extras—just in case. We noticed yesterday two had germinated and there may even be more to come! Great value by the way as they cost £3.29 for one. We’ll keep you posted.
Weeds up to me knees 