Today is 3rd March and officially according to the MET Office Spring has come. It does feel like it during the day while it is beautifully sunny, but at night it is really cold, below freezing. So, I am resisting the temptation to put anything outside, apart from the peas and sweet peas which are in a cold frame. I chitted these in damp compost first as they were old seed, but they all came good.
Currently still in the ground, at the allotment, are leeks, celery, chard, spring broccoli, spring cabbage, and a few sad white and savoy cabbage. Everything else is either perennial planting or green manures. The celery doesn’t look like it survived the chill we had in January, the cabbages are not looking good and the green manure is largely eaten by the deer! I still need to find a deer resistant green manure. The Purple Sprouting Broccoli is doing well, and I have had a few pickings, and the 9 Star is still to come. The leeks still look a bit thin, but they are coming on OK. I dug up the remainder of the parsnips and was surprised at how thin a lot of them were given how much rain we had last year.
The garlic finally went in, quite a bit later than I would have wanted. These are replanted cloves from this year’s harvest, bought as Solent Wight 3 years ago. They were in modules in a small plastic greenhouse at home. Storm Bert shook them all off their shelf and upside down onto the floor. Ah well, they are planted out now and they seem to have recovered and forgiven me!
The onion germination was mixed. The Red Baron were great, the Zebrun about 80% germination but the Bedfordshire Champion was about 60% successful. These were old seed, so I bought some new seed and chitted them first to make sure they were good. So now there are about 40 of each, which should be enough.
Every windowsill is covered in seedlings, there is no more space. As soon as the nights warm up a little the hardier plants will go to the cold frames to make room for the next succession of sowings. In front of me now there are chillis, aubergines, dahlias, tree spinach, tagetes, and herbs. All small seedlings. Upstairs are the onions, cabbages, caulis, calabrese, and lettuces. Still to germinate are the moment are beetroot, chard, spinach, more herbs, Agastache and calendula. In the fridge the Korean celery is still chilling!
I am thinking that this year I won’t grow parsnips but try some other root veg like oca and sweet potato. It’s always interesting to try new varieties. Well, it’s begun and will only get busier over the next few months.
If you are growing your own food however much or little I wish you all the best, and don’t be fooled by this false spring!