First seedlings appear in propagator

While I turned my back during the week the tomato seedlings appeared. It was obviously too hot for them in the heated propagator, have gone leggy very quickly. Might have to start again there. Same with the Verbascum. Have moved them to the unheated propagator, where the Cauliflower and Calabrese are germinating much more healthily.

Still no signs of life of the peppers, celery, parsley and aubergine.

More signs of spring...

Window box out the front is enjoying some January sun...

Crocosmias are showing their first shoots...

Looks like the weeds aren't holding back either. Let the annual battle commence!

Let's get chitting!

Wilkos and Poundland are now stocking seed potatoes. Picked up a 2.5kg bag of Maris Pipers (£3.29) and a small bag of Roosters (99p for 5) from Wilkos. Poundland were also doing Pentland Javelin and Rocket amongst others, but sold out very quickly. The allotmenteers must be keen to get going too!

Put them into an egg box and seed tray on the window sill in the downstairs loo. Nice and bright but cool. In the past I've left all of the sprouts on, but I read in Joy Larkcom's book Grow Your Own Vegetables (which was recommended by The Real Seed Company, and rightly so!) that it helps to only leave two, so will scrub off the rest. Will see how it goes.

I grew potatoes in the raised bed last year, so need to rotate them. The only other space is in the greenhouse, so it will be interesting to see how they do in the heat. Maris are a main-crop and should be lifted early autumn, but I'm hoping the extra heat will bring them on by mid-summer, so I can get some cucumbers and peppers in one bed by then.

Bulk bag potato planter

The back of the greenhouse is in a sunny position, and I had a bulk bag and some top soil left over from the Victorian garden project. Compost bin was also full. What to do?...

Decided to move the water butts to one side and make a potato planter!

Needs a few weeks to let the compost settle and warm up. The Maris Piper seed potatoes have been chitting for 10 days, so by the end of Feb we should be good to go.

First seeds of 2012 in!

Winter has been quite mild so far, but we're having our first heavy frosts of the year. It was -5C in the greenhouse last night! Still, I got itchy green fingers and made a start on planting some seeds in the heated propagator Santa brought me for Xmas. Made my own seed compost too. 50% multi-purpose compost with 50% silver sand (the play-pit stuff). Sieved it well and let it stand in the house for a few days to bring it up to room temperature.

 Decided to plant the following:

• Tomato - Marmade
• Pepper - King of the North 
• Celery - Green Utah
• Parsley - Green Forest
• Onions - Red Baron
• Calabrese - Ironman
• Cauliflower - Mayflower

Just a few of each to start off with. Who knows, some of them may survive the early start!

Victorian garden takes shape

Over the autumn I had scrapped together material to do something with the bare patch of grass in front of the fish pond. Over the Xmas holidays I made a start on the bed edgings with scaffolding planks. Gave them a good coat of creocote to hold back the rotting process.

Once the second bed was made it was time to lay the path - Staffordshire Blue pavers with terracotta tiles on sharp sand.

Actually ran out of sand to finish the path, so double dug the beds and worked in loads of compost, leaf mould and topsoil with plenty of chicken manure pellets to really get things going in the Spring. Laid gravel on the far edge, and more blue pavers next to the fish pond.

I've started to plant it up with Wallflowers and strawberries that were over-wintering in the greenhouse. One less area of lawn to mow!

Plant ladder and more trellis

Over Xmas it was quite mild so I was able to get out into the garden to do a bit of DIY. I'd seen these plant ladders (or plant 'theatres') in the seed catalogues and various websites. Quite expensive too, at £60. Using the scrap timber I picked off up Ebay a few months ago, I had a go myself...

Should be nice in the summer. Need painting first though... Also knocked together some small trellis for the young Clematis on the opposite fences...

The lumber pile continues to shrink! Especially with the beds in the Victorian garden going up. More on that later.