Succession sowing

 

So with Flora Day coming up soon on the 8th May , I want to get as much done as I can in the shed, greenhouse and vegetable garden .

Our granddaughter will be dancing and we usually help to decorate their front door and gate with flowers and greenery .

This morning I wanted to clear the decks in the shed , I made a start by harvesting lots of my lovely lettuce , coriander and baby kale .

In the past I haven't been very good at succession sowing lettuce , but I'm having another go at it this year . 

Growing lettuce in the shed means no snails ! 🐌   ha ! ha ! ha !

                   I also like to have a good mix of flavoursome leaves .

The weather is slowly improving and it is getting quite warm in the shed .

I haven't had such a good success germinating the lettuce seeds , I think due to it becoming too warm and lettuce being a cold germinating plant .

I do have a couple of pots of lettuce seedlings ready to prick out and pot up to go in their place . 

The ones I have been harvesting from I am going to plant out somewhere in the vegetable garden .

 I took off most of the outside leaves of the ones at the top pictured here in the wheelbarrow .

 The ones in the tray below I took off all of the leaves , and as an experiment I  am going to plant them out too , to see if they might grow more leaves .

 I suspect they will just bolt though ....if the slugs don't get them . 

I might squeeze the top tray ones into the veg trug .... still thinking about it .

So I got the lettuces potted up and then took a look at my little pot of celery seedlings sitting there in a saucer of water .

  Yep ! They ALL came up !  Isn't it funny how such a big vegetable can grow from such teeny weeny dust like seeds . 

Carefully .......

   Carefully prick them out .....

Fourteen .......two thousand and twenty three to go !   I think I'll leave the others in the pot for the time being .  Fourteen Celery is plenty enough .

I have put them all into the big tray on the shed bench .

  The celery pots are in a long tray within it , so that they can stand in a little water .

Gave everything a good drink to settle them all in . New lot of lettuce, coriander , baby kale and a few spring onions .

                              🌱    Everybody happy ! 🌱

Note to self - need to sow another pot of lettuce seeds .🌱🌱🌱

Also ....need to clean shed windows 🙂

 A nice bag of really fresh salad leaves to go into the fridge .

 I need a cup of tea after all that !  

                      Cheerio fer now !  love Debbie 💐🐝x

Potting on Squash and Leek seedlings 🌱🌱🌱

 Not a lot happening today . It's cold and the wind is still blowing a gale from the East .

I escaped into the shed and got on with pricking out and potting on the courgette , butternut and pumpkin seedlings .

  Isn't it amazing how quickly these germinate . They were all still in their seed packets just three days ago !

As I write , it has just started to rain . I am glad of it . It means I don't have to water the carrot and parsnip seeds I've sown the other day . It is so important they don't dry out or they won't germinate .  I thought about the "covering them with a plank of wood " method too keep them moist , but , when you do this you have to keep checking to see if they're germinating and there is also the worry about slugs. 🐌

After all the winter storms and torrential rain we've had , it's gonna be a great year for slugs and snails !  🐌🐌🐌

Then I split up and re-potted my Leeks "Jaune du Poitou ". I don't usually do this . I usually sow the seeds into a big pot and grow them on to pencil thickness before planting them out . However the pots I sowed the seeds into this year are these small ones . Don't know why I did this , but anyway , they'll benefit from the fresh compost and a bit more room to thicken up . 

Oh ! They smell SO good....mmmmm..I had a little nibble too...mmmm...so nice !

       Lovely and warm in the shed ...got my music on.....had a little dance !  💃🏻

              Leeks Jaune du Poitou will be harvested first .

I have another pot of Leeks "Bleu de Solaise" which will stand the winter and we will harvest during the so called "hungry gap" next year .

There is no sign of the beans germinating just yet . I took the Courgette, butternut , and pumpkin seedlings out to the greenhouse .

... said a little prayer over them ....hope they'll be o.k. I do worry about my seedlings .

          And that my friends is all I am doing today in the shed .

I have a pile of ironing to do , at least I got the washing dry on the line and in before the rain .

                            So all is well .

update ---

  

 My Cardoon seeds arrived ! 🤩 I am growing these for the bees   🐝🐝🐝  

           I took this photo of my Cardoons back in 2008 

 I used to have a couple of clumps of these fabulous plants  , but over the years they just fizzled out . 

                                I got these sown this afternoon . 

          

                                                 love Debbie x 

  

                                                     🌧️🌧️🌧️

                                                      

                                                

Happiness is ....... 🌱🌱🌱💚