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

🌿Salad Days are here again ! ☀️🌿

 So I'm in the greenhouse potting up the tomato seedlings into their final pot/bags .

Sitting on the floor , nice and warm , hands in the earth . It very therapeutic !

I am filling these rolled down plastic pot/bags to about a third full . 

Multipurpose compost with a handful of perlite  mixed in .

The pot/bags are standing on trays .

I have re-used these bags , I think now this is the fourth time and they are still good and strong . 

These bags enable me to squash more in than if I used hard plastic pots . 

 💦I gave them each a drink to settle them in  .💦💦💦

As the Tomato plants grow , so I unroll the bags and add more compost . Which gives me time to save up for , find and buy more compost . 

The tiny hairs on the stems turn into roots , which in turn , makes for stronger and healthier plants .

They grow up through the greenhouse bench .

I then fix up string from the bench up to the greenhouse roof .  I re-use the same reel of paracord every year . It's good stuff !

                                    So that's that job done ! 

note - there are many ways to grow tomatoes . Outdoors or Indoors .In the ground or in tubs . This is how I do mine .

Update -  I rushed up to the greenhouse this morning to check they have not all passed out ....but they are fine .

Next job - pot up the Sweet Peppers .

Cucumber update  -  All but one of my favourite Beth Alpha cucumbers died. I have sown another lot ! 

I've also got another variety to try . Cucumber " Party Time " These are also small ones , perfect for just the two of us . 

Cucumbers are becoming very expensive to buy in the supermarket now . 

Time to sow a second wave of lettuce seeds .

                      ☀️🌱🌿   Salad days are here again !   🌿🌱☀️

Salad Days are here again !

 

                                   A second picking of mixed salad leaves .

                                                        🌿💚🌿