This is the journal of my endeavours to grow a range of fruit, veg and flowers from seed, grow organically, and my attempts to create a personal paradise with 1/2 acre of maintained gardens and 1/2 acre wild meadows. Northern Ireland's average daily high temperatures are 18 °C (64 °F) in July and 6 °C (43 °F) in January. Soil type: Clay

Monday 9 April 2012

Seed Sowing

Where does the time go!?! It's been a busy few weeks - I went on a gardening course, had visitors, and tried to get on top of my seed sowing.

Last year I was sowing seed from February and this year I only began sowing at the end of March. Most of my inside sowing has been done over the Easter weekend. My seed supplies (pictured left) with my 2011 'quick list' of sowings scribbled on brown envelopes (very high tech!).


Anyone feel they have garden magazine purchase addiction??? Spring is the time of year I'm most likely to buy gardening magazines. It's so tempting with all the free seeds. However, I then end up with duplicates. I just love free seeds (for some reason)! 
As I was standing in the grocery store reading gardening magazines (as I do before I buy).. I flipped over the pages of 'Grow It' I noticed a very tidy veg plot (pictured above). I was delighted to see a photo of Mark's Veg Plot. Mark has an amazingly tidy and productive garden: I always enjoy his overview of his garden: http://marksvegplot.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-plot.html  There's also a gardening competition if anyone is interested!
Coming up nicely, three types of beans sown on 20 March - Purple Queen Dwarf, Scarlet Emperor, and Cobra. Below: Some of the seed sown over the weekend.
In the country you never know what will happen - this horse arrived at the back garden over the weekend (I don't think the Easter bunny was responsible!). Perhaps a traveller horse or just a horse wondering the area that had gotten loose. It was very friendly and followed me around the garden; he was keen to help so I had him clear a bit of unwanted grass. After various attempts to find the owner, it was finally returned home.

Now I'm off to the garden!

17 comments:

  1. Pleased to see someone else make use of a card board box for storing seeds. Those beans look healthy but I don't even consider sowing beans until May!

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  2. Hi Kelli; Thanks very much for the mention! Did I win something in the Grow-It 2011 competition then?? I have to admit that I only buy the magazine occasionally, and I had completely forgotten sending in my entry!

    I'm pleased to see that you are growing Cobra beans this year. They are an old favourite of mine, and always do well for me. I also have Scarlet Empire runners - supposedly even better than Scarlet Emperor, from which they were developed.

    Did you eventually find who owned the horse? (And if so have you arranged a supply of stable manure??)

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    1. You're right! I should enquire about manure. And to think I just bought six bags from the local garden centre!

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  3. Look like a busy Easter weekend in your garden. Yes, free seeds offered in gardening magazine is a very big temptation.Hard to resist.

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  4. I have been anxious to see your planting. We started our seeds in large plastic cups and the seedlings are growing long and leggy. We hope to plant them out by May 15, the date around here for the last frost, but I am not sure if the seedlings will be big enough. What sort of lighting to do you use? We are just using and east facing window. A stray horse? Are there really "wild" horses that wander the countryside? Glad this one was returned home. A horse is a rather large stray to take in. Happy planting.

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    1. Hi Ann, I use a 'sun room' to grow seed that faces southwest. I'm lucky as the plants never really go leggy. There are alot more sheep straying the countryside than horses; I don't expect to have a horse in my garden again (but one never knows!).

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  5. My seeds and sowing list are as high tech as yours. I have them written on random pieces of paper that I can never easily find. I'm slow on seed starting too, but our weather is just now starting to cooperate. Didn't seem like it would ever be warm enough to think about moving seedlings outside.
    What a pretty horse and how funny to have one show up in your garden!

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  6. Mark must have hit a winning streak.

    Don't fret about late sowing - we are always late compared to other people but things catch up!

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  7. Time really flew by this year! At least you planted some seeds. I let time slip by. What a cute visitor. LOL!

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  8. I don't have a seed sowing list as such but I do slot seed packets in a diary so I remember to sow them at the appropriate time. That is about as high-tec as I get. Looking forward to seeing how everything progresses.

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  9. I use a similar method to work out what to plant when. I haven't sown my beans yet, still a little early here as there's still the risk of frost. Glad to see that the horse found his way home.

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  10. Hi Kelli, your beans look really healthy and are growing well. Your new plantings will emerge soon! The horse!!What a surprise to find a horse in your garden. Hope he was well behaved and didn't trample or eat anything he wasn't supposed to do. He looks like he enjoyed his visit with you! Did he come from close by?

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    1. He was quite a good horse, very friendly. Didn't eat my plants. He was a few fields away from home.

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  11. Kelli, having seen your post I went out and bought a copy of Grow-It magazine. I see that although I get a mention for having an "orderly" garden, I didn't win any of the categories in their 2011 competition. Oh well, there's always next time. I just wish they had given out the URL of my blog to help make me famous...!

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    1. Your a winner for getting a photo in the mag! Cash would have been good too huh lol.

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  12. I'm addicted to garden magazines too. I try to stay away from the newsagents, but the temptation is too great, besides I might miss some really good free seeds.

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  13. Here I am thinking that I bought plenty of seeds (10 packets)... now I see you have heaps lots! Lovely horse, we don't have much of those that here, but if you're living in the country side you 'll get a lot of water buffalos and cows as visitors.

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