It's seed sowing time! With the snow several weeks ago and colder weather in March I put off sowing seed, however, at the weekend I made a start with the items pictured left. No flowers sown as of yet, but they're next on the list.
I realise many gardeners have been sowing seed from February but I prefer to wait until March or April. One reason for waiting is I don't like to clutter the house for months on end with various containers of compost sitting around everywhere. Then there's the process of hardening off the plants I've grown; for the area I live this is best done at the end of May. To harden off plants it means I put the plants outside during the day and bring them inside at night (for at least a week) - quite a chore to be done every morning before work. However, this year I splashed out and bought a tiny outdoor greenhouse (pictured below).
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| Above: This year I'm having a go at sowing onion. I've no experience of growing onion or shallot so having seen a post by Sue at Green lane Allotments I realised my first mistake was covering the whole bulb with soil - pictured on the bottom rack of the frame below. I will have to look into how to sow onion. All I know is that the gardening books categorise onion as 'easy for beginners' (which is what I'm hoping for). |
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| My new, snazzy 3-shelf green house with plastic cover, bought for the bumper price of £14.99. (Then I saw something similar for £11.99 at Poundland. And £24.98 at BnQ). I'm hoping to have success sowing seed here rather than cluttering up the inside of the house. I just love growing from seed... so I may clutter up the house as well! |
Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.
Just leave the tips of the onion sets showing Kelli. We like to hang fire with sowing too and our stuff catches up in the end.
ReplyDeleteI've been busy sowing more seed too Kelli, and I agree, having to bring trays of seedlings in and out of the house is a pain. It looks like you'll be able to prevent some of that with your new greenhouse, £14.99 is still quite a bargain.
ReplyDeleteI see you're growing Purple Queen this year. I picked up a packet to go along with my normal french beans, but was a bit disappointed to discover they revert to green when you cook them. Never mind, I'm sure they'll look great while growing :-)
I've wondered how those little greenhouses do. I hope you'll give us a review on it in a few months. I usually wait to direct sow, but it would be so much better to have a way to start some seeds earlier. They get too leggy and weak for me inside.
ReplyDeleteI usually sow directly in the garden, except lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and paprikas. How do you sow beans? In our country we have to wait sowing them till 15th of May, before that time it is too cold. I like to see how other people all over the world are gardening. We have at the moment a lot of wind but it's not cold so it is sowing and growing time, such pleasure.
ReplyDeleteWish you happy gardening.
Hi Janneke, Last year I sowed beans in an unheated conservatory facing South which keeps the heat in quite well. However, I looked over my notes from last year's sowings and I found this comment,
Delete"Bean 'Scarlet Emperor' (climbing), Suttons Seeds, £1.19 (reduced to 20p). Sown 20 March 2012 / pots. Sown 5 June 2012. Plants sown later were stronger. (Weather conditions in June not good for planting out)."
This year I'm trying to sow in the outdoor greenhouse for the first time so not sure if it will be successful.
Isn't work a wretched nuisance and a constant interruption of other more enjoyable pastimes? Hopefully the mini greenhouse will make things much simpler for you and your success rate will soar. Good luck with growing the onions. In New Zealand we are at the bulb planting season rather than the seed sowing season, I feel a teeny tiny bit envious but will content myself with the bulbs for now.
ReplyDeleteHi Kelli, I like your greenhouse and the price was right! Is there a way to anchor it from wind? Was it easy to set up. I may look for one for the future, too.
ReplyDeleteThe greenhouse came flat packed and was really east to make up - took about 5 minutes. I have the bottom of it anchored with bricks outside as we get such strong wind and gales (and I positioned it in a sheltered area). I'll have to take it down in Autumn as it would not survive being left up over Winter with snow etc.
DeleteIt feels good when you get sowing again - hope for the new gardening year. I bought a new cover for my grow-house for a fiver from Poundstretcher. The covers only seem to last a season before they deteriorate.
ReplyDeleteJust a word of warning, plastic greenhouses take off in wind so make sure it's anchored down well. I usually put a bag of compost on the bottom shelf. It's great to be finally sowing seeds now that the weather has warmed up. I did a whole batch last weekend and I want to get more things sown this weekend. Hope yours germinate for you soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice. We have very strong gales at the minute.
DeleteHi Kelli, that are quite a bit of veggies that you intend to grow from seeds! Great! I am way too lazy to grow plants from seeds and as you mentioned I also don't like cluttering the house with seed trays. But here in Southern California most of the plants can be sown outside directly if you desire to. Your plastic covered greenhouse is a great find. Good luck with the germination process of all your seeds!
ReplyDeleteChristina
Glad to see that you are another convert to the idea of the plastic mini-greenhouse. I couldn't manage without mine now.
ReplyDeleteYour right about the clutter of seedlings in the house.I have now happily transferred mine to the large greenhouse. Good luck with your onions.
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen is cluttered with seedlings and I need one of those little greenhouses! But the minute I can get them all comfy outside, I'm starting more seeds. :o) I think if you just dig some of the soil away from the onion bulbs, they'll grow for you. I've grown them before and it was pretty simple. I noticed you have parsley seeds. They need a bit of cold stratification to grow so sow them outside. Don't worry if it doesn't look like they're growing. They can be slow to sprout but you'll end up with lots of plants.
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