Starting Seeds

This weekend saw the starts of indoor planting for the year.  In order to have a nicely varied veg garden we have decided to plant a wide range of types of veg, with less of an emphasis on potatoes this year,  Yes potatoes are fairly simple in terms of the amount of care needed after planting, but we want to make things a bit more interesting and diverse this year.  As its probably a little early, and the garden itself is not ready (not cleared ad dug over fully yet) we started some seed trays away this weekend.

With the help of B and I 4 trays of seeds were started.  Some would say it is best to plant one type of plant per tray so you know what is what when it comes up, no such wisdom here.  We planted a tray of peas, half a tray of runner beans, filled this tray with cabbage and kohlrabi then two other trays with an assortment of leeks, spinach, turnips, swedes, and celeriac.

These trays are now situated in underbed storage boxes on the dining table. The boxes serve two important functions, you can move them easily, and any water will not reach the table and damage it.

The hope is in a couple of weeks we will have a load of seedlings ready to separate into pots, which will similarly find themselves in the storage boxes.  This lot can then easily be taken outside to be hardened off during the day, and brought in to be protected overnight until I am happy the weather is good enough to plant them outside.

The compost used was a basic all-purpose compost from Aldi.  Many people suggest that a richer potting compost is better for starting seedlings away in.  And it may be true that these composts will provide more nutrients in the early development of the plants.  For the additional cost I don't see that it will have a major effect over the lifetime of the plants when they will spend most of their lives in what is currently not excellent quality soil in the garden.  We are looking to improve the quality of the ground soil in the garden through composting, but this will be a long process,