Another year, another season begins

February 8, 2016 by Elaine 2 Comments

Ready to start.

A little while ago I sorted through my seeds, throwing away the very out of date ones, seeing what I had left and making a list of what I needed to buy. Thankfully I’d managed to buy several packets of fresh seed, in various sales at the end of last summer and so I only had half a dozen packets to buy. My next job was to draw up a seed sowing timetable and for this I decided to utilise the calendar and Quick Note app on my phone.

Seeds are listed under the first month they can be sown and alphabetically under veg or flowers

I started a new file on Quick Note, imaginatively titled ‘seed Sowing Timetable’, and then listed all the seeds by first recommended planting month, with all the vegetables seeds for each month listed first (and alphabetically), followed by the flower seeds for that month (also in alphabetical order). Then on my phone calendar, on the first of each month I entered reminders in respect of seed sowing, as by doing this, I’d receive a prompt a week before hand, giving me chance to purchase compost, pots etc. I’d  then be able to check my timetable file and see at a glance which seeds were due for sowing, saving me from having to check each individual pack.

My phone calendar acts as a reminder to check the sowing timetable.

Just as planned, during the last week of January, my ever helpful phone reminded me that the first seeds were due to be planted in February and so I popped down to the greenhouses, raked out a couple of propagators and seed tray inserts and set about thoroughly cleaning them, ready for seed sowing. Then on Saturday, I set out a protective covering in the kitchen and began sowing the first of the seeds, with some help from Little Mudlet.

An hour later, two small black and one windowsill propagator, were fully occupied as follows:

Chillies, Tomatoes, Melon and Sweet pepper are in these

Black Propagator 1:

• Cayenne Chillies (from saved seed) 16 seeds sown;
• Mixed Chillies (Chilli Shake new packet) 16 seeds sown;
• Patio Chillies (from saved seed) 16 seeds sown;
• Jalapeno Chillies (from saved seed) 16 seeds sown; and
• Sweet Pepper (from saved seed) 16 seeds sown.

Black propagator 2:

• Pepito Melon (from last years packet) 4 seeds sown;
• Chocolate Cherry Tomato (from saved seed) 16 seeds sown;
• Cherry Tomato bush variety (from Wilkinsons packet) 16 seeds sown;
• Cherry Tomato (from Country Value packet variety not specified) 24 seeds sown; and
• Heinz Tomato (from freebie packet) 16 seeds sown.

Flowers and more chillies

Windowsill Propagator (using biodegradable inserts):

• Cosmos  Butterfly Mix (from packet) 12 seeds sown;
• Dwarf Dahlia Mix (from packet) 12 seeds sown;
• Dwarf Delphinium Mix (from packet) 12 seeds sown; and
• Mixed Chillies (Chilli Shake new packet) 12 seeds sown.

So in total I’ve sown 76 Chilli seeds across four varieties and 72 tomatoes, also across 4 varieties but some of the tomato seedlings will go to school. Hopefully this should be enough chilli seeds to produce a respectable number of healthy plants, allowing for some germination failure. That said I might sow a few more chillies, in a week or so ……….. just to be sure I have enough of a crop to make sweet chilli pouring sauce and pickled chillies come the autumn!

Ready to start.

Washing the propagators and trays is essential in producing healthy seedlings

I’ve used biodegradable inserts in the windowsill propagator