This week I have finally made it out to the potting shed but not to clean and organise but to actually get my hands in the compost and sow some seeds !
After doing a seed check of what I currently have, I do know some of my seeds are reaching their best by date so I separated the really old ones out to sow now (knowing I will get a low germination rate ) as to not waste any seeds and then look forward to ordering some new varieties !
For the week that's in it , here in West Donegal , I wont be going to crazy with sowing as it is still very cold out there and I have a feeling Spring will be a while away yet .
So starting out with some oriental salads such as Mizuna , Pak Choi and Red Frills (I don't like any heat from these leaves as I like to make smoothies with them) , and then sowing a lot of wild rocket and spinach which I just love when young as salads but then a little older in stir fry's and the likes.
To be honest , no one knows what the weather will be like anymore and day to day growing is tricky ! So getting a balance of growing undercover and outdoors takes a bit of planning for the home grower. This year I plan to do a lot of experimenting with polycropping in the tunnels and in the main garden hoping that if the weather turns like it did last year I will still get a crop ... somewhere .
For example I am going to sow early carrots indoors , in the same raised beds as my tomatoes - the thinking behind this is that the deep rooted carrots wont interfere with the tomato roots , which I will also feed closer towards the surface using a funnel at each plant ( I will make this from old bottles that I have saved). I will sow the carrots before the tomatoes goes in & harvest the carrots from baby size around the location of where my tomatoes will go in May and then I can harvest fully grown carrots around the tomato plants until the end of June ... all being well .
You will have to watch this space for more ideas on polycropping and if you have any please do add in the comments as I would love to hear all about it.
Tomato's . Pepper's and Aubergine will go in next week when I have the heat mats ready and (the new) grow lights all figured out !
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