Wednesday 14 March 2012

Thought for the day...

...or thought for last sunday as that's when it occurred to me.... I was roasting the last of our parsnips and earlier that day been sowing the parsnip seeds for next year! The circularity of growing fruit and veggies is quite apparent at this time of year - spuds chitting and sowing seeds of parsnips, leeks, purple sprouting broc and so on, which can grow for over a year before harvesting. Start planning now to prevent that hungry gap!

Our 'gap' is quite small this year as we've got lots of leeks (I sow them now in pots and then plant out once the potatoes have been harvested - makes the most of space, helps reduce risk of leek moth damage. The down-side is that depending on the autumn/winter, you might not get decent sized leeks til the spring), PSB in the back garden, black kale, chard, parsnips just finished (discovered a secret row that I'd missed but the green tops starting to grow gave their presence away - a nice surprise) , still some potatoes in the shed, parsley, rocket (nice young leaves from where it's accidentally self-seeded around the back garden), and in the lean-to: pea shoots, coriander, oriental leaves, lettuce leaves, salad onions, all sown in the old tom compost from last summer (which will get added to the back garden borders when these crops are finished).

I do sometimes feel a bit stressed at this time of year, thinking of all those seeds waiting to be sown but take a deep breath and try and enjoy it instead. The toms, peppers, chilis and so on are all doing well, even producing their first true leaves. They'll probably need potting on soon!

1 comment:

  1. We planted quite a lot of leeks last year. We planted at a time when we had the space and it seemed a shame not to use all the seedlings some of which we gave to our plot neighbours

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