Pottering in May

As I got my seeds in pretty late this year, I seem to be spending May pottering about waiting for them to be big enough to pot on or plant out.  The porch of my shed with it's plastic roof has turned out to be an excellent place for germinating seeds, and means I can step outside the door in the morning and check on them and water them every day.  I've completely run out of space however, and next year I'll need to look in to erecting some shelving.

Seedlings galore, balanced on every surface possible.  Some of them are flowers for the garden.

Just look at my strong healthy fabulous sweetcorn.  I will grow most of these in the tunnel as they are so successful in there, and a few outside just in case it is a long hot one.

Courgettes at the front and china asters at the back.  Never grown asters before, so they'll be a surprise whatever they're like.

Antirrhinum (snapdragons).  What tiny little delicate seedlings.  These can stay under plastic for a bit longer so I don't need to disturb them by watering.

I'm still sowing seeds, although these sunflowers and cabbages will probably be the last.  I may end up buying some pepper plants, or I may just do without them this year, and accept that I'm never going to grow ratatouille successfully after my aubergines failed last year - or was it the year before?

I always initially wrap the entire seed trays in clingfilm.  This helps them to stay moist.  It also means you don't need to keep disturbing the seedlings when at their most delicate to water them, the condensation drips from the top, and the clingfilm beneath stops the moisture escaping that way.

I'm quite excited about these cabbage seeds I have been given.  They are supposed to be club root resistant, which would be fantastic as I've never grown cabbages successfully before.  The seeds are a very unnatural bright blue, but so are some cauliflower seeds I have sown which are also club-root resistant, so the blueness is somehow connected to the resistance.

Club root is a disease which lives in the soil and attacks the roots of brassicas.  My first year of growing I tried sprouts, cauliflowers and cabbages, and they all remained small and undernourished.  When I pulled them up they had tiny lumpy roots.  The cure is apparently to give the soil a lime treatment, but this doesn't always work. This year the purple sprouting suprised me with success, so maybe I've just outlived club root. Hooray!  But still going for club root resistant varieties when I can, as the disappointment was horrible that first year.

Loitering in the Tunnel

Meanwhile in the polytunnel, stuff in the ground is thriving.  The carrots will need to be thinned in a few weeks, and I'm almost at the stage where I can stop buying lettuce for the season. The baby leaf spinach is delicious, the chard is looking lush and the rocket is at second-leaf stage.

From bottom, three rows of carrots (a later, purple variety hasn't germinated yet), two rows of spinach, a row of chard, some early lettuce, a row of rocket, a row of basil is just appearing, and the second sowing of lettuce is just about making an appearance.

The best bit.  already harvesting spinach.  This picking went in to a spinach and cheese omelette I had for breakfast.

The best place to be pottering on a rainy May day.