Terry Walton keeps warm sowing salad in the greenhouse
I’m warming up by sowing lots of salad in the plot’s greenhouse
What an April this is turning out to be! The clock is running but the weather hasn’t responded and the ground is still cold. No chance yet of those ‘little seeds of life’ leaving their packet homes to start out on the first steps towards becoming mature crops.
When we’re cold our extremities go numb and blue, but we can quickly go indoors and bring everything back to normal. No such luxury for the poor plants in exposed soil. We can protect them with cloches or fleece, but they generally have to tough it out!
Those more advanced crops, such as garlic and broad beans, are given no protection and are feeling the chilling effects of the cold easterly wind. There’s a definite tinge of yellow in the tips of their leaves as the temperatures have plummeted and they suffer, waiting for the sun to appear again and bring them some welcoming warmth. This will come soon hopefully! Then we can give them a top feed of fertiliser, an organic feed of blood, fish and bone in my case, and they’ll soon have that rosy glow returning to their leaves.
Still, for us fickle gardeners there’s always the warmth of the greenhouse, with plenty to be getting on with in there. I only wish I could start to move some of the trays outside to harden off, but there’s no chance yet.
With summer still some way off outdoors it’s time to bring salad days to my greenhouse. My early sown salad leaves are just about getting a spurt on so, with succession cropping in mind, it’s time to sow more. Using my favourite container, the discarded florist’s bucket, I half fill it with well-rotted manure and top it up with good quality multi-purpose compost. The manure is largely there to save on compost, but hopefully some roots may reach this rich area for an extra feed. Sprinkle seeds on the compost and sieve a thin coating of compost over. Water with tepid water, then cover with a piece of glass and pop under the staging until the seeds come through.
The spring onions I sowed a month ago have emerged and are growing well. To continue this tangy salad filler it’s time to sow a follow-on bucket. Same procedure as for the lettuce.
In the greenhouse in their large pots the carrots have come through the surface and are looking good. As I’ve no carrots for use at the moment I want to chivvy these along so I’m feeding them with seaweed extract twice a week. This regular feed will hopefully spoil them and accelerate growth. I really miss my own harvest of fresh carrots, as they’ve a distinct flavour that’s simply not found in supermarket bought ones.