The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Spring almost sprung
With winter flying past so quickly, John is keen to reorganise his schedule to allow for another early start to seed sowing
My gardening year has always started by selecting plants and seed in mid winter and drawing up my seed sowing schedule. Last year the spring arrived early after a very mild winter and warm weather allowed sowing and planting a fortnight ahead of that planned on my schedule, so this year I adjusted the schedule to allow for another early start.
Weather, however, is very unpredictable as climate change is erratic and although global warming would appear to benefit gardening in Scotland, you just cannot rely on it.
The winter has now just about finished, hopefully,and again been very mild.
I have not seen one snowflake land on my garden this season, but torrential storms and gales have kept us off the land a wee bit.
However, my sowing schedule has now started indoors with onion Hybound, sweet peas and pepper Early Jalapeno sown in mid-February based on last year’s early start, and if we get another early spring I will be happy.
This is also a great time to sow Lobelia as it needs a long growing season.
My unheated greenhouse is too cold for seed germination, so south facing windowsills are used for both seeds and geraniums rooted from autumn cuttings now growing strongly.
By the end of February my geraniums will have been potted up into their final pots and in need of more space so they will get moved into the greenhouse, assuming there will be a wee bit of global warming to get them started.
Geraniums are pretty tough, so no need to mollycoddle them, in fact the two I left outdoors all winter are surviving, although one does look a wee bit sad.
Onion seedlings, peppers and sweet peas will soon be needing more space so they will go into the cold greenhouse but I will keep an eye on the weather forecasts and if any frost is threatened I have an electric heater I can use.
The end of February is the time to sow many other crops including broad bean Aquadulce, lettuce Lollo Rossa, cauliflower Clapton (clubroot resistant), spring onions and tomatoes.
After last year’s tomato trial I will be growing my favourite maincrop Alicante, Supersweet 100 my best red cherry and Sungold my best yellow cherry.
These will all come from seed saved from last year.
Incidentally, making a seed packet last two years comes from a time tested tradition for Scottish gardeners, a practice taught as apprentices and it has never gone away.
I have not seen one snowflake land on my garden this season, – but torrential storms and gales have kept us off the land a wee bit
However, problems arise when seed producers decide to severely limit the amount of seed in each packet.
My tomatoes all came with 10 seeds declared in each packet, and not one had 11.
So last year only five got sown from each packet, which was just fine, and this year it should also be just fine as long as I get good germination from the remaining five.
Time will tell.
Just like last year the mild winter has allowed chrysanthemum stools to put on a lot of growth, so a batch of cuttings were taken.
There is no room at home so they went into a propagator in the greenhouse.
It is still quite early in the season, so the stools will continue to grow and give me more cuttings later on.
Begonia tubers need a long growing season before they flower, so dry corms got boxed up and watered in.
They need warmth and I will keep them in the house for a few weeks placed on plastic trays.
They do not need light until the shoots begin to grow, but hopefully by that time the weather will be warmer and they can go into the unheated greenhouse.
If the spring comes in early this year as anticipated by many, I will be on schedule to plant a row of first early Casa Blanca potatoes as the chitted seed looks almost ready to go into the ground.
Casa Blanca are good potatoes and are a popular choice for those who grow in small gardens. Edible size crops can be achieved in around 62 days from planting.