Planting in the Greenhouse

Finally, after weeks of delays, we finally managed to get down to the allotment for a decent amount of time. As usual, we are behind everyone else but after a decade, I have resigned myself to this, ignoring my annual resolution to be more organised next year.

My first job was to clear out the greenhouse. It’s a job that I avoid, mainly because of the eight legged monsters that live in it over the winter. Armed with gloves and keeping a sharp eye out for anything moving, I cleared away the old tomato plants and slowly worked my way along the raised bed, removing any bins weed roots I could find. It’s a simple job but one which I found very satisfying and relaxing. With my weed pot fully, I moved my attention to clearing the weeds on the patio which are very determined to grow despite regularly being removed!

In the meantime, my husband was busy hoeing the beds ready for our new crops. One section by the bog garden has been used as storage for all the willow cuttings over winter. Happily, these have now dried out and I collected, broken them down and stored them in the shed ready to be used in our EcoZoom stove. I’m always struggling for small bits of wood to get it going and there are always tons of willow cuttings which take up huge amounts of space on the compost heap. Pleased with my stash of firelighters, I moved onto checking on our chickens.

In the main coop, I was assaulted by four shouting chickens demanding treats immediately. They were distinctly unimpressed at the delay, made worse by the fact they kept getting under my feet each time I tried moving towards the food bin. Eventually, I mollified them with a handful of corn and headed across to the new coop. Mavis greeted me with enthusiasm, jumping up and down as I approached the coop door. To keep them happy, I had pulled up a handful of dandelion leaves – these are a firm favourite and got me a series of appreciative clucks from Mavis, Bonnie and Foxy.

With my husband finishing the hoeing, we went up to the greenhouse to start planting! It’s one of my favourite parts of the start of the growing season. Choosing what to try to grow, watching the seeds sprout and harvesting the crops a few weeks later. There’s simply nothing better. Between us, we filled the trays and pots with compost and then the great debate began – what should be planted first? Beetroot, radishes, cabbage, onions, broccoli, spinach, chard, sweetcorn, it all needed planting. We split the vegetable seed packets and began, leaving the tomatoes to go in the raised bed as we knew we’d run out of room in the trays and pots.

I kept aside the flower seeds too. These will go in the sunburst beds by the willow arch and it seems a little early to plant them yet. But I did plant some sunflower seeds. I’ve picked three varieties, trying to emulate Alan who is the King of Sunflowers. How he manages to grow such a variety and so brilliantly year after year, is beyond me! This year I have gone for Giant, Dwarf Yellow and Brown just to see what happens.

Between us, we then moved onto planting the tomatoes. Three big red varieties and two smaller yellow ones. I was particularly taken with the yellow Peardrop tomatoes which look exactly like cartoon lightbulbs! I’m hoping a couple of those will grow so we can see what they are like!

With all the planting done, we headed home. Now all we need to do is to remember to regularly water the seeds over the next couple of weeks.