More haste less seed?

Looking at my lettuce-box on my porch windowsill, I can't help feeling that my eagerness to sow in January got the better of my good sense.

Even with indoor conditions, it isn't worth trying to get ahead of nature while daylight hours are short as things just don't grow well.  I think I'm going to now crop this lot as micro greens and try again with a new batch now that we're only 2 days away from March, which I always deem to be spring, whatever the official vernal equinox may say. (March 20th this year according to Googled sources, for those of you who care about such things)

Sowing when you should is always more productive, so that's why I've been sticking to sprouting seeds in the airing cupboard for  my recent weekly salad sowings - they're a roaring success, super quick,  and very tasty too.

Edible things you can start sowing in heat now include chillis (which need a long growing season to flower, fruit and ripen) and the majestic globe artichokes which are so fantastic for their architectural stature and leaf form, their delicious immature flowerheads and for their glowing violet spiky flowers.  These babies love to grow - here are my sowings from a week ago:

Already ready for potting on into small individual containers. I sense windowsill congestion is imminent.  Just as well I have lots of space at my allotment to house these giants when they grow up.  But they do make amazing border plants as well - don't be scared of statuesque specimens (says me, the six-footer) as height in the border is always a fine thing and stops things from getting boring.

The jagged grey form of artichoke leaves adds interest and they're also great for flower arranging.  Don't be scared of tall things in your garden, whatever its size. Here, spring height is given by the dark-leaved shrub Physocarpus Diablo, and by the towering spires of foxgloves and russell lupins.  The artichokes will take over the upper storey dramatics from mid to late summer with their huge thistle-like flower heads.

I am feeling very pleased that I got organised enough to get ahead with September greenhouse sowings of some of my annual flower seeds. My greenhouse dwelling ammi, sweet williams and hollyhocks are now ready to shunt across to the cold frame, and those already overwintering in there can begin edging towards the great outdoors for proper planting in the borders.  Which should make room for all my spring seedlings.  (Why are greenhouses never big enough?)

First crop eaten

The mung beans are no more - well, not in an undigested state anyhow.  Very tasty they were too. "Like peas but more dusty" was my youngest son's verdict.  Empty plate though.

Veg Plotting: Salad Days 2013: Propagated Peas

Veg Plotting: Salad Days 2013: Propagated Peas

Check out how other people are doing with the 52 week salad challenge.

Saturday Update - 26th January

As I'm running out of space in the porch and sound of thawing, dripping snow surrounds me, thought I would take a punt on the greenhouse border being able to support a sowing of salad seeds.  Will find out if this is the case over the next few weeks.  Sowed short rows of 'Little Gem' lettuce, some seeds I collected from the garden last year - not sure if they came from komatsuna or a green mustard, lambs lettuce ' Elan' and some radishes which I got from the Heritage Seed Library. 

Am quite impressed that I'm managing to keep up the weekly sowing schedule so far.

Sprout alert

This is not a post-Sunday lunch warning, merely an update on what's happening in my boiler cupboard for the 52 week salad challenge.


Three days into my mung bean growing foray and things are already looking positive.

I look forward to tucking into them in a few days time - great to get that nice crispy/crunchy/fresh flavour at this time of year.

Meanwhile, have just dug out the car to go to the supermarket to stock up on the hazardous (but also tasty) brussel variety of sprouts to go with all the hearty wintery stews etc we will no doubt be consuming over the coming days.  

Dared to peek into my snow-shaded greenhouse this morning. I lifted the horticultural fleece covering my annual seedlings with trepidation after a week of temperatures hovering around freezing or below but was delighted to see that they are still defiantly with me. I just hope they can continue to resist the arctic conditions until the milder weather which we've been promised from next weekend.

Now I'm going to venture outside and brush the snow off my lavender so it doesn't get entirely bent out of shape, and also off the viburnum bush.  A gentle shake will help the plants to maintain their shape rather than getting snapped by the weight of the white stuff.  I, however, will probably end up looking like my snowman by the time I'm finished with this task.

Challenging salad

Too cold to sprout this week and indoor areas getting full (including with cats who are being banished for a couple of hours before bedtime as they refuse to go out for the necessaries in the snow - with yeuuuuch results).

Think I'm going to go for sprouting seeds this week - simple, easy and quick.  I've got a packet of mung bean sprouts that need finishing off so will start them tonight.

All they need is a jam jar to grow in, and a quick soaking and shake about with warm water and then a good draining.

I'll leave them in the warm dark boiler cupboard until they start to sprout - repeating the above process a couple of times a day.

Should only be a week until I'm eating fresh bean sprouts. Yum.

Looks like being microgreens this week....

Having just seen the forecast for below zero temperatures and snow in the coming week, I think this week will have to see me doing a planting of microgreens for the salad challenge.  I can do these indoors in a container, they won't take up too much space, and I should be able to crop them within two to three weeks. Will check in my seed box and see what leafy/beety crops I have the most seeds for, and use some of those.

First salad leaves are in!

Twitter is a marvellous thing.  Having spent the morning weeding and clearing, my head was full of plans for newly cleared spaces and the salad challenge had slipped several rungs down my to-do list.  A quick break for lunch and a check of my email whilst downing a cup of tea, revealed a tweet from JP @gardengazelle saying that he/she was going to take up the challenge as well.  This reminded me that I'm going to be organised this year!  So I duly fished out some seeds and dug out a container from the depths of the shed.

(Actually, having paced around the garden for a while this morning, I spotted that the central bed is already sprouting lots of Lambs Lettuce 'Elan' - not that I planned or planted it.  It has self seeded happily since I first sowed it about three years ago, and now is always one of the first things to appear in an early mild spell.  So, maybe I should count this as my first salad crop and ban supermarket purchases from here on in?)

I chose a tin trough for this  batch of salads, purely because it is a decent size and has a base narrow enough to fit on my porch windowsill.  I don't like sowing salads in small pots because they can't produce enough to feed my bunch of gaping-mouthed cuckoos - whatever I sow in has to be large enough sprout a decent serving-size.  Children's voracious munching of plant material is surely a testament to the taste of homegrown salad.

For this batch I used peat-reduced multipurpose compost and mixed it with some perlite and sharp sand to improve the drainage so that seedlings aren't stuck in damp, cold, clag.

Filled the bottom of the trough (which has drainage holes in it already) with bits of polystyrene packaging from our bountiful Christmas supply. 

Mixed a few pinches of seed together for my salad mix - 'Red Salad Bowl' lettuce is a fantastic cut and come again variety,  lamb's lettuce 'Elan' as it seems very happy in current conditions judging by my outdoor crop, and mustard 'Red Frills' just because I have envelopes full of seed waiting to be used up!

Sowed it on top of the compost quite thickly as I find that sowing generously for cut and come again salads doesn't seem to affect them greatly - you can thin them out by pulling some out entirely and eating them if they are too dense and germinate too well!  Covered the seeds lightly with fine compost and gently firmed it down before watering.

I even remembered to add a label so that I know when my deadline is for my next sowing.

I've put the trough on a tray in my porch, but have put a layer of grit sand in the tray so that the base of the trough doesn't sit in the cold and wet too much (have run out of coarse grit, so must add that to my next garden shopping trip).  Have covered it with a couple of propagator lids - not because I think it needs it, but just to keep the cats from sitting on my seedlings (again).

HAZARD

The 52 week salad challenge

I've just taken up Veg Plotting's 52 week salad challenge, and for me, this will mean trying to sow a salad crop each week.  It will also mean trying to NOT buy salad leaves from the supermarket from the date of harvesting my first crop.  This may mean venturing into foraged leaves at certain points - will have to dip into "The Forager's Handbook" by Miles Irving, or my new Christmas book "The Hedgerow Handbook" by Adele Nozedar.  Both of these have some great ideas which I haven't yet sampled - for example pineapple weed and sow thistle leaves added to salads...

And salads can look so pretty too - on the plate, and growing:

I've long since discovered that they taste so much better when picked and eaten fresh, but have never before tried to be systematic about keeping the supply going.  An interesting experiment which I plan to attack tomorrow.

Will sow some mixed leaves in a container which I'll put in my porch - warmer than my unheated greenhouse so should be able to get the seeds germinating quite quickly if the weather stays as mild as it is at present.

Red frills mustard is really easy, pretty AND tasty. Also seeds prolifically so I have oodles of seed to sow!