Chitting

I've laid out my seed potatoes on newspaper in an old veg rack that was used in the nursery last year to start off seeds in paper pots. These will live in my studio which is a cool, north facing room so the light from the french doors in here should give them enough light without lots of bright direct sunlight.

Top tray is half Charlotte (second early salad potatoes) and the rest are Desiree (early maincrop)

Delightful deliveries

I love choosing what to try and grow in the veggie garden... what I love even more is receiving the lovely parcel of seed packets in the post! Today I have arrived home to find a box full of goodies waiting for me and contains my seed potatoes (Charlotte and Desiree) and all but one of the packets of seed I ordered (runner beans, brussels sprouts, green sprouting calabrese, kohl rabi, baby onions, squash and tricolor chrysanthemums for the cut flower garden.)

Now to get on with chitting the spuds...

Long overdue tasks

I bought various packets of bulbs late last autumn and most of the ornamental flowering bulbs went in the ground at the front of the house or in the three window boxes on our front bay window. The few ornamentals leftover I had planned to put in my new cutting garden.

December then became pretty hectic and any time to go out in the garden to plant the remaining bulbs seemed to simply disappear. I did get as far as planting a packet of snowdrops in what will be the wildlife garden, which I am pleased to see are coming up and some are showing signs of bursting into flower in the next few days.

So today, finally with some spare time to get outside, I have put the remaining bulbs in the ground... I just hope they didn't mind sitting in their packets for so long!? 8 Shallot 'Jermor' have been hastily shoved in the ground with the hope that they will root as over half had already begun to shoot. These have gone in one of the raised beds. I've also planted 15 Garlic 'Cristo' in a pot which, once their shoots begin to poke through will be transferred to the ground.

A final large trough container has been planted with the remaining ornamental bulbs as part of my plans for cut flowers. The selection includes: dwarf Iris reticulata, Narcissus 'Baby Moon', Narcissus 'Waterperry', Allium 'Purple Sensation', Tulipa 'Black Parrot' and Tulipa 'Passionale'. I have no real idea of how many of each are in there as I mixed all of these that were left over in one bag. So whatever grows will become fresh cut flowers for the table.

Bulb selection!

Making plans for the year ahead

I feel like a complete stranger to the blog at the moment. The garden is so bare having not grown much at all this winter and I'm itching to give it all another go again this year!

I've received some fantastic gardening presents at Christmas which I intend to put to good use. A pair of lovely gardening gloves, left-handed secateurs, a compact plant trainer with space for 49 seedlings, a proper kneeling mat and a traditional sussex trug to (hopefully) collect the fruits of my labour...

I've also made a list of veg I'm going to try for 2008 and have put in my main order for the remaining seeds etc needed. The plan as it stands is as follows:

Root veg: Charlotte and Desiree potatoes, Bolivar and Golden Detroit Beetroot

Bulbs: Shallots and garlic

Peas & beans: Ambassador Peas, Ezethas Krombek Blau purple-pod mange tout, Neckargold climbing french beans and Scarlet Emperor runner beans

Brassicas: Green sprouting calabrese, Azur Star kohl rabi and Nautic brussels sprouts

Other veg: Uchiki Kuri squash, Nero di Toscana kale, Pandora leeks, Paris Silverskin baby onions and Gardener's Delight cherry tomatoes

Fruit: Ben Sarek blackcurrants (my first attempt at fruit really so I'm planning to start with one compact blackcurrant bush in a container and see how I get on...)

I've also ordered 5 comfrey plug plants as I'd like to try making home-brewed plant food! No doubt I'll try my hand at a few herbs again not to mention my favourite salad leaf, good old rocket!