As the daylight hours lengthen and the Earth starts to rapidly wake up for another year, I’ve been visioning and planning about this years edible garden design. Its been such an unusually mild winter, I keep having to remind myself that its only late February, and there is often snow on the ground at this time of year here, and indeed things could get much colder for the next few weeks, its not unusual for us to have snow in the lead up to lambing time in April.
My hotbed system in the polytunnel means that I can get many of the annual edible plants going a few weeks earlier than without their fab heat producing help, but this extra heat only lasts for a few weeks, so timing it with the risk of the last frost is pretty crucial for many young plants.
This year I’m going to trial different seed growing mediums, commercially sold ‘seed compost’ and home made sand/molehill soil/leafmold mix. I’ve still got an abundance of seeds left over from last year, (a mix of self saved from the garden and gifted from others' and bought from the fantastic Tamar Organic and Real Seeds online catalogues), so apart from parsnip seeds (which do best if acquired each year) and some early seed potatoes, I’m pretty much all ready to get growing.
So, I’ve spent the last few days getting out my favourite edible gardening books and making a fab plan for the years growing…of course (as ever) the plan will evolve and change throughout the next few month, as some species germinate and grow well, others don’t do as great as expected and the weather does what ever it wants to! By growing lots of different varieties in succession through out the coming months, I’ll hopefully increase the resilience to challenging conditions (weather, pests, timing etc).
Happy growing everyone x
My hotbed system in the polytunnel means that I can get many of the annual edible plants going a few weeks earlier than without their fab heat producing help, but this extra heat only lasts for a few weeks, so timing it with the risk of the last frost is pretty crucial for many young plants.
This year I’m going to trial different seed growing mediums, commercially sold ‘seed compost’ and home made sand/molehill soil/leafmold mix. I’ve still got an abundance of seeds left over from last year, (a mix of self saved from the garden and gifted from others' and bought from the fantastic Tamar Organic and Real Seeds online catalogues), so apart from parsnip seeds (which do best if acquired each year) and some early seed potatoes, I’m pretty much all ready to get growing.
So, I’ve spent the last few days getting out my favourite edible gardening books and making a fab plan for the years growing…of course (as ever) the plan will evolve and change throughout the next few month, as some species germinate and grow well, others don’t do as great as expected and the weather does what ever it wants to! By growing lots of different varieties in succession through out the coming months, I’ll hopefully increase the resilience to challenging conditions (weather, pests, timing etc).
Happy growing everyone x