Garlic and the last of the seed shopping…

I ordered the last of my seed packets from Kings today and I am so excited! We popped to a garden centre last Friday and I had my list of seeds I needed, however the shop only had a few so I made a note to buy the rest online and I did just that. I’ve been rather good when it comes to buying seeds, only buying what I actually need and not being tempted by sales or unnecessary purchases. I think after 4 years of owning an allotment I’ve outgrown that phase of my gardeners life and I’m being more and more thrifty with my seeds.

Now that January has passed us by after what seems like an eternity I can start thinking about sowing seeds. I’ve learnt throughout the past few years that sowing them too early can be pretty pointless seeing as our last frost date can be as late as the end of May. Many a time I’ve sown sweet peas too early and they’ve spent months being stuck inside pots which stunts their growth a great deal and takes them longer establish.

The seeds I’ll be sowing this month are three varieties of sweet peas, ammi majus, lunaria annua, parsley, sweet peppers, skull cap, feverfew, cress and a tumbling tomato. I’ll also be buying my seed potatoes soon to chit happily away in the kitchen before being planted out on Good Friday.

In other news I mentioned previously how the Spring bulbs are starting to pop up and I’m pleased to announce that the garlic I planted back at home in a container is also doing really well. 7 ‘Provence Wight’ bulbs were planted into the little galvanised container back in November and since then they have produced these strong, green shoots. I’ve been monitoring the amount of water we’ve been having and moving the container into the greenhouse for a day if we were forecast really heavy rain for a while. I must admit it’s been nice having this tiny container to look after throughout the Winter, it’s been the perfect piece of garden therapy and I’m looking forward to getting more of that precious therapy over the next month.