Ok, so I’ve been really busy (lazy) and haven’t actually got around to sowing ANYTHING. I’ve managed to get the potatoes chitting, but despite my carefully drawn-up plans, timetables and schedules, the seed trays are still vacant.
I was planning on starting earlier this week – honest guv – but work and cold weather put a stop to my plans thus far. I thought spring was on it’s way (see pic, a Clematis currently starting to flower at the Smallest Smallholding) but it appears not to be the case quite yet. A bitter stiff northerly breeze soon reminded me otherwise. However, a cursory glance over at Metcheck reveals that it’s going to warm up from Thursday, so I reckon that’ll be a good time to break open the seed packets here at the Smallest Smallholding.
I think I’ll start by making some biodegradable seed pots out of loo rolls, which will house my broadbean seeds (yes, I really am THAT late in sowing, so not many successive crops for me this year) and sweet peas. Then there’s the Tendersnax carrots that I’ll probably whack into some spare large terracotta pots. The aubergines and peppers will be sown too, and I’ll leave them germinating in the conservatory, which heats up nicely in the mornings if the sun is out. I’ll stick my tent cloche up tomorrow (Weds) and sow the parsnips straight into what ground I’ve managed to excavate in the new big veg plot.
I’ve also got a tonne of herb seed packets stowed away somewhere that I haven’t even looked at yet. Sometimes it’s all talk and action with me. Blargh!
We’re close to starting the seed sowing at the allotment, the plan being to get at least half dug and ready for sowing, before concentrating on the more intensive tricky end, where the twitch-infested mountain range lies.
But that’s all to be tackled in a couple of days. At the moment I’m feeling grotty. I managed to spend half the day swathed in my purple fluffy dressing gown, armed with a mug of hot chocolate and a couple of lazy cats. I have given up chocolate for Lent (all part of my effort to try and live without certain luxuries and remind myself that they ARE actually luxuries), and when Easter arrives I am willing an army of Easter Eggs (organic ones, of course) to appear. However, in the meantime, my sweet tooth is threatening to turn me stir crazy, so in an effort to subdue it I will do a bit of baking. My last chickpea lemon cake was a bit of a disaster as I didn’t read the ACTUAL drained weight of chickpeas in the tin, and ended up using only half of the chickpeas in the recipe that I was supposed to (utterly stupid, as I’ve done the recipe so many times before). So the hens enjoyed the Disaster Cake (as I christened it) instead.
