Not to be thwarted

It was the first Saturday since starting at the Hill that I haven’t been able to do anything because of the weather – the SNOW from Thursday still hanging around. However, it was also the first Saturday that I was otherwise engaged – travelling to the south coast for a family ‘do’.

Could have taken the seed potatoes with me, as it happens, because I was talking to a very nice lady who has an allotment & I’m sure that I could have passed them on. Possibly not appropriate in the middle of the champagne-and-cake-cutting though.

I did find time on Saturday morning to pop over to show mum how we are getting on – she made a load of ‘I’m very impressed’ noises, even though you couldn’t actually see anything at all under the blanket of snow – and she even pushed the car when I got it stuck in the snow!

I had to liberate the polycarb & my poor cold frame from a layer of snow which has boshed in all the bubblewrap, so it’s a repair job next weekend with the duck tape.

Not to be deterred by the weather, & spurred on by the happy band at the Grow Your Own magazine forum, Grapevine, I did sow a little trough with turnip, radish, beetroot, beet leaf and lettuce in the expectation of eating my own salad in no time at all – & 5 days later I have seedlings! Hurrah!

I also bought a packet of pea seeds & sowed some in a big pot on the kitchen windowsill in the hope of cutting the seedlings when about 6” high for salads. I’ve covered the pot with a plastic bag which I’m hoping will act as both a mini greenhouse to aid seed germination, and as an anti-cat device to aid seed survival.

I’ve been musing on what to sow in the jiffy peat plugs (bought some more at the weekend, well they were cheap!) – I thought that parsnips would be a good move, as they are tricky to get going, & then I could stick the plugs directly in the ground, but the Grapevine suggests sowing these on damp kitchen roll squares to germinate, then sowing on from there. Sounds a fiddle, but I’m happy to try it.

Perhaps broccoli or Brussels sprouts would be good in the jiffy’s – both of which you only want a few plants of, so seems daft to sow a whole row in a seedbed.

The list of things to do for the end of Feb and into March is growing by the day – & the priorities for the weekend seem to be:

• Planting the 5 Jerusalem Artichokes which I’ve saved and are going quietly soft in the fridge
• Put in a row (or two?) of the Rocket first early potatoes
• Mend cold frame
• If broad beans still not showing (it’ll be 4 weeks since they went in) give up and put another lot in.

All we need is the weather – it’s forecast for heavy rain on Saturday, but I have every faith that the Good Weather Fairy will wave her magic wand again!