During the spring-like weather until the weekend, the temperatures inside the cold frame hovered around the mid-twenties Celcius range, much warmer than any part of our house! However, the last couple of days the temperatures dropped noticably again and inside the frame it's now more like 15 C (still warmer than the house...just). I hope that it's not going to get much colder again, as it sometimes does with us. In some years we've had the coldest weather of the winter in mid-March.
The seed potatoes I've used are partially left-overs tiny ones from last year, which have sprouted nicely. They are a mealy type yellow potato. The others are from a local supermarket. They've reduced the price of a 10kg sack of red potatoes, because they had started sprouting. That's of course ideal for planting them and they only cost me €2.
I planted them on the terrace that last year had aubergines and some borlotti beans. The bigger ones I cut in half or even in quarters, because they had so many eyes on them.
Elsewhere in the garden the broad beans are looking well:
Note the bumble bee on the broad bean blossom! I feel another poem coming on. Something like: Bumble bee battering broad bean blossoms but bringing blenty bollen... no... no... something's not working here... Anybody with any better ideas?In the cold frame the first seedlings are appearing:
gherkin
lentils (it's working!... so far...)
kohlrabi (old seeds, but still germinating)
A view underneath the glass to the half with the lettuces in the background and raddishes (also sown a month ago) up front,
7 comments:
I love seeing all the seeds germinating, its exciting!
So much going on! I am a helpless fan of alliteration too.
My indigo seeds and the pastel pansies are the only disappointments so far. Sigh. I've GOT to get the indigo going somehow. I feel a germination test coming on.
I hear you -- I'll get the potatoes planted this weekend!
Oh come on Heiko...you can do better than that with a bumble bee poem!
Everything's coming along nicely isn't it?
When you say you cut the potatoes..do you mean you planted each piece? And if you did...they'll grow ok? Sorry...you know I'm a bit of a numpty..but I'm learning so much from your blog.
Beck, yes it's my favourite part of gardening.
Stefani, it's just a shame I'm alliterate...
Ayak, yes you can cut the potatoes in smaller pieces and plant separately as long as each piece has at least of 'eye'.
I've planted some sprouting leftovers too, I don't see why they shouldn't be ok. Your seeds are doing so much better than mine... but don't tell me that it's to do with the moon, it's too late!
You are so far ahead of me, planting potatoes is but a thought in the back of my mind. There is nothing as fine as freshly tilled earth, you will most certainly have a fine potato patch this year.
- and our gherkins won't be planted until June, but at least I can look forward to watching yours grow.:)
Jan, if I was to buy actual seed potatoes it was cost me as much as buying what I'm likely to harvest in normal potatoes. They may not be organic then, but I have to keep the economics in proportion. I've so far always planted ordinary shop bought potatoes and results have been ok. No disease problems as yet. Of course I rotate the crops, but at the old potato terrace there are always some that come again anyway, sometimes several years in a row.
Mr.H, you are doing just fine when I see what's sprouting in your greenhouse. I'm just happy that temperatures seem to be good inside my cold frame.
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