What a storm!

Today was freezing. We had the mother and father of storms. According to Susie the same thing happened last year on the equivalent weekend. Well I wasn't at all tempted to dig the plot but the good news is that I was able to sow lots of seeds this week and help June sow hers too. We were very lucky to be undercover in the large poly-tunnel. The noise of the rain beating against the canopy was deafening.

Most of the seeds I sowed last week (in the heat) have germinated. The first lot of Petunias (sown three weeks ago) are looking quite respectable and will be ready to prick out soon and the second lot of have come up since last week. The aubergines and sweet peppers are doing well but the Chilli peppers are a bit slow; last year we had mixed success with Chillis, I hope we don't have the same experience this year.

This week I sowed six varieties of Marigold; always popular as they are great at deterring pests and they look so attractive and colourful on the plots interspersed between the vegetables.

Varieties sown were:
Mr Majestic
Naughty Marietta
Spanish brocade
French dwarf mixed
Boy o Boy mixed
Sunset giants mixed

The herbs sown this week these included:
Parsley
Coriander
Fennel
Thyme
Basil
Chives

We decided we needed to have a bigger variety so she will get some more seeds to sow for next week.

Herbs to include:
Chervil
Dill
Marjoram

June will be potting up cuttings of mint and Catherine has said she will do some sage. So there should be a good selection for the plant sale.

Other things being grown from seed at the moment by the plant sale team are leeks, verbena, alysum and lobelia, antirrhinums, and dahlias. There are lots of plants being cultivated from cuttings and there have been some plug plants bought in. The greenhouses are slowly filling up.

The great majority of plants have yet to be started off so the competition for space once we start pricking out the seedlings is going to be fierce, especially as we may be short of one poly tunnel this year as the canopy has been badly damaged.