New year, new start

 

Happy new year to all of you!

I cannot believe how quickly 2021 went so I'm going to make the most of my time this year and really work on getting even more from the garden. My focus will be fruit, creating a forage area, homemade plant feed and companion planting. 

For now, my work in the polytunnel has been to start sowing tomatoes. Isn't it too early to sow tomatoes I hear you ask? Well, no because I'm using the aid of heated propagators and lighting to kick start germination. When I worked for a commercial grower, young fruit and vegetable plants would be delivered about now from Europe and they would be about a foot in height already. OK, so I'm not a commercial grower myself but I can cheat seeds into germinating earlier to give me a head start. 

I will also sow aubergines, chillies and some herbs, but I've run out of heated propagators so I'll be using windowsill trays and bring those indoors.

Speeding up seed germination

My seeds stored in a tin, ready to be sown.

There are various ways to spur germination on: 

Soaking

Some seeds, like beans, peas and squashes could benefit from being soaked first. Use hot water from your tap (never use boiling water as not all seeds can tolerate boiling water) and place that in a bowl with your seeds. Leave them for 12-24 hours. That will speed up germination compared to simply sowing seeds directly into the soil.

Chilling

Sometimes a seed needs to feel the seasonal change itself to push on germination. Chilling, or pre chilling as it's better known as, is a way of informing your seeds that they need to prep for germination. You can do this method in a variety of ways, depending on space and equipment. If you have a cold frames you can leave seeds in there. The natural cold will spur in growth. A more common method is to put your seeds in the fridge. Some people may just add the seed packet on a self in their fridge, but you might find that taking the seeds out of the packet and placing them on a damp paper towel which is rolled gives you quicker germination.  Finally, you can also place your seeds in ice cubes and then sow them. As the ice melts it will water your seeds and the change in temperature will wake the seed up. I've only ever tried putting my seeds in the fridge for this method and found that it has worked.

Scarification

This is a method I've never used as I imagine I might be too clumsy (or maybe I'm just not used to trying new methods). This is when you need to work on the outer shell of the seed as some seeds will have tough coats that need some form of abrasion to get the seedling growing. In nature this can be done through temperature changes, natural fires, an animal nibbling the outer shell or the seeds passing through an animal's digestive system. At home though, you can achieve similar results by using sand paper or a sharp knife for weakening the tough outer seed casing. 

More cleaning!

It's really important to make sure that you don't pass on any of last year's pests and diseases to this year's plants. Not completely avoidable but you can make a difference with cleaning. It's not the best bit about gardening for me but necessary. I've been washing seed trays before using them today.

Not my favourite chore!

The wormery

I've been checking my wormery a bit more frequently as the colder weather sets in. The wormery is placed in a sheltered position but I want to make sure that the worms don't freeze anyway. Worm tea is still being collected and I'm storing this in old plastic water bottles. I can't wait to start using it! When I took the layers apart today I was pleased to see rat tailed maggots there too. These are larva of the Drone Fly and they are a pollinator so I'm leaving these guys where I found them. The worms are in good condition too and there's plenty of them so I'm very happy. The wormery is topped up with food for now. Should the weather get colder still I will look at protecting the wormery more.

I now have around 30 litres of worm tea and there's more every week.

The lights are now on in my polytunnel to extend the daylight hours, there's also some warmth but I'll be sowing more seeds and bringing them indoors as I really don't want to get high electricity bills. Thankfully, the heat and lights don't use up much but it is something that's on my mind. My husband is thinking of buying a couple of solar panels for power to the shed and polytunnel (he does a bit of woodwork). I'll keep you posted on that idea.

Disco time again! These lights will only extend the day by a couple more hours. 

And finally...

I've been really exited by the fact that I saw a green finch in the garden a couple of days ago. When I first moved to this property there were lots of green finches and I would grow teasel and sunflowers for them but their numbers started to fall until we stopped seeing them altogether. I still carried on growing finch friendly food but sadly saw none in the last few years. Gold finches are common though. It's only been the one and I haven't seen it back since but there is a niger feeder out there for the finches so fingers crossed!

The snowdrops are coming through now and my photinia is starting to grow new red foliage. I don't have a favourite season as it's always really special to be able to see the changes in the garden and all around me. 

There's be some lovely flowers underneath my shrubs and trees in the garden. 

The Photinia will produce new growth that'll be red in colour.

Keep warm for now. Until next time.