Notwithstanding the frost outside, it is time to sow a group of flowers that appreciate light. I guess these are all seeds that land on the soil surface over winter and just wait for the heat and light of spring.
Here's my best attempt to mimic nature. Top level (The lower level represents my more brazen attempts to steal a march with things loke basil, cosmos and peppers.)
January flowers are such a rare thing. Thank goodness for the witch hazel
Winter Flowering Cherry
and Winter Jasmine
The bulbs are sprouting green leaves but not even the snowdrop will manage to put in an appearance before January is out.
And on the subject of bulbs I have this week planted 3 rows of garlic at the allotment (to add to the autumn sown ones). Back indoors I have sown 32 broad beans into deep root trainers. These will go into the greenhouse once they emerge and on to the allotment in due course. Yes spring is just around the corner. Next week will be busy now that I have looked out my seeds for early sowing! (Leeks, onions, shallots, tomatoes and chilli, as well as lobelia .
I was prompted to post about this vertical pallet garden after reading accounts of other more professional ones. This is located in the school garden and consists of two posts driven into the ground with a wooden pallet slotted over them. Containers are then wired to the pallet slats. Last year we tried a variety of plants, but this year the theme was a mass planting of lobelias. What do you think?
The display was somewhat short lived. Either this is because lobelia roots don't like to be closely contained, or just possibly, the feed of diluted worm pee was too high in nitrogen so they stopped flowering. The lobelia in half barrels in the school playground are still flowering happily away so I venture to think the former. At any rate by the end of August they had stopped flowering.
28 August
And just for the record here is how the vertical garden looked last year when still in development: There was a wider range of plants but none successfully overwintered, aside from the mint at the bottom.
I am not sure this experiment is worth continuing. The watering regime was three times a week (to tie in with three fills of the bird feeders a week). Even if it rains you need to water the lower tiers as they are in a rain shadow. A cynic would say that this experiment has demonstrated why horizontal is the norm for gardens.
This year I have deployed conventional light to stop my seedlings getting too leggy. It seems to be working for these annuals which currently have light but no extra heat. (The lights are located in our coal cellar). New this year is a new LED light setup. It is made up of small red and blue lights which explains the funny colour of these pics:
But it seems to work for tomatoes:
and peppers:
Outside in the (unheated) greenhouse transplanted lobelia ...
...and other hardier plants...
Leeks
...have rapidly been moved on after tricking them into germinating indoors!
Broad Beans
It is always a juggling act finding protected space once seedlings require transplanting into bigger containers. The greenhouse is the last resort and offers shelter from wind and rain/hail/snow but is no protection from the cold. I have a paraffin heater at the ready and will be keeping a watchful eye out for any sub zero predicted overnight temperature once the non hardy plants take up residence.
Looking at the labels I see that it already over 4 weeks since I made my first sowings.
Of the 12 pots all but one are showing some germination (even the leftover dried supermarket chilli seed has produced a seedling)
The one failure was some several years out of date onion seed
Look Lobelia!!! Who says only grow veg?
My challenge now is to wean these seedlings off the heat and light of the propagator!
I have started outdoor sowings with a raised bed of alliums at home. In addition - as I have so many seed potatoes I have planted out a short row of (reputedly frost tolerant) Epicure at the plot ( 17/3/17).
Today I'm going to do a greenhouse sowing of peas, leeks and lettuces to add to the broad beans already sown but not yet emerged. It won't be long before the greenhouse is bursting at the seams. But it also won't belong before outdoor sowings commence in earnest. Come April it's a free for all.
