Sunday, February 17, 2013

The 2013 campaign.....

....has now begun!

First seeds in, sown in the command centre which is our garage & potting bench. 
 
A couple of varieties of Tomato (Gardener's Delight and Pomona - an F1 hybrid from Seeds of Italy).  They are in a heated propagator in the greenhouse because......I've now got electricity in there, courtesy of a long and "outdoor-ised" camping power lead from when we used to go trailer tenting.  I've got some soil warming cable too to make a hot bed for germinating even more seeds.  I've also sown some Onion seeds (Bedfordshire Champion and Red Baron).  I've never done this before but the results with sets have been decidedly mixed so I thought I'd give seeds a go.

And on the allotment itself, digging has started.  
 
Old Foxy strolled across at one point but didn't wait to have his photo taken, or help with the digging either.  Though I must say he looked very fit and healthy, absolutely in the peak of condition.

6 comments:

Sue Garrett said...

We haven't fired our starting pistol just yet - maybe soon but our spoil is still very sticky

Gordon Mason said...

Ah, that's where I have the advantage of the plot being free-draining on a steepish south-facing slope. That can be a problem in a dry summer (Huh? Concept not recognised), but it does mean I can often get an early start. Doesn't mean I always do, of course, but the runes are looking good so far this year.

Sue Garrett said...

Was my typo a Freudian slip?

Gordon Mason said...

I didn't like to ask!!

Tanya. said...

Well you certainly have got an early start. What's the 'soil warming cably thing' you have?? I guess I really need to get things on order and make a start for the year.

Gordon Mason said...

Hi Tanya. Sorry to be slow in replying. The soil-warming cable (which I haven't yet set up) is basically a low-wattage cable which goes into a prepared bed in the greenhouse, covered in sand, and gently provides heat from underneath to encourage germination and growth at cool times of the year. You can get them in different sizes, and therefore different wattages. Mine is a 20foot cable and it's 75Watts, so not outrageous in energy costs. It does though require electricty to be available in the greenhouse. I'm using an outdoor extension lead from the days when we used to go trailer-tent camping and needed power. That has a circuit-breaker and three sockets. Basically the soil-warming cable enables you to build a giant heated propagator!