Propagation under way

These are the seedlings I'm growing in the house at the moment. I start most of them in the kitchen windowsill, which is the warmest spot with most light. These haven't germinated yet (lettuce, onion, chard 'bright lights', and in deeper pots in the corner some sweet peas).

Estos son los semilleros que tengo en este momento en casa y in la caseta. El primer paso suele ser la ventana de la cocina, que es mas caliente y tiene mas luz. Aqui tengo (todavia sin germinar): lechuga, cebolletas, acelga multicolour, y en una maceta mas profunda en la esquina unos guisantes de olor:

The bathroom windowsill is also a good place to start seeds. Here I have cucumbers (one shoot has just appeared!) and courgettes:

La ventana del bano tambien es un buen sitio. Aqui tengo semillas de pepino (el primero acaba de asomar la cabeza) y calabacin:

Once they've germinated I move them to the shed, which is cooler but still better than outside! I have several propagators with lids, which add a bit of extra warmth and stops them from drying. Here I've sown: parsley, more lettuce, kale, sprouting broccoli, swede, nasturtium, marigold, and spring onions

Una vez que han brotado, paso las plantitas a la caseta, que es mas fria que la casa pero mas protegida que al aire libre. Tengo varios semilleros con cubiertas de plastico, que aumentan la temperatura un poquito pero sobre todo mantienen la humedad. Aqui tengo, en diversos estados de crecimiento: perejil, mas lechuga, berzas, brecol, rutabaga (un tipo de nabo), unas capuchinas (nasturtium), tagetes y mas cebolletas:

I use this old cat litter tray as my potting tray (and a portable light, evenings aren't bright enough yet):

Esta bandeja, vendida como WC para gatos, es donde planto mis macetas (con una linterna puesta encima, porque aun se hace oscuro pronto):

I have hung these recycled fruit baskets from the window frames, to give me extra growing space in the light. I have put the most developed seedlings (lettuce, calendula and cornflower), a deeper pot with leeks, and the onion sets:

He colgado estas bandejas de plastico, recicladas de fruterias, delante de las ventanas de la caseta, para tener espacio extra cerca de la luz. Aqui tengo las plantitas mas avanzadas (lechuga, calendula y centaureas azules), una maceta con mas fondo para los puerros, y las cebollas de bulbo:

The third window of the shed: parsnips, lettuce, red cabbage, cauliflower and spinach (not out yet), and rocket

Y esta es la tercera ventana de la caseta, con semilleros de: chirivia, lechuga, lombarda, coliflor y espinaca (aun sin germinar), y rucula:

Onions in plugs

I love onions and it's probably the vegetable I eat the most, so I'm planting some more now. I have some sets I planted in the autumn growing happily at the allotment, and these new lot will produce a later crop. I haven't planted them directly in the ground because I still haven't finished building the raised beds and digging: I have planted them in plugs to germinate, which should give me a few weeks to prepare the soil to plant them out. I used a sheet of egg carton, and the last few I put in plastic plugs:

He decidido plantar mas cebollas porque son de lo que mas como. Tengo unas en la huerta que plante en otono, y estas me daran una segunda cosecha. Las he plantado en una huevera de carton para que empiecen a germinar, y mientras tanto acabo de preparar la tierra en la huerta para plantarlas.

Easter flowers

This has been a really cold Easter weekend, so I'm still holding on sowing seeds in the ground outside (despite all the books and websites recommending a huge list of things to plant in March; it's a waste of time and good seed, if it's too cold). I've filled all of my indoor propagators (in the kitchen windowsill, the shed, and a couple of pots in the bathroom windowsill), in the hope I'll have stuff to plant out when spring comes. Next month or so.

But in the meantime, these flowers, which are supposed to open in winter, are looking good in the garden at home and cheer me up:

Hace demasiado frio para sembrar en tierra, y en la casa ya no me caben mas semilleros (tengo las ventanas de la cocina y del bano, y la caseta, en capacidad maxima), asi que mientras espero a que haga mejor y pueda transplantar de los semilleros a la huerta, estas flores del jardin me alegran el dia. Arriba, unas escilas azules, las pobres medio ahogadas por las hierbas (tengo que transplantarlas), y abajo el jazmin de invierno - lleva florido desde enero, es de un esqueje de mi tia Tita.

Above is a scilla, which I need to repot as it's overgrown by grasses. And below is a winter jasmine that has been in bloom since January, it's from a cutting from my auntie in Spain and is doing wonderfully now.

Aqui tengo una primula amarilla, y la planta azul que no se como se llama pero lleva florida practicamente un ano entero, verano, otono, invierno y ahora primavera!

Here I've got a yellow primula on the left, and the blue plant which I don't know the name of but is a wonder flower: it's been in bloom for a year solid, summer, autumn, winter and now spring!

Strawberries and perennial flowers transplanted

Today, finally, I had a day off with sunshine (!) and even some warmth, and I enjoyed it at the allotment. My priority was to move the perennial plants, so when spring starts in earnest they are already in their final place. I have just gained use of this raised bed, which I inherited with a lot of strawberry plants. The bed was filled with topsoil when it was made, it's very good and less sticky than the clay in the ground so I plan to try growing carrots this year.

But first I needed to move the strawberry plants: I have moved the perennial flowers from one of my smaller beds in my plot and swapped them with strawberries. This is the new bed with the flowers planted in the middle (tansy, verbena bonariensis, sweet rocket and a few daffodils), a row of herbs on the right (sage, oregano, thyme, and a clump of violas), and I left a row of strawberries in the left because there were too many!

Hoy, cosa inaudita, hizo bueno, asi que por fin pude transplantar mis plantas: tengo una jardinera nueva que me ha tocado en la huerta, y la herede con un monton de fresas. La tierra es mucho mejor para zanahorias que la del suelo normal, asi que tuve que buscarles otro sitio a las fresas. Al final traslade las flores perennes que tenia en una de las jardineras pequenas a la jardinera nueva, y las puse en el medio. Deje una fila de fresas a la izquierda porque ya no me cabian mas en la jardinera pequena! Y en el sitio que dejaron las Flores puse las fresas:


Here is the new bed of strawberries:

Germination test for parsnips

The fist batch of parsnips I sowed at the beginning of March were not a suceess: out of six seeds, one in each plastic cell on the window sill, only one sprouted. The seed packet is new, other things are sprouting happily in the same propagator, and the packet said to plant from March so it shouldn't be too cold/dark; therefore, it must be that parsnips are particularly fickle.

Since I don't have unlimited space for underused plastic seedling trays, this time I'm going to use the system described here: http://vegpatchblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/this-weather-is-now-getting-boring.html .

This way, I make sure that only good seeds get sown in the plastic cells. Parsnip seeds may be fickle but at least they're easy to handle!I do like roasted parsnips, so hopefully I'll get more than a crop of one this year. Here's my own seeds from this morning, covered in cling film and resting on the wet paper:

Hace un mes sembre 6 semillas de chirivia, de las cuales solo una germino. Para evitar acabar con bandejas de compost y solo una o dos plantitas, que mi espacio no es ilimitado, esta vez voy a mirar primero cuales de las semillas estan vivas, y solo sembrar las que han germinado en el papel mojado.

Lei en otro blog que las semillas de chirivia varian mucho y no todas germinan, lo cual explica por que a mi se me dieron tan mal. El paquete de semilla era nuevo, y en la misma ventana otras semillas si que se dan! Por lo menos, son semillas grandes y faciles de ver. Las he puesto en este plato en la ventana, cubiertas con film de plastico para que no se sequen. A mi las chirivias asadas me encantan, asi que a ver si este ano tengo cosecha.

Hardening off my seedlings

The bad weather (spring snow!) has ruined my plans of a weekend planting out and finishing building my path at the allotment. Meanwhile, some of the seedlings I planted last month are growing fast, and I'm having to find them space until we get some decent spring weather again (the shock from indoors to frost will kill them). I'm starting them in the kithen window (warmest), moving them to the shed first, so they get used to colder temperatures gradually ('hardening off'), and the final step will be planting them out in the allotment.

These are some lettuce and some spring onions, sowed in some plastic cells (I cut the trays to fit into the windowsill propagators). (Note the white stuff behind the window? Yes, it's snow.) The plastic freezer bag is meant to keep the moisture in, but also makes it much easier to move!

Lechugas y cebolletas esperando a que el tiempo mejore y las pueda plantar en la huerta. Las voy pasando de la cocina a la caseta para que se vayan acostumbrando al frio poco a poco, ultima parada la huerta. Lo blanco detras del cristal es nieve. Las bolsas de plastico mantienen la humedad, pero tambien es mucho mas facil mover los semilleros de plastico.

My purple mangetout peas, in another corner of the shed:

Mis guisantes, en otra esquina de la caseta:

These lettuces are still in the kitchen window. The beer glass upside down fits the pot perfectly, and is prettier to look at than the plastic bags:

Estas lechuguitas todavia estan en la ventana de la cocina. El vaso boca abajo es mas bonito que las bolsas de plastico:

Building paths and sowing rocket

The paths next to the raised beds were getting very muddy and the good compost was falling into them, so I built these mini "retaining walls" today, with some boards that were lying around:

Ayer me dedique a la construccion: para mantener el compost en su sitio, y no en el camino, he puesto estas tablas de madera (a la derecha del camino, en la foto). Ahora esta todo muy delimitado y ordenado, como a mi me gusta!

The other thing I made/built today were these containers at the back of the plot. I've sown the one on the right with rocket, and I plan to sow one container every two weeks to have a succession of crop. I think they look good, hopefully they'll work too!

La segunda obra de ayer fue poner estas jardineras de plastico en la estanteria que tengo al fondo de la parcela. En la de la derecha de todo (estante de arriba) sembre rucula. Mi plan es sembrar una jardinera cada dos semanas, asi como dicen los libros tendre una cosecha continua durante mas tiempo. A ver si funciona, de momento por lo menos hacen bonito! (bueno, es un decir, pero quedan bien y parece que tengo una parcela mas productiva)