Tag: Sowing

Sowing vegetables outside

Under cover of course

For a lot of crops it is time to start sowing, we still get frost at night while during the day the temperature rises to 15°C. The sun is already very powerful and starts warming up the soil. A few years ago we had made something like a very small foil tunnel to sow underneath, but I dedicated a whole plant bed as a seed bed. So the rest of the plant bed gets covered by straw (not to much). Straw isolates nicely and protects the upcoming sprouts from being eaten by the birds.

I started with the plastic cover. I marked the size of the cover and sowed small rows of the following:

  • Celery root Porthos
  • Romaine lettuce
  • Pick lettuce, different kinds (3 rows)

Then I put back the cover. I had a thermometer in the ground under the cover and the ground is there about 12°C.

Then I prepared rows over the entire bed and started sowing. I put a marker with the variety at the start of the row and sowed following:

  • Red cabbage Rodynda
  • Wilde Rocket
  • Sweet peas Heraut
  • Palm cabbage Nero di Toscana
  • Onion red Robelja
  • Onion Rijnsburger 5/ Bajosta
  • Onion Cuisse de Poulet
  • Broccoli Calinaro
  • White cabbage Dottenfelder Dauer
  • White cabbage Holsteiner Platter
  • Cauliflower Neckarperle
  • Swede Wilhelmsburger
  • Leek Herbstriesen 2/ Hannibal
  • Kale Lerchenzungen
  • Oatroot (vegetable oyster)
  • Oak leaf lettuce Red Salad Bowl

Partly I emptied the entire package on one row. Once the seedlings come up and have there first set of real leafs (not only the seed leaves) the small plants will be transplanted to another bed and planted with the needed spacing. The oatroot, of course, will not be transplanted, but will be thinned out as the plants grow to the spacing they need. The lettuce also stays in this bed, and I will pick these as they grow for baby leaf to make nice salads until they reach the needed spacing. After that I will pick only the outer leaves of the lettuce, so the plant will grow on.

The sweet peas where sown with a useful spacing, so these might stay in this bed. How ever the onions where sown very thickly, so I must be careful when I transplant them. We use a lot of onions, so I wanted to sow many extra (beside the onion sets I already put in the ground). I also want to use the green of these sowed onions in green salads during the spring and summer.

While selecting the varieties I did not pay enough attention to what could already be sown, so I sowed the kale to early. That was to start in Mai, but that is only 2 weeks from now, so I am positive that this won’t be a problem.

I am very excited that finally the growing season is starting again and I am looking forward to finally harvest some lettuce again. It always makes me so happy when everything is starting the turn green again.

Starting plantlets from seed in doors

I started sowing

It is still a bit early for our region, but I have sowed the first vegetables and herbs inside the house. When the wetter is getting better I find it difficult to wait. I have a small indoor greenhouse and had seen by some one else who used empty milk cartons to sow in. I have used a few of those as well. They fit wonderfully on my small windowsills. I don’t have any seed soil, so I used regular plant soil.

Divide a good layer of soil in the trays, sow and cover with a thin or a thicker layer of soil depending on what was sown. Don’t forget to water carefully and mark what was sown where.

I have sown following:

  • Paprika Kapiya Vertus
  • Eggplant Violetta Lunga
  • Flat leaf Parsley
  • Tomato Gardeners Delight
  • Celery Porthos
  • Celery root Wiener Riesen
  • Real Chamomile
  • Chili De Cayenne
  • Pick lettuce
  • Romaine lettuce
  • Tomato Marmande
  • Wilde Rocket
  • Bush Basil
  • Sage

I have sown ratter dense, so that will be tricky to transplant. Unfortunately I do not have the space to do it differently. I hope the wetter will be useful soon, so I can transplant some of the plants outdoors under a cover, but first we will wait and see if anything germinates, which can take up to 3 weeks for some plants. Mean while it is important to make sure the soil will not dry out.

After 3 days the lettuce and the bush basil already have germinated. I took the milk cartons from the window sills to the table beside the small indoor greenhouse, because I think it is to cold at the window. A window is a cold bridge and it is still very cold outside.