Last week was another busy one in the garden. I live in a May last frost area, so most seedlings can’t go outside yet, meaning that a lot of the work right now is preparing the garden, looking after seedlings, and planting out seeds.
Lots of seeds were planted
Sunflower seeds and old courgette seeds were sown in trays in the polytunnel.
Brassica seeds were sown directly into the ground outside, including radish, mustard, kale, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, inside homemade brassica cages.
Flax seeds were sown directly outside, and are coming up already, which you can see in the picture below.
Pumpkin seeds and Asparagus seeds were planted inside.
Seedlings planted outside
Winter squash seedlings and broad bean seedlings were planted out into their final growing positions. We have been covering the squashes with a fleece when the night temperature is cold enough, but the broad beans are okay without protection.
Steps to planting out seedlings:
- Water the seedlings well while still in their pots
- Dig a trench or holes in the ground to plant the seedlings into
- If the soil is dry, then water the hole or trench
- Gently take the seedling out of the pot and place it, along with a lot of the compost around its roots, into the hole that you’ve dug
- With your hands, bring the soil around the plant and fill in the hole, gently pressing the soil down
- If it’s going to be a cold night, especially a chance of a frost, then protect the seedlings (if they can’t tolerate a frost) with a fleece by gently placing it over the plants and securing it to the ground with pegs or weighing it down with rocks.
You can find a video on how to do this here, or on my Instagram here.
Other garden jobs
Preparing the ground for the seeds and seedlings above to be planted. This included removing the cardboard and mulch layer that was there over winter, as it had not finished rotting down. This has now been added into a pile to further rot down.
Making the cages to sow the brassica seeds within. For one of them, seen on the left below, we used the frame from an old mini greenhouse, and shaped it to work as a frame for growing plants within. For the other, seen on the right below, we used a couple of open metal tunnels that we had, and then used some pruned hazel branches made into an arch shape. We used some butterfly netting on them for now, possibly getting some brassica netting down the line.
There are a lot of flowers in the garden currently, including primroses, apple trees, comfrey, bugle, stitchwort, and more.
I am proud to be affiliated with JustSeed, a company that I have bought seeds from for a few years now. I believe in what they are doing over there, and if you are going to buy seeds, garden tools, or seedlings, then please consider checking them out and using my link below to do so. Thank you for supporting me.
Leave a Reply