First seeds on the way !

[freefolk]

I planted our first seeds on Monday 5th Feb, 4 coir pots each with 2 summer cabbage seeds in. They are on a small bench in the spare bedroom. As of this morning 7 of the 8 seeds are up and running! I will thin to the strongest plant in due course, and will plant some more at 2 weeks intervals for the next 3 weeks. Happy days!

[Small pumpkin]

Exciting times
You'll never get bored of watching seedlings pop their little head up

[Wheelie]

Well done you! I’m planting lots of stuff for the first time this week. Hope I’m as lucky as you

[fiveaday]

Happy times, I just started yesterday but can't wait for the first seed of the year to pop it's head up.

And even better SWMBO loved waking up on Valentine's Day to find she'd lost the tidy kitchen to a potting shed again :-D

[chris_m]

Keen to try out my new heated propagators and grow light I started Dec 28th with some strawberries and Red Hot Pokers sown in fibre pots. Of those, one strawberry has developed enough to pot on (burying the fibre pot in a plastic pot of compost) whilst all the RHPs were potted on a fortnight ago and are already big enough to come out from under the light - they are in front of the patio door for the time being until it gets a bit warmer outside, when they can move to the cold frame. I have a little heater in there but I'd still like the ambient temperature to be a bit warmer before putting them out.

I sowed some perennial Snapdragons in early Jan. They've come up but are only growing very slowly.

On Jan 25th I sowed Passion Flowers, Evening Primrose and Cupid's Dart, again in fibre pots. All the Darts have already been potted on and grown enough to join the RHPs outside the growlight tent. The Promroses are large enough that they've been potted on but are still under the light. Only 2 of the 12 Passion Flower seeds have come up so far and they got big enough to pot on, but they are still left under the light.

On the 30th, I did an experiment at homemade seed tape (in anticipation of using it for carrots and lettuces), making a tape of Evening Primrose and planting that in a propagator tray. 9 out of the 10 were up within 5 days and 7 had done well enough by yesterday that I then used them as a practice of killing, oops, pricking them out - never done that before so the former may turn out to be correct

Last week I sowed various Pansies and French Marigolds in my new Rootrainers. All the Marigolds were up by yesterday so needed to come out from under the propagator lid.
Since that left me three strips of 4 Rootrainers vacant, I put in some Petunias and a few more Passion Flowers in case the rest from the first sowing still refuse to put in an appearance.

Judging by the way the are growing, the Marigolds and most of the Primroses should be ready to come out of the tent in a fortnight or so, leaving room for my tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, aubergines and a couple more perennial flowers to be started in the 2nd week of March.

In the meantime, first week of March, I should be bunging broad beans straight into the beds and starting my peas in fibre pots. If it's still too cold I might start the beans in pots as well, just until they've germinated.

I have got beans and some peas out in the beds, sown in October for overwintering but the beans have suffered from the frosts (despite supposedly being frost-tolerant) and wind, whilst very few of the peas came up. Most of the beans just went in to have the beds "occupied" and to get some roots working on the new soil/manure mix anyway - if I get anything off them it'll be a bonus, although I know I won't from one bed since the sparrows have stripped the leaves completely. Only one bed, strangely, not the other un-netted one. I think they've only done the one because it's close to the hedge so they had somewhere nearby to dive into if I or anything else) came along. They won't be getting any more, I've got netting rigged up now