what can I plant now??

[mrs baggins]

sorry guys new to all this! Have the lottie and now have polytunnel g/h and a plastic tent thing from Lidl to plant it in case this helps.

wanted to buy some tomato plants but not sure when I should be planting them under cover. My local gc has some so should I be buying them now and leaving them inside? same goes for strawberries? should I be buying these now?

I have some potatoes chitting (see am getting to know the vocab!) but not sure when I should be planting these as I thought they were prone to frost.

other things I want to grow and have bought seeds are peas, beans and squash but think it may be a little early to start these off or maybe its not?

keep reading up on it and mean to make notes but keep forgetting

[middlefield]

I've got potatoes chitting and some seedlings going, but really I'm holding-off at the moment as we've got some cold weather and frosts forecast. At this time of year it pays to be viewing the meteorology sites and keeping an eye on the weather. I'm in the Midlands and spring is a little later than it has been in recent years.

[veg4681]

If you have a polytunnel, you can start off early and even grow them inside if it's big enough. You still have time to grow tomatoes from seeds (it takes from 5 days for me to germinate using heated propagtor) unless you only need 2 or 3 tomato plants otherwise I find them very expensive. I'm thinking they're over a quid each but a pack of 6 might have acceptable pricing .

Strawberries you should get them now. Also remember that Wilko and Woolsworth also sell them as runners, been there since Jan I think. Think carefully what season you want and how many although 3 plants can easily give you plenty of runners for next year but the only snag is you won't have enough for eating this year.

You could plant your potatoes now so long as they're in container, not ground with frost protection. I'm thinking of planting mine today in compost bag to leave them growing in the unheated greenhouse. Also leaving the container higher up from ground might help and cover them with fleece at night against frost.

Peas you can definitely sow now. Beans and squash are tender plants so they tend to be planted around April time but me, I'm chancing them in March with the veiw to protecting them but if you say you have polytunnel, that's different ball game, surely? I've sown most of my vegetables and they have been sitting in the unheated greenhouse since Feb however they were all brought inside the house before I went to bed last night with weather forecast around 1 degree.

[zazen999]

In the ground I now have:
a few broad beans, peas and beans. These are under an upside down clear plastic storage box to protect from the nasty weather.
A load of sown herbs, not germinated yet. Includes a few rows of beetroot.
2 potato tubs, spare pots that I found in the ground from last summer; they have germinated and one has leaves about 2 inches high.
last year's onions/garlic/shallots
carrots just sown in the deep carrot bed and covered with fleece.
autumn sown purple sprouting broc - just coming ready to eat. [we sown this every few weeks, and it can be eaten all year round if you keep the sowing going - and have the space. Don't sow all seeds at once or you end up throwing it out.
strawbs, chard, celery from last year - the rest of the beds are cleared and ready for seedlings when the weather turns.


In the kitchen:
3 toms, Aurora - Russian bush type. One is now a good foot tall. Won't be going outside just yet; will be put outside in the mornings on sunny days to get used to the weather.
various peppers, still quite small.
Coriander

In the garage/potting area [so quite light]
all the toms/peppers/brassicas/onions that have germinated
all the beans/peas/herbs/ that have been sown in little pots
all the lettuces sown inside, these will eventually go into the main plot

In the heated prop
Various peppers and toms that have not germinated yet. As soon as each germinates, it gets taken out and put into its own little pot

I am going to put a few of the russian toms outside as a trial in the next week, as they are russian and thus might just be hardy enough...

[mrs baggins]

thanks

thanks everyone. better get out and get buying some things