What a buzz.

[veggiechicken]

I started leeks and banana shallots weeks ago! My window sills have beetroot, lettuce, leeks, shallots, spring onions, spinach and tomato seedlings. Also sown but not yet made an appearance, aubergine, kale, broccoli, cabbage, celeriac, oriental mustard and broad beans. The rocket, parsley and coriander seedlings are in the unheated greenhouse, with the white beetroot and root parsley and some more tomatoes.
Take heed though, I haven't a clue really, I just sow and hope for the best. At worst, I resow when the weather is milder, at best I'm ahead of the rest by a couple of weeks. By my book its worth a gamble and I won't lose any sleep if it doesn't work out!

[Tripmeup]

Bloody 'ell Veggie, that is some list and Feb barely here!! Fair play to ya...!!
..

[veggiechicken]

I blame it all on the Lunar Planting thread. I wouldn't have done it otherwise! Usually by now I'm thinking about sowing a few tomatoes and some mixed salad leaves and that's about it. Each day so far this year, I've thought about what I could sow; its roots tomorrow so I may sow a few more leeks or maybe some carrots or parsnips. All indoors as its way too cold outside to do anything. How much will be a success I'm not too sure but some of the seedlings look quite hopeful. Fingers crossed!!

[binley100]

erm........need to put up my makeshift table in the conservatory as have run out of windowsill room . I blame the man in the moon

[Kaiya]

OOh yes, and I read lots of different books and articles until I find an excuse somewhere to plant things far too early...

Me to! Some book, website or random forum post will eventually tell me what I want to hear!

I'm tempted to see if I can make space on the top of bookshelves out of cat reach this weekend - my theory is, germinate them indoors with not so great light (not horrific, but not fab), then hopefully by the time they need sunlight the world outside would have given up on this cold business.

I'm also going to put a black box of horse manure in the bottom of my mini-greenhouse to try and add heat. There's optimistic for you. I expect I'll just plant a pumpkin in the box at the end of the season lol.

[mudpies]

Top of the bookshelves...now there's an idea....am eyeing mine up as I type!!!
Do they manage away from a window?
I'm thinking of potting on some aubergines and maybe peppers and lining them up along the patio doors. My theory is the family can always use the back door....although teenagers never seem to emerge from their rooms anyway, so probably don't need a door at all!

[bazzaboy]

I'm also going to put a black box of horse manure in the bottom of my mini-greenhouse to try and add heat. There's optimistic for you. I expect I'll just plant a pumpkin in the box at the end of the season lol.

Good thinking, K, the Victorians used to grow PINEAPPLES using the hotbed system! Heat generated by decomposition is also useful for keeping wormeries alive in frosty weather (though I also put mine under shelter with some blankets so they have a cushy life!) A similar technique (explained at length on other threads) are any devices which will quickly warm from sunlight heat during the day - e.g. full sun today even though air temperatures still at or near freezing - I use empty beer cans painted matt black - that will warm the air in the greenhouse and allow any simple heat storage device to warm sufficiently to be giving off warmth at night, hopefully keeping the "cold" greenhouse frost free. "Heat storage device" at its simplest might be a stack of bricks or a waterbutt/container (half full) moved inside the greenhouse - anything that is slow to warm and equally slow to lose heat. Even though it's freezing today the temperature inside a greenhouse can soar, the trick is to find some way of capturing that heat during daylight hours so that it's there as a heat sink throughout the hours of darkness.

["GoingToSeed"]

Oooo I'm definitely with you on this, only this morning I got all "emotional" when I saw my cauliflower seedlings..lol..
but because I have only just returned to growing after many many years not able to grow anything I am SO excited about this year, got so much stuff I want to try....just need to win lottery now to buy everything ....
Off to B&Q for some more pots I'm mainly going to grow stuff in them due to disability.... the old back wont take all the digging and planting...........

Happy Planting all!!

Denise