Seed sowing tips

[Bonnieisle]

You can eat your potatoes and grow them by taking off the sprouts around March/April, planting them indoors and eating the rest of the potato. Then plant out the sprouts after the last frost.

I tend to sow leeks around 21 December indoors. In a year with a mild winter they get planted out late March. Some of these will start bolting and get eaten in late summer. The ones that don't bolt get eaten over winter.

I try to give my roots lots of space, carrots and parsnips around 1/4 m2. They will be bigger then and be less work cleaning. When I'm organised I interplant with fast growing crops, but lettuce and radish need to be sown later, so I often forget.

If I have holes among early sown crops I fill those with late sown crops like florence fennel, swede and chinese cabbage.

I am really interested in this! Do you just stick the sprouts into a pot of compost then plant underground when planting out???

[Alison]

You can eat your potatoes and grow them by taking off the sprouts around March/April, planting them indoors and eating the rest of the potato. Then plant out the sprouts after the last frost.

Not sure I quite know what you mean, do you mean that you chit the potatoes (presumably in the dark to avoid them going green) then plant up the chit and eat the spud?

[21up]

My favourite tool is my roll of masking tape. Place your Parsnip, Carrot, Beetroot seeds along the tape @ 3" intervals, fold in half (so 1" wide tape becomes 1/2" wide) & you have your own made seed tape............simples & it works.

Hi Mally
i read this last year when they used to do them in newspaper and somebody suggested masking tape.
(and i did not know if it would work or not,and didnt hear no more .
I was gonna do it this year and ask you how you went on .
But now i know it works so thanks mate will give it a go.