Let the Season begin!

This weekend has, against the odds, been a great one for gardening. Now you may think I am mad - it's been wet, cold, dark and downright impossible to get onto the plot but m'dears we have gardened.

Saturday saw us dusting down the heated propagator, sieving the compost and sowing the first of this year's seeds. Chillis and sweet peppers both need heat and a long growing season so now is the time for us to get them started. This year we're growing jalapeno chillis plus sweet peppers from the Heritage Seed Library - Sweet Banana & Soror Sarek and the Real Seeds Catalogue - Kaibi Round #2. Soror Sarek and Kaibi are old favourites and indeed old seed so we've sown quite a few in case they struggle to germinate - if they all come good then we'll just have extra plants to give away at the Transition & Allotment Society Plant Swaps in the spring. Sweet Banana, however is new to us so it'll be interesting to see what comes of it.

Brussels 2007

We also got an early start with our brassicas - Bedford Winter Harvest Brussels Sprouts for him, I loathe them with a passion it has to be said but the Other Half loves them so each year we give them a go - and Snowball Cauliflowers. Cauliflowers are one crop we fail miserably with year after year but as I love cauliflower cheese I'm determined to give them one more try this year. Keep your fingers crossed folks

Finally we're trying our luck with an early sowing of lettuce and basil - both of which should be ok but it may be a little too dark and cold just now. We're sorely missing home-grown greens at the moment and that's only going to get worse so let's hope these little seeds make it for salads in late March.

Oh and remember those seed spuds from the potato day? - They're now safely chitting in the attic. Let's hope it stops raining long enough for us to prepare their beds before March.