Feeling quite smug here as over the weekend we got a load of onions, shallots and garlic planted in our freshly tilled veggie patch. And a lot of seeds sown in pots in my home made greenhouses., (large plastic crates with an old window or two in top!) including the lettuce seeds from @Wozza !
We were very late to the party last year; everyone else in the village had planted stuff long before we’d even decided to go ahead so this year we are on a mission to get ahead of the game.
Who is planting what?
Because I was quite ill last autumn I never got round to preparing the planters/ potato patch for the winter. I’m going to dig some homemade compost in this week but I’ll have to buy some too. I haven’t even looked at the small potatoes I saved last year, but hopefully some are salvageable and I can get them in the ground. Dont have a greenhouse so seeds go directly into the planters but its probably a bit early yet.
That’s an understatement! Glad to hear you are feeling like doing stuff this spring. Agreed, too early for us too. We’ve frost end of this week.
It always amazes me that Les Saints de Glace are at the beginning of May. Maybe a late frost in May is less likely these days, but apparently El Nino is on the rise for this year and beyond, which tends to mean a cooler summer for Europe, so who knows?
We are always the last to plant. And often are a tiny touch smug when others have for replant as frost/snow/freezing winds got their crops. Covering the soil does help it warm up tho’.
And for those not keen on plastic and without access to lots of mulching material there is an alternative made of corn starch. Have to keep it dry until you lay it, so can’t work with it 8n pouring rain, but we find it works well. We actually use mulch over it to hold it in place, put can just push edges into the soil.
@plod Called Piquets de fixation, Lidl.fr has some right now in packs of 50 or 75 for 5,99 euros. They also have various hammers including rubber ones and a wooden mallet atm to hammer them in if needed
Product number 100397616 - galvanised or not, Surprisingly useful and you get through 50 in no time. A tent peg puller wokd be ideal to get them out agàin I suppoe.
The garlic needs a period of very low temperatures for the bulb to develop, and is ok with some frost. That’s why you should never put garlic you buy in the shops in the fridge as it sprouts if you do.
Edit: I was a bit surprised that @cat was putting garlic in now. Its more usual to put it in late in the year so the bulbs have the opportunity to get the low temperatures it needs to develop properly.
I’ve got a batch of Charlotte potatoes that are waiting to go in as soon as it’s again warm enough to spend some time in the garden.
But in the meantime, our cat has discovered them on their sunny window sill and presumably, on account of their size and colour thinks they’re useful for practising his dead mouse juggling techniques. He keeps taking the potatoes and flipping them up in the air, then pouncing on them as they come down
Thanks!