It’s odd looking back at my plans for last year seeing that I sowed broad beans on 5th February having intended to do so somewhat earlier to find that I’m in exactly the same position this year 🙂
Today however I started sowing my first seeds of the year which is a very pleasing place to be. One variation from last year is that I’m using sieved council green waste compost for sowing rather than bagged compost from a garden centre. We’ll see how that goes.
Initially I’ve sown twenty-eight broad beans (Aquadulce) — two dozen to plant out plus a few “spares”. There are a few seeds left over, but I’m going to keep them back to sow for over-wintering (even if I don’t harvest them, they can fix nitrogen in the soil) unless I have lots of failures and need to sow more. They’re in 3″ (7.5cm) pots because the roots grow so fast.
I’ve also multi-sown red (Red Baron and Carmen) and brown (Yellow Rynsburger) onions, four to a cell in module trays. Probably around 900 seeds in total. At the moment they’re just in the greenhouse, but I might be tempted to kick them off with a bit of heat initially. I’ll have a think about that overnight.
Finally I sowed a small number of red (Boltardy and Sanguina) and yellow (Golden Detroit) beetroot, again four to a cell.
The current plan is for these to be ready to plant out in about a month, under fleece if necessary. The weather will have the final say, no doubt.