[31st August]
Though it seems odd at this time of the year, our greenhouse is starting to fill up with seed trays again. Today I planted red and brown onion seeds into modules, four to a module (or thereabouts). They will be planted out in clumps once I have the compost in place for the new veggie beds, to overwinter in the ground ready to get going in the spring. If there are more than four per clump then I’ll pull the excess to use as spring onions early next year. And on the subject of spring onions I’ve done the same with those, but planted eight to ten seeds to a module. They will also go out over the winter, as will some spinach plants (sown three seeds to a module). The spring onions will get pulled as an entire clump when we want them, but my plan is just to harvest the outer leaves of the spinach. It’s shocking how many red onions we get through. I’m fairly sure the ones I harvested this year won’t last us until Christmas. I’ve therefore sown enough seeds for around 400 red onions next year, which should mean there are enough for the in-laws as well.
I also planted the first of the plants for winter salad leaves. This is a bit of a wild experiment as I have no idea how many plants I’ll need or even if some of them will live through the winter. So far I’ve planted coriander, chervil and red chard, again in modules, with some mustards. salad rocket, leaf radish and lettuce to be sown probably next weekend. In the longer term they’ll all be planted into some boxes that I’ll have to make up, or I might see if the grocer’s in the local town wants to part company with some of their mushroom crates for a small amount of cash and use those lined with newspaper and filled with compost. Those will stay in the greenhouse right through the winter.
In the veggie plot itself we’ve started to mark out where the new beds and paths will go. I’ll be trying to get rid of as many of the perennial weeds as possible now the ground is quite soft (mostly docks and dandelions with a few nettles and the occasional tuft of couch grass) and then put a thick layer of compost down where possible some time next month. Some of it will have to wait until late winter however, until I’ve lifted all the parsnips and so on.