Seed Sowing - At Last


This week's good weather stirred me into taking February's stash out of my storage tin and pondering what to sow first. I decided on a quick small row of carrots (Early Nantes 2) to go in a sheltered spot on the patio.
The icy blast that greeted me when I went outside yesterday, galvanised me into making the pictured bottle cloche. I made a couple of wire pegs from a mangled coat hanger I found in the airing cupboard to pin the cloche in place.
Coming soon: Home-made guttering for peas!

Comments

  1. Paul and Melanie15 February 2008 at 09:09

    oooooh is that going to be guttering for peas made from similar plastic bottles cut in half length ways?

    Cos that a great idea and solves my 'where do I get hold of some old guttering' question I was pondering only yesterday! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous15 February 2008 at 15:45

    Very inventive!

    ReplyDelete
  3. VP15 February 2008 at 17:33

    Paul and Melanie - well done you got the right answer! I managed to get loads of bottles from my next door neighbours and thought 'aha - I don't need to go out and buy any guttering' :) Easier to take up to the allotment too...

    Did you take the e-mail reply option when you added your comment? It's odd, because only Flighty's comment's come through into my e-mail and it looks like only the no-reply options are getting through to me at the moment.

    Have a great weekend everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous15 February 2008 at 23:31

    It's always so exciting and full of promise that first seed sowing of the year. My fingers are itching to get going but it's much too too cold here so will wait a few days longer. I have not grown carrots before but plan to this year. How long do they take to mature and what about the much talked about carrot fly - what do you to ward them off ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ewa16 February 2008 at 04:56

    great idea for bottle recycling :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. mm16 February 2008 at 11:11

    Now that is a good tip for the row of carrots that I want to plant soon. Thanks VP1

    ReplyDelete
  7. VP16 February 2008 at 18:34

    Hi Anna - they only take a few weeks to mature, particularly if you like carrots of the baby variety! As for carrot fly - we were only talking about that very question up at the allotment on Tuesday. I grow mine in raised planters at least 20 inches above the ground (the fly doesn't fly any higher than that), Threadspider grows hers under fleece and Plot 3 grows them next to garlic (companion planting). We all had carrot fly free carrots last year - for the 1st time in my case. So either all methods worked, or there weren't any carrot flies around. Oh and you can get fly resistant varieties too like Flyaway...

    Ewa and mm - glad you like the tip! It's great when a posting helps someone else, that's why I love blogging!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous17 February 2008 at 08:50

    Thanks muchly for the information about the carrot fly. It is useful to know that the creature is not a high hurdler so I will bear that in mind. I have some 'Parmex' seeds lined up and also some multi coloured ones the name of which escapes me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. VP18 February 2008 at 10:40

    Hi Anna - no problem, always glad to help :)

    ReplyDelete

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