Hey folks, its Laszlo here, with some news on the garden. We will be starting a regular garden diary, where you can come and read lots about the work we have been doing, and perhaps learn when to plant your own seeds!
After a fortnight of warm and very productive weather it is cool again. There is nothing seeded or planted so far that would directly suffer from the cold, but whatever promising growth showed in the past two or three weeks is slowing down considerably.
Early potatoes indoors are being planted today (Wayne and the Trainees will perform the ritual), a Root-day according to the Biodynamic calendar. The variety chosen is Colleen, a round and white First Early. The Kearns sisters had great success with it for years. The potatoes were chitted (that means sprouted; stored in a not too cool and dark place to initiate the growth of shoots from the ‘eyes’) and cared for by Alvin. There are issues with growing early potatoes indoors; the foliage grows huge and tends to host masses of greenfly, and the remaining little potatoes after harvest will keep producing shoots for years to come. But the potential of a late May crop is a reward next to nothing.
The few overwintering salad plants are now starting to bolt (go to seed). It is natural, triggered by the lengthening days, the plant simply decides that it is time to breed – and once it does, nothing can stop it. Parsley tends to do the same; only spring onions, spinach and endive behave themselves. Meantime weekly seeding of salads, lettuce, scallion and spinach ensure that in a month’s time from now these crops will be constantly available. This system of ‘green conveyor belt’ is the best way to ensure a continuous supply, whatever your needs – from as small as a salad bowl to as large as the shelves of some supermarket chain.
The poor broad beans are waiting to be planted out. We started them in pots/trays about six weeks ago, and they are perfectly hardened out in a cold frame. But none of us have the cruel heart to plant them in situ, although it is time to do so. We shall see what the Postman of Donegal says about next week – he seems to be in control.
Every year there is the temptation to seed tomatoes and peppers early. Despite knowing well that there isn’t much point (they are very fast growing plants that need heat: a February sowing of tomatoes will not crop earlier than an early April sowing), we always fall for it. The first batch of Sungolds and Matinas are up with their cotyledon leaves (the first leaves) out, and the dozen of tomato rootstocks (seeds kindly given to us by Asta) are up too. An interesting observation of Alvin’s is that older seeds (couple years’ old Brandywines) germinate slower. Like if there was some inner mechanism in the seed telling them that for some reason this world isn’t fully interested in them (hence the years they spent in a seed packet), so why should they hurry. If so, it is an interesting phenomenon: a dormant plant, that the seed is, is capable of such ‘decisions’, putting dormancy (bio-chemical inactivity) into a different bracket altogether.
Hmm…
