More Sowings

The plan this year is for continual sowing and continual harvesting. Storage space is limited, so I don't really want huge gluts of everything at once. So the idea is to sow a small number of each of lots of different veg every few weeks throughout the year.

So yesterday I sowed the following:

8 Cauliflower AYR
8 Cabbage Wheelers
4 Red Cabbage Kalibos
4 Kale Black Tuscany

4 Lettuce Iceberg Set
4 Lettuce Iceberg 2
8 Lettuce Little Gem
4 Lettuce Mini Green
4 Lettuce Webbs

4 Lettuce Salad Bowl
4 Lettuce Red Salad Bowl
4 Lettuce Lollo Rossa
4 Lettuce Mixed Leaves
8 Leaf Salad Stir Fry Mix

24 Brocolli Late PSB

8 Celery Sigfrido
4 Celery Lathom
4 Spinach Hector
4 Spinach Picasso
4 Spinach Perpetual

Tub of 40 beetroot
2 seed trays radishes

30 Sweetcorn Incredible

Large pot leeks Lathom Galaxy
Large pot leeks Winter Atlanta
Tub of 23 garlic

The late PSB will be for picking over the winter. I have several varieties of broccoli and calabrese that means I can sow and harvest about 11 months of the year.

I want to make better use of land this year too. Last year a friend had various loose leaf lettuces, spinach and rocket in patio tubs for picking as and when required. I'm going to try the same this year. A couple of friends want patio tubs of salads too, so I've sown enough for me and them.

The celery was a dismal failure last year and didn't grow upwards, so will try planting some in between the loose leaf lettuce patio tubs. Theory is that the lettuce growing around the celery will help force the celery. Other celery will be planted in the ground normally.

I want to avoid open soil where possible to avoid weeds where possible. Weeds can smother veggies and I don't want to spend any more time than necessary clearing weeds. Beetroot and radishes grow well in my veggie patch, but mean leaving ground open to weeds. So this year I've sown the radishes in flat seed trays and the beetroot in an old window box. Using fresh compost means they are growing in a weed free environment. Using the window box and seed trays means I can also use more ground for other veggies.

Sweetcorn isn't normally sown until May. This year I found a variety called Incredible, which can be sown in March. Anything I can sow now will save me time later when I'll be busy digging and weeding and planting out. I've sown these in larger cells (15 cells to a tray). This will allow them to grow fairly big before planting out, maybe in May.

I still have onion sets and herbs to start - that's a job for this evening.