Saturday, 13 April 2024

Saturday 13th April

Another day in the garden; two in a row!

This afternoon I slowly sorted out some suitable earth to fill 36 more paper pots in which I hope to sow some heritage sweet pea seeds from Kew - six varieties - that I was given as a Christmas present.

The earth was so wet from a winter sitting in an opened bag of peat-free compost that I added some much drier spent soil. I then had a very messy time sorting through,  evicting a few slugs and snails, lobbing dozens of earthworms into other flower beds, and, a revolting job this, popping all the little yellow slug eggs as I went along. I won't have got them all, but I will have dented their numbers.

The instructions for the sweet peas say to make a small chip in the hard casing, on the opposite side to where the indentation for the first shoot is, I think. I hadn't heard of this before, and I will double check before I start chipping away with a knife.

We had homegrown chard for lunch; picked and cooked within the hour, with chopped shallots and garlic. Very good it was too.

5 comments:

  1. Great to get the gardening done this time of the year, less to do later. I've never chipped sweet pea seeds but I've always started them off on a sunny windowsill and they've always grown well. Good luck with yours.

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    1. Thank you. I've gone off using a sunny windowsill after the housecfilled with little black flies last time! They seem to be everywhere

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  2. I have never chipped sweet pea seeds. I do plant them in long root trainers though.

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    1. The paper pots aren't Very Long, but deeper than seed trays. Hopefully they'll be long enough.

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