Along with my potato delivery was the onion sets. I'm late starting both of these I know, but I'm relatively relaxed about that as our plot is much more open than our north-facing garden and so I think they'll stand a better chance, and will hopefully catch up pretty quickly. Saying that though, we didn't have much luck with onions last year and I grew what I affectionately called miniature versions. I've since read that onions do well where potatoes grew the previous year so that's my plan.
I do have rather a lot of onions though, and that's ok as I'm always buying them. If they'll all fit into the space last year's potatoes had, is another matter.
I'm starting the shallots and both red and white onions in modules in the greenhouse, which will start them growing and developing roots away from hungry birds, so when I do plant them out they'll be more established and be able to fight back. It also gives me some time to clear a space for them - there's (some) method in my madness.
I put these in on Saturday shortly after they arrived and already there's sign of activity. This is good news because at the moment I have six seed trays of onions, plus the smaller one of shallots and they take up quite a bit of greenhouse space.
As I was planting them up though I started to run out of compost. Not wanting to use the new seed compost I found myself digging into one of the composting Daleks. It's been a year or so since we emptied this one and it was good to see compost inside. It means we've another job for our list, to empty both of the daleks this year, that'll be good news for the allotment though.
I told you there were a lot of onions, but I'm liking the uniformity and order they bring.
My sowing really got started last weekend
I've also planted some herbs in pots; there's savory, coriander, tarragon, chervil, garlic chives and basil. I'm hoping to use these as decorative plants around the garden as well as in the kitchen. I've a bit of a thing for herbs, which is one of the reasons the tables at our wedding were named after herbs, and my next cat will be called Herb. MOH is fully aware of this and isn't quite sure if there will be another cat, but deep down I think he knows there will be at some point, just not yet.
The giant fuchsias are growing well, still not giants as they're in the smallest plant pot I have, but they've grown so much. Their new job is to supervise the cucumber seeds through germination.
I'm growing two varieties this year with seeds left over from last year and a new-to-me mini version which promises to be a prolific cropper.
I've flowers on my tiny blueberry plant which is into its second year now. I'm hopeful for some fruits this year and if I'm lucky there'll be enough for us both!
As well as my usual tomato farm - I always grow a lot of tomatoes - this year I've already planted some flower seeds. The seeds are a little old so I hope I have some success, as I'd love to fill the garden and pots with foxgloves, teasels, delphiniums and a statice or two.
But along with some broad beans, borlotti beans, sunflowers and chillies it means all of a sudden my greenhouse is choc-a-block, and I'm not sure how that happened!
I've already moved in my temporary staging in and have space for four more seed trays before I will be officially unable to move
But it's a great feeling.
And gives me the perfect excuse to potter around of an evening and to check for signs of growth. And I wonder what took me so long to get started this year...
What are you growing this year?