Temperatures are rising and daylight hours are lengthening. It’s now or never! It’s time to get sowing… indoors.
Peas and beans!
In pots or empty toilet rolls you can sow peas and broad beans. These ‘legumes’ have long roots so they do need depth in their pot. Place them on a warm sunny windowsill with extra protection of a clear plastic container and hope for a few days of continuous sunshine! The soil should be damp to the touch to enable germination; some people soak broad bean, pea and sweet pea seeds overnight to soften them before sowing.
If you have space in garden soil or large pots, you might think about sowing ‘successionally’ sow some seeds indoors now and save some seeds to sow again directly into warmer soils at the end of April or the start of May. This ensures you crop peas and beans over a longer period.
Greens:
Smaller seeds like lettuce, parsely or spinach will be happy in shallower pots. Yoghurt pots with a hole in the bottom will do, or old 9cm plant pots. Sprinkle seeds, like you might black pepper onto your food, into warm, damp compost. Again, if you can, cover newly sown seeds with a clear plastic top and wait to see how long they take to germinate.
It’s worth taking note of the date, at this time of year and depending on the temperatures where you are things can take anything from 5-10 days to show signs of life.
Tomatoes:
If you have seed try sowing a few the same as your greens or in the next couple of weeks pick a young plant up from a garden centre or supermarket. and save on the windowsill space!
Tatties:
There’s still time to find seed potatoes and chit them, but it’s too cold to plant them just yet.
