Sowing Indoor Veg - The Basics

I thought I would do a small post regarding sowing seeds indoors.  I am very lucky to have an allotment,  but unfortunately I don't have a suitable place to put a greenhouse. Therefore, in order to give certain vegetables the head start they need, I get them started out on my windowsills. This isn't as straightforward as it sounds.  I am far from being an expert, but I will happily pass on methods that have worked for me.  There seems to be hundreds of things that can go wrong but luckily there are only a few things that need to go right.  The main ingredients for success are soil, light, warmth and water all in the right amounts.

Some veg require a long length of time between sowing and harvesting.  Tomatoes, Chilies, Aubergines, and Cucumbers all fall into this category and will greatly benefit from an early sowing indoors.  Since you will have all of your seed sowing gear out, you may as well get a good start on some herbs (Basil, Coriander, Chives etc), Lettuces, and maybe the odd Cauliflower or two.  Leave plants like Sweetcorn, Squash, most Beans and Courgettes for April as they will just get too big before it is safe to put them outside.

I like to sow seeds directly into little degradable pots.  If you are as non-delicate at handling things as I am, then you will find these very useful.  When  your plants are ready for something a bit bigger, you can just plant, pot and all, into their new home.

After you have some suitable pots, you need some seed friendly compost.  Use multi-purpose compost at your peril! Most of the time it is far to rich for seeds and your failure rate will be high.  Seeds are really only interested in light, warmth and a nice sandy or free draining soil.  I use John Innes number 1 for seeds and it seems to do the trick just fine.

I then try to maximize my window space by getting a tray with a lid that will fit the most number of my little pots. The lid ensures that the original moisture from the soil will not evaporate.  It also helps maintain a non drafty, steady temperature.

Then it is just an easy task of making a small indentation into the soil with a pencil or something suitable and dropping in a couple of seeds.

I do like to take a spray bottle of water to get the pots and soil nice and damp.  I then drop 2 seeds in each pot and that seems to guarantee that at least one of them germinates.  You must then be brutal and get rid of the weaker plant if they both germinate.  A good tip here is to actually cut off the weaker one at soil level.  That way you do not damage the good plant's roots by pulling up the one that is not needed. It is a good idea to get your labels marked up before you cover up your seeds.  Make sure you don't use something that will disappear in damp conditions or you will end up like I did one year with a tray of plants with blank labels!

Pop the lid on and come back in a few days to be pleasantly surprised at your new indoor veg garden!  If you don't see anything after 7-10 days, I would start to check the fine print on the seed packets (Expiry Date, Ideal Temperature, Time to Germination etc) but still show a bit of patience. At this early stage, it does not seem to be too important if it is a sunny windowsill.  However, once the plants get established they will be hungry for more light.

Once the little plants emerge and develop their first couple of leaves (called seed leaves), then you can take the lid off.  It is then vital to keep the soil slightly moist but, never let it dry out.  I then usually just tip the remains of my nightly cup of water (how Eco-friendly of me!) into the seed tray and the pots absorb the water from the bottom.

Now is also a great time to start putting together your outdoor coldframe in order to house all of these plants round about April or early May.  But I will leave that until next time.

**Update**

I am going to move the cucumbers to an April sowing.  They are already 2 or 3 inches high and I can imagine them taking over my house by time they can actually go outside!

Clearing the Cobwebs

Whilst I haven't been posting on the blog since late September, I have been enjoying the fruits (actually, mostly veg!) of last year's labor.

A fiery string of dried chillies still hang in my kitchen window, containers of dried thyme still flavour my Sunday roasts, and some enormous parsnips graced our plates on Christmas day.

Still plenty of heat!

Unfortunately, I ran out of my garlic stores early October, my butternut squash went moldy (bad storage technique I am sure) and we finished off the Strawberry Jam in January.

For both the allotment and the blog, now it is time to clear out the cobwebs, apply some minor design changes, and make sure nothing left over from last year smells too terrible!  On the blog, I am going to keep a semi accurate sowing diary, publish harvesting results and hopefully add a few reflections on why things worked or in some cases didn't.  On the allotment, my main priorities are going to be; successional sowings to keep me in my favourite foods all year,  experiment with companion planting to keep pests down, and as always enjoy being outside with whomever decides to join me on the plot (even if it is just a few worms and frogs!).

I thought that my excitement for veg gardening was waning this year but now that I have browsed all the seed catalogues and spent the winter reading cookbooks, I am indeed very excited to get growing all my old favourites and will definitely try some new ones too.  In the next week or so, I will be getting some chilies, tomatoes and aubergines on the go to kick off the new planting season. 

Major Toms

Things were going so well.  July was hot, I was watering the tomatoes every other day or so.  August started in the same way but then we went on holiday around the 20th of August to the South of France.  While we were sunning ourselves, going our own version of red, back in the UK, the tomatoes were putting the blight in blighty!

Scarcely even a thought for the poor tomatoes here!

Allotments, French style

Partly cloudy, French style

Needless to say, I have been harvesting a lot of green tomatoes this year.  I am trying all sorts of ripening methods: brown paper bag with banana in it, kitchen window seal, and just leaving them on the vine to fend for themselves.  I have found that if they even have a hint of orange in them then the window seal will bring them to a nice shade of red.  I will have to report back about the banana as I am not convinced that the tomatoes would have ripened just as well without it.  Life on the vine is brutal and if there are positive signs of blight, then it is not advisable as it does move very quickly.

All has not been lost however, I have harvested a lot of juicy red tomatoes (about 50 percent of what I should have had!) and have once again made one of my favourite preserves, passata.  It is a great recipe from the River Cottage series.  It is great for pastas, pizzas, curries, and I could almost eat it as a thick soup if that didn't feel so wrong, due to the fact that I am trying to extend the harvest into winter!

A collection of San Marzano and Roma Tomatoes

Passata Ingredients in a roasting Tray

A few jars of passata for winter!

Allotment Barbecue

This year we held the first, of what hopefully is the annual barbecue, at the allotments.  The weather was threatening all day but thankfully it held out, and by 5pm the clouds had moved on and left us with a clear evening to enjoy the event!  There was plenty of good food on the go and we enjoyed the warmth provided by the fire (and of course the guests).  Thanks to everyone who took part in the event and hopefully this is the first of many! Here are a few photos: