The Random Approach - 16 week review.

Well, this is great!

Honestly - the best decision I made so far. I've got loads of seedlings ready to go into the Gert bed; loads to go into the gardens, and loads spare to go to the schools. I did start off pricking them out into trays but to be honest, once a majority are up, they get taken out with me to go into whichever plot I am working on net. Blimmin' marvelous.

No good for seed saving as they aren't named varieties - but good for growing and eating. And no faffing through loads of seed packets.

I might end up doing this more often!

 A pic of the various trays:
 

Some in seed blocks - a review of this tool to follow another day

 A pic of some in the Gert bed - put in a couple of weeks ago and are still there. Even with all the winds.

Comfrey and Nettle Gunk Pipes

These give you a liquid that drains out the bottom, and which can be diluted directly with no smell and no fuss. 

Just empty once a year and pop the solids into a dalek or compost bin. 

Why I love Heritage seeds and why the EU is letting us down.

Hi

My name is Andrea and I love seeds.

There - I've said it.

Some of you may have guessed, but I love growing Heritage and Heirloom varieties. I do love the odd F1 hybrid but usually, the cost is prohibitive and you can get just as good results if you sow a range of old Heritage varieties at probably half the price [or for free].

I love the fact that they evolve and you can select the qualities that you want and in just a few years, you can have your own stable variety that grows well on your patch.

I love that their history is held within their names. Lazy Housewife bean, for lazy housewives everywhere - called so because the bean pods are easy to spot. So slovens of all shapes and sizes can race home after a day sipping coffee and gossiping, tear into the garden, pick a handful for tea and nobody will ever know that she hasn't been spending hours tending her plot.

I love growing and saving and bagging them up for swapping and giving away to other people.Trays of strange and beautiful French Beans all drying in the airing cupboard renders it useless for about 2 months each year but it's worth it.

I love that some varieties are the same ones as have been growing in people's gardens for decades, sometimes over 100 years and they have just evolved along with the humans that have grown them and the weather that supports them.

And I love the strange shapes, sizes, colours and tastes that come with them - so different from the tastes of fruit and veg that you get in the shops. And such beauty held by a multicoloured corn cob or a striped tomato that you can't get anywhere else. And on top - you can eat it!

So - to hear that the EU are not only trying to ban seed companies from selling unregistered seeds; but from people like me from growing them - and sharing with like-minded people - is completely and utterly tragic. It would be funny if it wasn't true.

The news was brought to us by Real Seeds yesterday

Avaaz have a campaign Please sign and share with your networks.

The other way to register your disaproval is to email your representative and ask them to vote 'NO'.

In the UK - the person to email is Catherine Ashton on catherine.ashton@ec.europa.eu

If you love seeds please join in to stop this going through - no matter where in the world you are. 

If you don't love seeds, what are you doing on my blog?

New Shoots in Leeds UK

Website

http://newshoots.weebly.com/

This is a post about my chum's project, which is a community group who are involved in growing fruit and veg at Bracken Edge Primary School in Chapletown, Leeds.

Please do have a look at their website and facebook page  and if you are nearby - they are always looking for new people to get involved in a whole range of activities.

I know if I were nearer I'd be there!

Sowing seeds

Gosh - I feel like I've nearly neglected this blog - but in reality as it's a gardening blog and I've hardly done anything outside [save a little digging and raking] and I don't like to blog when nowt is happening - it's only just time to update it.

Tonight I've sown some tomatoes. Mainly because we are about 8 weeks behind Spring in the UK - or it feels like it - and many of my earlier sown toms have died. So instead of resowing loads in March I thought I'd wait a bit until April and then all of a sudden it was the 23rd. Meep.

So - today's sowings are:
Millefleur
Red Cherry
Cuore Di Bue
Dancing with Smurfs
Last seeds of all of the following:
Sweet and Neat
Yellow Perfection
Costoluto Fiorentino
Piglet Wilie's French Black
HSL seeds:
Sugar Plum
Peacevine Cherry
Aranyalma
Srednjevelika
Arkansas Traveller
Dawson's Russian Oxheart
Imur Prior Beta
Stonor's No 2

As it says - apart from the first 4 - I have sown all I have of the rest. So if they keel over and die then that's it. I only have another 120 ish varieties to choose from the rest of my collection.

I'll take some to some of the schools over the next week or so and let them sow a few so I may be back with more news on varieties soon.

Until then - I'm not abandoning you - I'm just not boring you with whinges about the weather - which is set to turn icy again next week. Boo.

Oh, I've done some other sowing - low key though. Including a new Leek that I'm going to be saving year on year for HSL - Sim Seger. They were up withing days and I'll select the best 20 next Spring and pop into a corner to flower and then I'll just harvest from the flowers each year. No need to sow again. Easy!

Meanwhile...whilst it's been horrid outdoors I've been making baskets. And all my friends are now making baskets too. So here's one I made earlier.

Why planting little shallots gives you bigger shallots...

So, a little experiment I did with a few students.

We planted some small potato onions into one tray and labelled it 'small' and some big ones in another tray and labelled it 'big'.

Then I took both home to my greenhouse and left them there.

As you can see, the big ones on the right have more green shoots than the small ones on the left.

This means that the big ones will grow more actual potato onions but each one will be smaller, and the small ones will grow less potato onions but each will be bigger.

Works for all alliums, including shallots and garlic.