Garden from Scratch #5: In the beginning…

This morning was beautiful. After weeks of hiding under my duvet on Saturdays, trying to think of reasons to lie in all morning, the spring-like sunshine and cheerful breeze pushed me out of my door and into the garden.

On the steps leading down from the back door are two pots where I sowed some rocket and ‘Red Salad Bowl’ lettuce in the Autumn. I had been hoping for one last crop, but the leaves have stayed resolutely small. The plants seem to have got it right though, as both crops have come through the heavy frosts unscathed.

The rocket in one of the larger tubs has amazed me still further, as it is thriving and still putting out new leaves, which is rather handy for healthy winter sandwiches. Our balcony is bathed in sun from dawn til dusk, and is relatively sheltered from high winds, which is an encouraging sign that sun-loving tomatoes will find themselves at home come the summer.

Just before Christmas, I dug the green manure into the bed which will house the carrots and onions, and spread a well-rotted horse-manure mulch on the top. Carrots are induced to silly behaviour by freshly-manured beds, so muck-spreading the previous season is the only option. The green manure should rot down happily under the manure, which the worms will take down into the soil.
But the activity I have been looking forward to weeks – actually, months – was sowing the first seeds for the garden. All week I have been writing out lists of seeds which need to be sown this weekend, how many toilet-roll plugs and eggboxes will be needed, and whether any seeds need special treatment.

All winter the collection of seeds stored in my fridge has been slowly expanding, and now I can start tearing the heads off the packets, picking out seeds and wondering at their many shapes and sizes.

This time of year excites me because nothing has gone wrong yet. There are no failed germinations, pest problems, or overdue sowings to wince over. Just glorious possibility.

This weekend I have sowed ‘Lisbonnais’ parsnips, Lathyrus odoratus ‘Matucana’, two ‘Russian Giant’ sunflowers (as an experiment to see whether early starting makes a positive difference, which it may not as sunflowers develop quite a hefty tap root), Alchemilla Mollis, and Passiflora Caerulea. The sweet peas and the passionflowers need soaking in warm water for 48 hours before sowing, which just adds to the air of anticipation.

I never buy pots or plugs for starting seeds. They are too much expense, bad for the environment, and pricking out seedlings causes them unwanted setback. Instead, I have been carefully saving cardboard toilet roll tubes, which can be used as plugs. Close one end off, fill with soil and sow one seed per plug. Once the plant is ready for planting out, simply make a toilet-roll-shaped hole in the ground and place the plug, tube and all, in the hole. The cardboard will decompose and the plant’s roots will push their way through it and into the soil around. Perfect.