Further steps towards growing our own

It's a long time ago now since I wrote about Mr C and my very first steps towards self sufficiency. Since then we have indeed managed to (finally) buy a house with outdoor space to allow us to do a bit more. I'm pleased to report that the kitchen windowsill seems to be thriving so far with the basil continuing to grow well, and the coriander making a first appearance yesterday. I'm having a few problems getting the watering levels right – I swear the watering can just puts out more water than I want it to sometimes! – but it's really good to see those first green shoots.

After the fantastic work of Mr C a couple of weeks ago to finally get my first raised bed built and filled I figured I ought to start using it. Quite what I can do physically is a bit limited at the moment but I've had this Grobox sitting around for a while since Mr C bought it me as a present so it seemed time to plant it.

 

The idea is that all you need to do is push through the holes on the top, put it in the ground, cover with soil and water. So that's what I did. 

My slight concern is that it looks like the box has lots of different compartments and that the seeds are all split into those beneath the holes that you can see above. However, in my box all the seeds seemed to be completely mixed up. Therefore I'm assuming that things will grow all mixed up and that I may have to put some effort in to thin things out or move them around as required. I'd better keep an eye on that.

As it's been so frosty of late here still I've been keeping some fleecy covering across the top of the raised bed. It's the sort where water and sunlight can still penetrate it, but I figure that it should remain like that until the frosts pass. Please let me know though if you think I'm wrong here!

My gardening efforts have also continued inside. Mr C and I get through a lot of onions in our cooking so they were top of my list for things that we should try to grown ourselves. I managed to pick up this pack of various onions and shallots, but unfortunately didn't have enough little pots in the shed to plant all the sets up straight away. That problem has been resolved today, so the rest will hopefully get planted next week.

 

 

Finally – tomatoes. I've always wanted to try my hand at growing these and I was delighted to find that in all the seeds I have collected as either freebies or from some very generous people on the Homemade Life Forum I had a selection that I could try growing.

 

 

The ones from Gardeners' World Magazine are Minibel ones, whilst the Dig In ones from last year are Gardeners Delight along with the final packet I had. All three have been sown in the seed tray that I have for my mini-propagator. 

 

 

The good news is that the Gardeners Delight are starting to sprout. Fingers crossed that they continue to grow well!