It rained for most of yesterday, but not in the polytunnel! I gathered my equipment and spent a happy hour or three pottering in the polytunnel.
My plan for this polytunnel is to be as productive as possible, which in my case means more than tomatoes and cucumbers, and to extend the seasons for as long as possible. I’ve already started to implement that plan by planting 10 Casablanca first early potatoes and a few short rows of Beetroot ‘Wodan’.
Today, I sowed a 6ft row of peas ‘Hurst Greenshaft’. An early variety like Onward may have been better, but HGS was what was in the seed box. I added several more short rows of vegetables:
Little Gem lettuce, Frisee de Beauregard Iceberg lettuce, White Lisbon spring onions, Long Red Florence onions and Rocket.
I sow spring onions in bunches rather than rows. I learnt this from another gardener over on allotments4all. This method gives me spring onions of the right size and I just pull up the ‘bunches’ as I need them. I think they must be social veg! If you look closely in the top right of the picture, you’ll see the circular impressions for the seeds rather than rows. 6-10 (ish) seeds per circle.
Short rows sown, watered and labelled
Then the peas. This is new for me, growing peas inside, so fingers crossed. There is plenty of room at the front of the bed for another crop, maybe spinach or some more rocket. I need to research good companions for peas.
I also made a start with sowing for the cut flower patch. Note to self – invest in a 2b pencil!
And finally, recording the activity in the plot diary – useful when the labels go astray.
Taking stock in the Wendy Shed with a cuppa and a slice of ginger cake. I know how to live 🙂
You were certainly busy so deserved the tea and cake, I like the mug by the way. I’m hoping to make a start planting and sowing this coming week.
Nice to see Allotments4All mentioned, I’ve been there for years but mostly inactive nowadays. xx
You DO know how to live! Hope it all thrives. I’ll have to look up Ridolfia Goldspray…not familiar to me, but I love gold and spray sounds airy…something I need to add to my cutting garden?
Thanks😜 Ridolfia is new to me but if it’s good enough for Sarah Raven … it looks similar to Angelica or fennel flower heads.
View think carrots are okay with peas. That’s what I’m going to sow with mine anyway.
I might steal the idea for a plot diary, I am rubbish at keeping a record of when everything was planted and have plenty of notebooks hanging around waiting for something to do. And that ginger cake looks lovely, could do with some with my Redbush 🙂
I’ve kept the diary since 2009. Observations about growth, taste, what worked, what didn’t, the weather etc. Nothing could improve redbush, not even ginger cake 😉
You’ve got me thinking about a tunnel on my plot now. Very early stuff, very late stuff, salad stuff over winter, seed sowing. It’d not need to be very big, now where could I put it…..
Wow! That’s a good amount of work! Reading you post makes me look forward to getting our own polytunnel! Good idea with the peas – I have problems with pea moth caterpillars and want to grow mine under cover too!
Having soil beds in this polytunnel is great (apart from the plague of thrips!) so much growing potential. What size tunnel will you get?
I think we are going for 14ft wide by 20ft long
. You’ve got me thinking about a tunnel on my plot now.
Do it! Even if you start out with an EBay tunnel; which are great value but the covers won’t last more than 3 years. My site is so exposed I’m considering another one for flower growing.