Planning for Winter

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Nicky's Nursery, Sarah Raven, Vegplotting, winter salad

Slug attempting double pike dismount from my carnation

I didn’t want to use the W word. I’m not quite ready to start thinking that we’re now heading in that direction again; I don’t feel I’ve had enough of a summer yet to prepare myself for the inevitable shortening of nights and even more miserable weather than we’ve had so far this year.

Much of gardening is about planning and looking forward, and at this time of year that unfortunately means accepting that autumn is just around the corner followed by the not particularly enticing prospect of winter. I had little in the way of winter crops last year on the plot. Some cavolo nero kale, and some leeks that were given to me as small seedlings by a fellow allotmenteer. This lack of winter produce was partly because it was my first year and getting the plot up and running for spring and summer had been enough of a task and partly because I thought I might be a bit of a fair weather gardener and wouldn’t actually venture up to the plot on cold, dark winters days. The reality was somewhat different, possibly because we had such a mild autumn which ran all the way up to Christmas. I found the allotment, even at that time of year, was a useful place to escape to, somewhere to clear my head, get some fresh air and peace and quiet. I actually liked the fact that we had a few, if sparse, crops to still be able to pick. So, this year, the plan is to have a little bit more on the plot through the leaner months. And, if this is the idea, I need to start planning and sowing.

Sprouting Broccoli plants perched on a chair hopefully out of reach of slugs

Of course, my planning hasn’t been that great, as I suddenly decided I’d like to give sprouting broccoli a try but had of course missed the sowing date. Fortunately, Delfland Organic Plants came to the rescue. A few clicks on the computer and several days later I had 5 plug plants of white sprouting broccoli and 5 of a purple variety called ‘Claret’. At the same time, I happened to read an article saying that it is actually better to sow your sprouting broccoli seeds a little later, say in July, and plant out your plants in August and have smaller plants that are still as productive. I felt quite pleased that I hadn’t missed the boat.

My leeks are already planted up and celeriac, a crop that loves moisture, has thrived, in this my first attempt at growing and should be ready to harvest from October onwards. I think it’s beginners luck that, for this crop anyway, it has been such a wet year.

So, to the seed sowing. I love spring greens and have just sown a variety called ‘Wintergreen’ which should be ready to pick from February. I’m hoping to be able to keep us supplied into the autumn at least with salads. I won a packet of winter salad leaves from Sarah Raven in a competition through @Malvenmeet and Vegplotting. Thanks Michelle. Hopefully I can keep them out of reach of the slugs!

I’ve discovered 4 packets of mizuna. I’m have no idea why I have so many but I guess I’d better get sowing some of them. There’s also ‘Reine de glace’, an excellent winter hardy variety of a hearting type lettuce, that I haven’t grown before. Now is the time to sow spinach. Notorious for bolting when it gets dry and hot, late summer is the best time to sow. I have a variety called ‘Red Cardinal’ which I’m hoping will add a little bit of colour to salads later in the year. Browsing around Nicky’s Nursery website I came across Italian red veined dandelion. Bitter leaves are, apparently, very good for stimulating the liver and are especially popular on the continent but much underutilised in British cooking. I have become quite partial to some of the forced chicory but without the space to do this myself, I thought I’d just try some bitter leaves instead. I can’t quite believe I’ve actually bought dandelion seeds.

Salad crops to take us into autumn

Alongside these seeds, I already have batches of Cima di rapa, an Italian sprouting broccoli. Unfortunately, on close inspection this morning several looked like their stems had rotted. I have a few spare, in the cold frame which seem fine at the moment, so all is not lost. Russian red kale, cavolo nero and endive are all getting to a good size. I just need to clear some ground at the plot, so I can get a new crop of plants on the go.

I’d love to hear about your must-have autumn and winter crops.

Seed Sowing No-Shows

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Dobies, minimum germination rates, Nicky's Nursery, Sarah Raven, seed sowing

So we’re well into the main seed sowing period of the gardening year. It’s a time of great anticipation, with compost, trays and seeds at the ready. It’s a crucial time for every gardener, a window in which the plants that will feed us and provide colourful flowers throughout the summer and into the autumn are started into life. It can be make or break for some plants which need a long growing season to reach maturity, such as celeriac and parsnip. If these plants miss their window of opportunity that’s your chance gone for another year.

So it can be incredibly frustrating, to say the least when seeds don’t appear. We’ve all experienced that sparsely populated compost where there should have been a sea of shoots or even worse the completely bare seed tray. Of course, we blame ourselves. We must have done something wrong. Did we sow them too deep or too shallow? Was the compost too dry and too wet? Was it too cold for them to germinate? All of these are possibilities but how many of us think it might be the seed that is the problem? It might be a more likely explanation than gardeners realise.

In recent years the consumer magazine Which has carried out research to determine the germination rates of selected seeds from some of the main seed suppliers in the UK. In 2007 it discovered that significantly high percentages of seeds were actually dead at the time of purchase. One company’s Delphinium seed were found, when analysed, to be 99% dead and  the other 1% were unhealthy and just 15% of seeds of a variety of lettuce produced healthy plants (figures were taken from a report in The Daily Telegraph). Two years later they carried out more tests and found 7 out of 17 seed supplying companies failed to meet minimum germination standards with spring onion ‘White Lisbon’ and only 27% of a variety of pelargonium germinated. They did however praise several companies, including Nicky’s Nursery and Dobies for their overall seed health.

There are legal standards set by the EU for the germination of vegetable seeds. These minimum germination percentages vary according to different plants to reflect the natural viabilities of different seeds, for example it is 80% minimum germination for cucumbers and runner beans and 65% for carrots and leeks. I suppose I hadn’t really given it much thought but it is surprising and sobering to realise that a number of the seeds we buy are already dead, even if they are meeting the legal requirements and as Which discovered many are not even meeting these. Flower seeds are not covered by any minimum standards at all which seems quite shocking to me. I can’t think of any products that we purchase that don’t have to meet some sort of minimum standard. I can quite easily spend £20 – £30 on flower seeds in a year and the thought that I’m not getting what I paid for is annoying.

Larkspur plant – one that did germinate

My own experience so far this year has been mixed. Most of the seeds have germinated well, particularly sweet peas, celeriac and lettuce but I’ve had my fair share of frustrations. I sowed one seed tray, half with blue larkspur and the other half white larkspur. They had exactly the same conditions. The blue larkspur are now good-sized plants hardening off in my cold frame, not one white larkspur appeared though. I resowed and 3 have so far germinated which is not enough for my cutting patch. Sarah Raven, who I purchased the seed from said they knew of no other problems with the seed but promptly sent out another packet and I have now sown another batch. Rudbeckia ‘Cappucino’ is another seed I have had problems with, 2 years in a row. The contrast between this variety and another Rudbeckia variety ‘Prairie Sun’ is incredible, with virtually every seed of the latter germinating and a measly 1 out of 20 from the ‘Cappucino’ germinating.

With my cutting patch I’m trying to grow lots of varieties in small groups of between 6 and 10. With the confined growing space of window sills and cold frames, the problems of patchy germination or complete no-shows are heightened. I, like many other gardeners don’t have the space to sow lots of seed en masse.

Perhaps though, one of the main reasons why this problem seems to be brushed under the carpet is our reluctance as gardeners to complain when our seeds don’t perform as expected. I am guilty of this, too. Some companies are reluctant to admit there is a problem and insist it must be the gardener at fault and what gardener wants their seed growing prowess called into disrepute? Others seem to have a better understanding of customer service, such as Sarah Raven. I was talking to a commercial grower recently who has experienced the vagaries of seed germination and the reluctance of companies to acknowledge the problem and he said we should all complain more. It is only then that the companies would have to take more notice of the issue.

I’d love to hear if you’ve suffered from similar seed germinating problems and whether you’ve complained or not.