It would be very easy to only write about our successes on the allotment – oh, look how well we’ve done, aren’t we happy gardeners, don’t we make it look easy? etc etc... Well, if the asparagus success was an up then there have always got to be some downs and already we’ve had our fair share of seeds that didn’t come up and seedlings that have struggled despite careful nursing.
I took some photos this morning of large gaps in our lines of carrots. Did we plant them too deeply? The photo shows some compost in the gaps where I’ve popped in some more seeds which will hopefully catch up. There are also gaps in the lines of peas. Have they been eaten by mice? The leaves have also been nibbled around the edges. Mice again? It is disappointing when things don’t work out as planned but I guess you have to expect to lose some and as long as you win some you shouldn’t mind too much. Maggie, who has just joined our allotment family told me how she always plants some extra seeds at the end of a row to fill any gaps that appear for whatever reason. Why didn’t I think of that? After all, I have some spare tomato plants in the greenhouse at home, just in case.
Also in the greenhouse are my celeriac seedlings. The packet says that celeriac are ‘easy to grow’. Well, look at the photo of my first lot of Giant Prague seedlings – very sad looking. I think I kept them on the windowsill for too long. Thank goodness I thought to get some Monarch seeds going too – they look a lot healthier for being out in the greenhouse for longer. Last year’s celeriac didn’t get any bigger than a tennis ball so I’m not sure where this ‘easy to grow’ comes from!
A lot of our sweet pea seeds and squash seeds failed to come up. When I fished them out of their pots I found that they had rotted – I think I had watered them too much. Too much love?
Pea seedlings eaten by something
Gaps in our lines of carrot seedlings
Giant Prague seedlings looking rather leggy
Monarch celeriac seedlings