Grant Douglas's Garden Diary

Week 29: Fourth week of July

In the last couple of weeks I have had a seedling nightmare, which I have learned something from, and by sharing it perhaps some others might too.

I changed my seedling mix using sieved hop compost, sharp sand, vermiculite and blood and bone. Vermiculite is used to cover seeds which require light to germinate and I had a big sack of it, which I thought was going to take me years to get through, so I thought it might be a good way to use it up - lightening the seedling mix.

Unfortunately, it did the opposite. I had forgotton that it actually absorbs and retains a lot of moisture and so my mix remained very wet and therefore cold. I had pricked out tomatoe seedlings into it (for early greenhouse) and they began damping off (a disease at soil level where the stem shrivels).

Fortunately, tomatoes are fairly forgiving, so what I did was repot them into a new mix where I added a lot more sand, to improve the drainage. Tomatoes will produce roots from their stems, above where they have rotted off, if they are replanted deeply, so although I have lost some plants, the majority have retaken.

So, my new recipe for my seedling mix (organic) is one wheelbarrow full of sieved hop compost, quarter to one-third wheelbarrow full of sharp sand and one handful of blood and bone and definitely no Vermiculite. Hop compost can be purchased (unsieved - it still has the string in it) from Mac Hops Ltd, phone Owen . It is also a wonderful medium, mixed with some pea gravel, for growing tomatoes, peppers etc in bags or containers.

Here's this week's list. Next week we'll start adding a lot more.

Sowing or Planting this week:
Tomatos, Peppers, Chillis - see earlier Diary.
Broad Beans (I am trying a new variety for me this year called Imperial Green, where the beans stay green, even after cooking) Standard Variety - Exhibition Longpod
Garlic
Lettuce (Loose-leaf Fancy and Triumph Hearting - not outside now, but in containers, in a protected place e.g. Greenhouse, veranda)
Potatoes (in trays for sprouting)
Red Onions - protect soil surface from heavy rains (Heard the other day about the use of carpet underfelt - sounds like good idea. Just get it off as soon as germination takes place)
Shallots
Spinach (winter varieties eg. Hybrid No.7) - not outside now, but in containers as above

Sow Direct: (in containers, protected as above)
Corn Salad
Mescalin Mix
Rocket

Preparation of beds for Strawberries and Asparagus.

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