My SFG (Square Foot Garden) is coming along really well. Last weekend I popped down to Aldi and bought 6 grow-bags to fill up the SFG. It is just about enough but I think I need a few more to bring the level of the soil up to within an inch of the top. As you can see, I'll probably need another 3-4 bags of compost to make it work.
More Compost
I am going to go to a garden centre and buy some decent compost, probably a John Innes mix or something. In his book, All New Square Foot Gardening - Mel Bartholomew recommends that we use a mix of at least 5 different composts from 5 different sources. That gets pretty expensive. I don't have a good £100 hanging around so it'll have to be a mix of three for now.
Also in the book, Mel talks about how to add a trowel-full of compost to the bed once you harvest a crop, so I was thinking that if I spend a bit on money on some good compost, and add that, by the year is out then it will have a recommended mix.
I've also bought some coarse vermiculite and at £7.45 per bag I wont be buying any more any time soon, it's bloody expensive for such a small bag!
I've been sowing seed like crazy and have a mini three tier green house that the more hardy sowings can go in, my kitchen windowsill is getting pretty packed and DB is getting pissed at the amount of pots and propagators that are everywhere in the kitchen.
Vermiculite
I've also bought some coarse vermiculite and at £7.45 per bag I wont be buying any more any time soon, it's bloody expensive for such a small bag!
Sowing the Seeds
I've been sowing seed like crazy and have a mini three tier green house that the more hardy sowings can go in, my kitchen windowsill is getting pretty packed and DB is getting pissed at the amount of pots and propagators that are everywhere in the kitchen.
Thank you for posting my Square Foot Garden article as another resource! That is really cool! After reading your article, I am feeling a little behind with seed starting. I thought maybe I would try to germinate the seeds on paper towels as suggested in the book. Have you ever tried that process?
ReplyDeleteThank you again! I am excited to read about your garden throughout the season and gather tips and tricks.
Hi Kimberly, to be honest, with the light levels the way they are, I'm a little too ahead with my seed starting, my lettuce crop has bolted and the seedlings are now really leggy and will have to be scrapped :( I'll most likely do a post on that soon.
DeleteAccording to most of my seed packets, the general consensus for seed starting is about now (Mid March) so I'l be planting up all over again soon.
My onion sets are coming along nicely and they don't seem to mind the cold, they just stop growing and wait for a sunny day to put on a bit of a spurt.
I haven't tried the paper towel method, but I have read that it's only useful to see if two to three year old seed is viable:
"Take a damp kitchen towel, drop about ten seeds on to the damp towel then seal in a ziploc bag. If more than 7 seeds sprout then you have a medium germination rate and should sow seed thickly. If all sprout, the seed is still viable and you should sow as normal."
I would have thought the roots of the seed would find it difficult to penetrate the layer of the tissue, but I might have a go and see what happens. If you do a trial as well, it would be interesting to see a post about it!
That is interesting! I think I will have to try the paper towel method and see if it works....maybe with lettuce. I have a vertical garden idea in the works and it would be a fun experiment.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the help and I am sorry you will have to scrap your seedlings. I have been there. But the worst was when I used old wood as markers and caused a complete mold infestation. I lost all the seeds I was trying to germinate. That was a sad moment in my gardening history!