Back in the garden

Technically you're supposed to tend to your garden over Winter, raking leaves and cleaning up, that sort of thing.  I, on the other hand, don't venture out there until sowing time arrives again, which this year is today.  This probably makes me lazy.  Maybe my (currently my parents') garden isn't as good as other, more conscientious, people's gardens but to be honest I don't like messing around in the bitter cold and wet and my garden seems fine to me.  I have better things to do with my time in Winter, not to mention warmer places to be, and so the garden sleeps, sorely neglected, until I return in the Spring.

February is the time I sow my tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, chillies and, this year, celeriac.  March is also fine I think but I like to give the top four a good head-start as I live in the wilds of Sheffield where the temperatures don't get as high as down-South and so the tomatoes in particular benefit from a little extra time to ripen before blight comes in around September.

I believe that parsnips normally go in around February time but, as they are planted in situ, I like to put them in around mid-March when it's all warmed up a bit more.

Tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers and chillies all need to be sown in trays and germinated in the house, in my opinion.  They need a good warm temperature to germinate so on the window sills in the best place for them, unless you're fortunate enough to have a heated greenhouse, which I don't, so from February onwards the windows in the Jones house are covered in black garden trays.

The seeds of the aforementioned crops are big enough (just) to handle and so I prefer to sow them in cell trays.  With smaller seeds I just fill a black tray (with holes in the bottom) with compost and sprinkle them over.  Cell trays mean I can leave the seedlings in there a little bit longer before potting them on (putting them in bigger pots) and they are easier to get out and you can push compost, roots and seedlings out all in one go and pop in the new pot.

Cell trays have holes in the bottom, so they need to go in another tray so when you water them the water doesn't run all over your window sills.  They also need to be covered to encourage warmth and humitity, I buy clear plastic covers that fit the base trays but you can use cling film.  Cling film is a little annoying though so I tend to just buy the covers.

I don't use seed compost.  I use bog standard multi-purpose for everything (except ericacious plants).  Nor do I sift it into the cells, which means I do end up with lumps but I just squish the worst ones out.  Nor do I add grit or that stuff like grit which I can't remember the name of, just multi-purpose compost.  My seeds always germinate, sometimes not all but I sow enough to allow some not to make it.  Vermiculite!  It's called vermiculite.  I don't see the point of buying lots of additional stuff, if it works for you then use it.

I fill all the cells with compost, label each row with what you're planting, make a hole in the middle of the cell with a pencil (the depth required is usually specified on the seed packet), pop in the seed, cover over with compost and water.  Put in the drip tray, cover with the clear lid and put on your window sill. 

Don't over water, you're trying to dampen the compost not soak it and you certainly don't want your seeds sitting in water so pour any out of the tray if they are doing.  Use warm water for the aubergines and cucumbers.

I tend to grow more seeds that I need as I often pass on plants to friends, with Sarah and Isla being the recipients this year, or some just don't germinate.  Please compost any excess baby plants or give them away.  There was the year I couldn't bear to compost healthy tomato plants and ended up with a garden full of grow-bags and 40 tomato plants.  Needless to say I when to Cornwall for a week and when I came back I had a garden full of squishy blight-ridden tomato plants - not a nice clean-up job.  Keep to the number of plants you plan for and don't over-fill your beds of pots.  One big healthy plant is better than two small sickly ones.

Tomatoes

I adore growing tomatoes, which is odd as I hate the taste of them.  I only eat them cooked, hence why I grow some good cookers.  The smell of tomato plants is wonderful though and when you pick the fruits your fingers get stained yellow and smell like gardens.  I grow all mine outside, even in Sheffield, but they are all in terracotta pots on the patio (for direct sun all day).

I'm reliably informed that shop-bought tomatoes aren't a patch on home-grown ones so, as you can grow them in a window box if you want to (with the right variety), you really should try it.  They're not too high maintainence, they just need:

1. Sun - grow in the sunniest part of your garden;
2. Water - not lots actually but they must be watered regularly and not allowed to dry out, although I've done this and they've survived;
3. Tomato food - I buy the biggest size of tomato feed I can find at the garden centre and use it all through the year.  You should use it on aubergines and chillies too, oh and on daffodils once they've died back, it helps them beef-up for next year.

I grow eight varieties of tomatoes.  My cell trays are 5x8 cells so I sow five or each of the eight varieties.  Labelling each row with the variety and the sowing date.  The varieties I'm growing are:

Sungold - I grow this every year.  Sweet, golden orange cherry tomato.  Massive favourite with my family.
Black Cherry - my second year of this one, black/red cherry tomato.
Tasty Evergreen - a new one for me, regular-sized green tomato.
Yellow Brandywine - a heritage variety which I've never grown before.  Yellow beef variety.
San Marzano - coming back to this after a year off, it's an Italian red plum and a good cooker.
Snowberry - heritage again and its first time in the Jones garden.  White cherry tomato.
Blondkopfchen - chose to grow it because of the name.  Another white cherry.
Gardener's Delight - back again due to it's success last year.  Red cherry tomato.

I grow a lot of cherry varieties as they produce bigger and quicker crops.

Aubergines

Need to be grown permanently in a greenhouse.  I grow three plants in a grow-bag covered with a grow-bag greenhouse (plastic).  They need and love lots and lots of sun.  They are the same family as tomatoes, nightshade so technically (as with potatoes incidentally) shouldn't be grown near other nightshades - spreads blight.  As I grow them in a sealed greenhouse I don't bother about that.

They a beautiful plants.  They have deep purple flowers with a bright yellow centre, well my variety do.  I grow one variety - I sow six seeds for three plants as they are a bitch to germinate.  Put them on a radiator window sill if you can as they need a lot of heat to germinate in my experience and only water them with warmish water never cold water.  The variety I grow is Ophelia.  Mainly because I loved the name but also because they are mini aubergines (you pick them about the size of golf balls) and so are better in grow-bags than their larger siblings.

Cucumbers

Different family to aubergines but I grow them the same.  Three plants in a grow bag in a grow-bag greenhouse.  They need sun too but not as much as aubergines.  I grew them in the same green house last year but the heat the aubergine thrived in quickly sickened the cucumber.  It got mildew and shrivelled to nothing, although it still produced cucumbers, my kind of plant.  I grow a variety called Minature White which, as the name suggests, is small and white in colour.  Perfect for salads and eating as you potter round the garden.  It will need a structure to grow up as it's a climber but a bamboo cane affair does fine. 

Chillies

I love chillies how I love tomatoes.  I love the different fruit colours and, sadly missing with tomatoes, I love the different colours of foliage.  These need to be grown in a greenhouse for the heat, I grown mind in a plastic one on the patio for maximum sun.  They need plenty of water and benefit from tomato feed too.

I've sown three of the four varieties today (the Padron variety can wait until March):

Lemon Drop - beautiful purple green foliage with yellow fruits (turning red), nice and hot but not tongue incinerating.
Cayenne - a long red medium heat staple that I grow each year.
Black Pearl - okay I admit I only bought this because it reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean but the idea of a black chilli is just too exciting to pass up.  Tried to sow last year with no success so I'm having a second attempt this year.

Celeriac

Not a lot to say about this really as I've never grown celeriac before.  After a bit of internet research and book-reading I've gone with a variety called Prinz.  I love to eat celeriac and so I figured I'd probably love to grow it.  I've got a cell tray that's 4x5 cells so I've just filled it with seeds (tiny buggers, would normally have sprinkle-sown them but I need them in cells so I can transfer easily).  I can fit 10 plants in one bed so 20 seeds seems a good starting ratio, I can always give some away.

Seed suppliers - all the seed varieties I've mentioned are bought from Plants of Distinction or Nicky's Nursery.  See Useful Suppliers for details.  You can get most of them from other places though, these are just where I buy them from.