The start of the growing season 2025

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 At the start of the growing season 2025 there are many things to do on the vegetable patch and in the garden. For personal reasons I have been unable to update the Blog recently but I have been busy 'behind the scenes' and much has been going on. 

For the last few weeks there has been little spare space on windowsills around my house with various seeds germinating here there and everywhere. Greyhound cabbages and Lancaster F1 leeks have been residing on the windowsill of the spare bedroom, four different tomato variaties were on the front room windowsill and the Scarlet Empire runner beans were threatening to take over the conservatory. Lavender cuttings and Agapanthus seedlings (seeds saved from one of my established plants) were also to be found in the conservatory. The Salvia cuttings I took last year from an established plant had been moved to the logstore at the bottom of the garden along with the Geranium cuttings in March ‘hardening off’ along with some Nasturtium seedlings. In the porch I also had some Vebena Bonariensis seedlings which I am planning on planting into one of the wild flower beds in due course as a great attractor of pollinators of all kinds.

During March I began the final preperations to the vegetable patch and greenhouse ready for the growing season. Drills were created ready for the carrots and parsnips and the frame created for the runner beans to climb. The night time temperatures were still dropping far too low, below freezing still in week commencing 17th March, for me to sow anything but the plot was ready for when I could. The drills I created for the root vegetables are around six inches deep and a couple of inches wide. These will be filled with a mixture and top soil, compost and a little sand that I mix-up myself to give the carrots and parsnips a nice stone free free draining medium in which to grow straight and true, hopefully.

As I write now in April a row of parsnip seeds has been sowed, along with two rows of carrots; I waited for the first row to germinate before sowing the second so there was around 3-4 weeks between sowing. A third sowing of carrots will take place in May. The runner bean seedlings have been planted out on the plot and three different type of tomatoes are planted in the greenhouse. I am growing early potatoes again this year in 30-litre pots and they have been sowed and I am happy to report foliage is begining to sow in all three pots. They will be regularly topped up over the coming weeks until the foliage, and compost, has reached the top of the pots. The outdoor tomato plants have also now been planted on the vegetable patch over the Easter weekend with the last chance of frost having passed where I am on the outskirts of East London.

Cheers 🍺



Location: London Borough of Havering, UK

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