Ideas and Complications

I’m having a panic. Behind me on the table are my newly arrived seed potatoes – from Tamar Organics, and beside me on my desk is a thick cardboard envelope full of seeds. Also on the desk is a new book about herbs that arrived yesterday, by Adelma Simmons – thanks, Carolee, for the recommendation – and open beside that is one of my first ever gardening books, The Amateur Gardener by A. G. L. Hellyer. It’s open at the page of pictures showing ropes of onions hanging in the greenhouse and how to build a clamp to store carrots. So why panic?

Action

Today is a day for action. I took the old gardening book down from the shelf to see what action. What is it that needs doing today? I’ve had the Hellyer book for over forty years. I’ve never produced the quantities of vegetables he illustrates, but I have dreamed of it almost every year. So when I take the book down from the shelf today, in a year when just maybe I will produce the goods, maybe I will deliver, just maybe… I get scared. I can’t manage to get the seeds out of the envelope. It’s crazy, but true.

Plants

As you can see from the picture, I did manage to get the seeds out of the envelope. Aren’t they beautiful? Some of the seeds are from The Heritage Seed Library, others from the Seed Cooperative. The seed potatoes are also there, waiting. I’ll take them later to my light airy frost free shed at the allotment and line them up in trays. There is so much potential. Unopened seed packets are so wonderful. I have hundreds of them. This year, though, I’m actually going to sow some. I have sowed some. Three types of tomato, one leek, one cabbage.

Other things

I’m worried that I’ve sowed the tomatoes too early. I’m worried that they will die, that they will rot or be eaten by slugs or mice. I’m worried it will get too cold. I have taken precautions. They are in a propagator, and the compost is warm. But no chemicals. My old head gardener (I was a professional gardener) used an array of chemicals in his seed compost. That’s not for me. My plan is to provide good growing conditions and not to be too hygienic, and let the good bugs and the bad bugs fight it out. Fingers crossed.

Climate

I’m in southern England. According to the internet I’m in USDA zone 8b or 9a. This means the lemon tree I photographed last week in Narbonne won’t grow here. And in order to grow my tomatoes I will need to keep them warm. We are still getting frosts at night, although we are also having some lovely warm days. We can still get frosts in May, even June, and tomatoes don’t like frosts. I do have a paraffin heater for the greenhouse. I hope that will be enough. So far so good, though. The little seeds are just nuzzling in.