Inspired by the health of my coriander plant in the mini-greenhouse, particularly given the state my attempted herbicide* (thankfully, not currently prosecutable under English law), I have decided to prepare to fill said greenhouse with warmth-loving herbs. They can occupy the space that will soon be made vacant when I put my courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and peas out to pasture.
* Leaving it zipped up in the greenhouse during a hot week in March (i.e. the only nice week of the spring so far)
I tried a couple of different techniques to start the seeds off: in pots and once again in the coir Jiffy 7s. I also took my first baby steps towards being a Monty Don, rather than a Monty Dumb (see what I did there?), by using vermiculite. Clearly I have no idea how well it will work (or whether it will work), but it is nice to the touch and leaves a pleasing professional quality to my finished pots. Also, and this is just a guess, I am hopeful that the water-retaining quality of vermiculite will be helpful in the warmer greenhouse environment.
Let's get visual:
So that's a pot each of:
Basil Sweet Green
Basil Lemon
Parsley Plain
Coriander Leisure (which, let's face it, sounds like a 1980s caravan)
The basil and parsley (being small seeds) were sprinkled on the surface of the compost, with a light tap to push them down, then covered in the vermiculite. For the coriander, being slightly larger seeds, I made small holes in the compost with an improvised dibber, and popped 3-4 in each one.
Incidentally, the Basil Lemon and the Coriander were both purchased in 2010 (and planted with little success I hasten to add), so are theoretically out of date (the packet says to plant by end of 2011). To counter this, I used more seeds than I did for the in-date ones. As with all things gardening, we will await the result with patience and serene calmness (and in no way have I checked the pots for progress on an hourly basis since planting...)
Next germination strategy:
Jiffy 7s. I was prompted to purchase these having read the excellent River Cottage Veg Patch book by Mark Diacomo. I attended Mark's course at River Cottage back in 2009 and found him a thoroughly nice guy (any incompetence you find in this blog is my own etc etc). His website is definitely worth a read.
I am not sure I always use Jiffy 7s appropriately (and I mean that in the gardening sense - I don't spend my evenings trying to stick them up my bottom). They are probably better suited to the larger seeds / seedlings, but I do find them extremely useful, for the following reasons:
- They are the right size for 1-3 seedlings - so I'm not wasting unnecessary compost;
- They fit easily into these handy gardener's carrying trays (or takeaway containers, to the untrained eye) - so I can bring them into the kitchen to germinate;
- They are made of coir - so no need to worry about using peat-based product;
- Staying on coir, I am pretty sure you don't want (or maybe need?) the medium for germination to contain much in the way of food - the seed contains all the necessary to get things going, then when the seedling reaches the size where it does need more food, you can pot it on into a more appropriate compost mix.
And, yes, I have a third germination strategy to share with you today, good people. This one comes care of Terry Walton and his allotment podcast.
Essentially, in a bid to increase the speed and efficiency of starting my runner bean seeds, I have filled a freezer bag with compost, shoved in 20 seeds (5 for each of two planters, 5 for the relevant bed and 5 spare), put in a dash of water, rolled up the top of the bag and put it in a warm place near our boiler.
The photographic evidence:
(Hmm, that just looks like I've mixed a tin of baked beans with some soil...)
The aim is to maintain a pretty close eye for the initial root to sprout, and then move the sprouting beans quickly to their next home. I am undecided whether this will be straight to the planters, or, as an intermediate step, into pots or Jiffy 7s.
As an aside, beans and peas are probably one class of crop where I have been using J7s (I am tired of typing the full name each time) inappropriately, given their need for a long root run. For next year, I might well collect toilet rolls or purchase some root trainers. However, I have not had a problem with the roots having planted in J7s, as long as you pot on the seedlings quite soon after germination.
As an aside to the aside, I did have a problem this year germinating broad beans in J7s (although the peas germinated very successfully). For some reason, they just never appeared and, upon investigation, many had simply rotted. Hopefully the Walton method above will mean that I will not have this issue in the future.
My final 'achievement' on Tuesday was the creation of the Montgomery Pea Sheath (patent pending...).
I am sure it is immediately obvious to everyone what this fine contraption does. It is the top of an arch that we used to have supporting an unknown, triffid-like climber (unknown to us, probably known to the vast majority of competent gardeners). I then attached chicken wire all around it, to act as a support for peas, should they ever deign to grow more than an inch from the ground.
So what motivated such a marvellous invention, Professor Brainstorm? Well, (i) I understand that peas like to climb thin supports rather than thicker ones (ruling out a cane wigwam, for instance); (ii) I had the top of an arch lying around; and (iii) I have just purchased some chicken wire, primarily to build a holding pen for leaf mould.
Finally, and this occurred to me only after making and positioning it, it might (might!) dissuade the array of cats and foxes that variously like to sleep, dig and poo in my precious vegetable beds. Foxes Live my arse! (for those residing in the UK, watching Channel 4 and reading this blog at the time it was written (May 2012)).
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