What are you planting this year???

[pablo]

So far the seeds that I planted (including broad beans, ages ago) have done absolutely nowt. Outdoor temps are about 4 (night) - 10 (day). I wonder if they're still just waiting.

Our broad beans have just come up - planted 7 weeks ago (just before we had all the snow) seeds like that have their own internal logic beyond our ken. Good!!

Of course for those crops that don't like frost or have a short growing season we need to offer appropriate encouragement/nurturing but there is something nice about leaving hardy plants to just get on with it. If they fail utterly then it might have just been a bad year but more likely your bit of soil just don't suit them.

I am trying to grow things that my soil likes cos I don't have the time for careful growing.

Last year this included runner beans, french beans, and best of all purple sprouting broccoli - right now we have 20 purple s. b. plants in or garden & allotment; If they don't work this year then I'm going to have to work out why it worked so well last year and not this.

Enough rambling from me!!

[hardworkinghippy]

Ramble Pablo, I sometimes feel guilty for rambling too...

I know what you mean about wild food, when you find some great things and take them home it's a really special meal.

[pablo]

Oh if we're talking wild food I love the autumn crop of blackberries and sloes round here - and my favourite being crab apples.

But I also meant that one should find out what grows well on your soil by trial & error and grow to your strengths. However that is tricky because you may just have a good year the first time you grow something and then spend ten years trying to reproduce that success.

Seeds are mysterious!

[kenneal - lagger]

Even wild plants vary in the same area from year to year according to the conditions. We notice it with our rough grass, the weed/wild flower mix can vary from year to year. With cultivated plants, one year might suit one crop and the next another.

[pablo]

This year I'm detectng good signs about our local slug/snail population i.e. it's mainly dead. This 'normal' winter might reduce my nocturnal mollusc hunt - bowl of salty water & 'slugging spoon' in hand (I won't waste good beer on slugs) but it doesnt seem to have set back the perennial plants at all.

[RenewableCandy]

Slugs already??? Oh just looked at your location...