Sowing Seeds Pt. 1 - Outdoors cont.

Cut-and-come-again lettuce crops are always suggested for a small-space grower, and I'm dead keen on a salad. The plants will hopefully manage in some of the shallower fruit boxes mentioned previously. April (2nd) was a little early for some of these leaves, so I planted half with Cos Freckles (from Sarah Raven) which allows sowing from February onwards. Hedging my latest-frost-date bets, I planted Mixed Lettuce leaves from B+Q, (Cost: 38p) in the other half.

The situation on April 2nd...

...and May 1st

I'm really pleased with how they have come along. I picked my first few leaves last week, and while I couldn't say they were particularly interesting on the palate as a solo act, they worked just fine as a vehicle for salad dressing.


Sadly, over the second bank holiday weekend, the heat and lack of attention meant that I returned from my travels to find a rather sorry sight. I haven't taken a picture, as I don't want to jinx the swift recovery I am sure they will make. Also, I should have already sown some more, to keep up supplies. I have so many packets of seed to choose from now, there really is no excuse. This week. Definitely.


Also sown outside in early April were Pickling Onions ("Paris Silverskin" - Suttons), into a bulb planter I had hanging around from last year. In many ways, was neither surprised nor particularly bothered when they didn't come up, as conventional wisdom would suggest growing onions from seed is a fools game. However, a month later, I am getting invested. I may yet make that one small jar of pickled onions..

Will they make it?