Not too busy for sowing seeds!

9 April 2025  (Wednesday)

I was awake and up early, just before 6am.  No reason, other than I was.

A friend wanted to go to Lidl and do a bigger shop than usual, so I said I’d happily carry things back for her.  She’d suggested we go in the car, though with me having gone to do a big shop yesterday (earning £5 off next week when I spent £30 in one shop this week!) I needed very little… so we walked; me with all my bags so I could carry items back for her.  There was quite a chill in the air, which neither of us had expected, though by the time we were walking back from the shop the air had warmed as the sun was doing its job.

With her ‘big shop’ she got her £5 off bonus for her shop next week too.  In this day and age of ever increasing prices, it makes sense to bulk buy things that you will use if you have a) the storage space, b) the cash to bulk buy, and c) things that you want that will store well and not go off!

With so much going on, I hadn’t done a FES/GGB Newsletter for some weeks, so cracked on with this first thing.  Despite often using the last version as a template, it can take time.. writing, rewriting, checking dates, checking links, re-checking it all, printing it out to read slowly away from my desk to ensure it reads and is all spelt correctly, back to my desk to make any changes, writing the Subject line, setting the time to send…  it was all done and dusted within four hours, though that’s quite a chunk of time in my book.  I’m using Mailchimp, and for the first time using their suggestion of what time to send the email… I think 2pm or around 4pm is a good time, though the platform’s suggesting 8pm… we’ll see.

I had another call with Vanessa, talking about lots of things though particularly the Greek event… an assistant of hers is in on Friday so those questions will be finalised and sent off then, and there are further costs to get too.

I was at the plot at about 4.20pm, sowing the tomato seeds I didn’t sow yesterday.  I’ve used two half trays and my markers to split the trays into sections; one has three, with Mountain Magic, Black Krim and Rose de Berne, the second has Amish Paste and an Isle of Wight Yellow - it’s called this as the seeds were saved from a yellow tomato in a box we received as a gift from a subscriber, grown by growers for Isle of Wight Tomatoes, hence…

The current warmth and being in the greenhouse meant that all the seeds sown yesterday needed a good water, and quite a few of the plants outside too, whether in pots or newly planted out.

I have done the switchover of swapping gravel trays with holes for gravel trays without holes - in the summer it’s best to conserve moisture and water, so gravel trays are best - I think it’s the first year I’ve not shown this on camera, though will mention it in a segment this week.

I harvested some lettuce, noticing that woodlice seem to particularly like the endive style; they don’t seem to be doing any damage, though they were in numbers when I was harvesting the leaves.  And on harvesting from the curly endive, I must remember to hold the base as it’s not an easy picker in terms of taking off individual leaves.


Weather:  A bit hazy, though warm in the sunshine.  It’s going to be cool overnight again…

Breakfast:  Bran sticks, yogurt, banana, sultanas
Lunch:  Leftover Vegan Shepherd's Pie and tinned Baked Beans
Supper:  Lidl Caramelised Red Onion Tart, lettuce, cucumber, radish and cherry tomato