So sow !

We took advantage of a beautiful sunny afternoon to get some seeds sown.

It is the first time we have ever sown Onion seed, but it is more cost effective than growing from sets... you can even use the thinnings as 'Spring' Onions. We have sown Bedfordshire Champion which has been a popular variety for the past 100 years.

Another variety we have sown is the Japanese Bunching Onion Ishikuro. This has a very long harvesting period and can be pulled when pencil-thin or left until they are like mini-leeks.

Our Autumn sown Shallots are coming along nicely, but the sets were expensive and I wanted to try to grow some from seed.

I was looking for a seed to produce the long, French style Shallots, but most of the seed on offer was for the 'pickling' variety.

I finally found a variety called Banana from Thompson & Morgan.

Better still, the same seeds were on offer at Capital Gardens with 25% discount and free postage !

You can see their website here.

We also sowed brassica seed in the nursery bed to establish plants that we can move to permanent beds in June.

We have sown the following :

• Savoy Cabbage Tarvoy F1
• Kale Nero di Toscana
• Cabbage Red Drumhead
• Cabbage Offenham 2
• Cauliflower Candid Charm F1
• Calabrese Aquiles F1

We are also growing the same varieties in modules as a comparative trial.