30th January –

Mending fences and sowing the first of the seeds – Tomatoes, Sweet Peas and Delphiniums.

Well I still haven’t pruned the raspberries. That's a job that needs doing which I somehow haven't managed to do yet. But with the help of my university student son who was anxious to earn a few pennies before returning to university, we found ourselves mending fences. He hammered the sledge hammer and I held the post. I was a little too close and received a thump on the collar bone from the hammer.

Thank goodness I was alright and my son was truly concerned and apologetic. I'm sure it is a mistake that he won't repeat any time soon! Well, I hope he won't... This morning was beautiful and I managed to get sowing the tomato seeds, some delphinium seeds and sweet peas. I have a large windowsill in our house so have brought them all inside so that they can germinate. They all need roughly 15-20 degrees to get the quickest and best results. I have often been tempted to sow tomatoes earlier. However, it never pays off so the end of January is an ideal time to start. 

Rootrainers make the ideal place to grow tomatoes. While they aren't that fussy the Rootrianers do let them put down a great set of roots. and the book style opening means that they can just be opened up and planted on. With no disturbance to the roots - so they can just get growing with no set backs.