Despite the horrible weather that has dominated the start of the year, we have reached that time when thoughts start to turn towards the new growing season.  The seeds that arrived last autumn have been stored away and the annual sowing spreadsheet updated and now that we are in February the nagging timetable in the spreadsheet has meant that it is time to start cleaning the propagators, sieving the compost and sowing the seeds.

Our standard practice as described earlier is to bring on almost all of our seeds in trays or cells before planting out.  This means that whatever the weather we can get seeds going and kick start the most optimistic time of the year.  When the first seeds start to sprout and the window ledges fill up, you know that spring (and summer) can’t really be far away.

We have been lucky in that neither the garden nor the allotment have actually been flooded, so although things have been very wet we haven’t experienced the same amount of trouble as many.  Indeed looking forward the healthy levels of ground water should mean a good growing season, provided that we do get a reasonable amount of warmth and sun later in the year.