Warming up my bed!
WARMING UP MY BED!
We have a covering of snow here in Crick, but not as much as the rest of the country it seems from the news.
I took the dogs out first thing this morning up to the canal that surrounds our village and it was beautiful. They kept having to stop to chew their paws free from snow.
I have made myself do the thing I hate most today – paperwork. Why do we have to do it? It’s such a waste of good sledging time! Anyway, to my delight as I had another coffee break and opened a box of biscuits I had put away so they didn’t talk to me to open them! The postman dutifully delivered yet more paperwork along with a new Marshall’s Seed Catalogue!
Just the excuse I needed to sit down with the said coffee and biscuit and browse with a clear conscience, because it’s all research for my blog!
It gives you a huge life to see the beautiful colours of chillies, aubergines and flowers. They are giving away a fabulous dial that shows each vegetable and how deep to sow and how far apart to plant with your next order.
But then I look outside and reality hits – I must be patient. Spring is on the way but not just yet. But I can help the season along by warming up my bed.
Access Garden Products have have been making cold frames for years, but with veg growing you need to protect your plants from the bugs when they go outside. I have got one of their prototype hoop and mesh covers that they will be launching in the spring, but they are also going to launch a ‘winter pack’ that will include a polythene cover to go over your raised bed. It warms up the soil by drying out the ground and upping the temperature. This will enable us to transplant from the cold frame a little earlier and also to help the plants get a hold and start growing and more to the point producing!
I will post some pictures of mine as soon as the cover arrives!
I now know about ‘chitting’ potatoes. You can buy your seed potatoes now and place them in egg boxes with the shoots to the light to encourage them to start shooting. They will have a spot in one or two of my squares under the polythene and in the frame just to see which goes faster and produces the most.
I went out to my frame this morning, all covered in snow and it felt snug and warm inside. Strawberry plant and baby are fine, so is the Rosemary.
Still more comments have come from people finding this blog. I love to hear from you all. We are doing this together and will help each other. What varieties of chillies do you recommend? Have you chitted potatoes before? Please let me know.
Keep your beds warm and enjoy the snow!