Grow Your Own Magazine

I have the following things I want to plant this year (see list below), no greenhouse and not a huge amount of space indoors. And I'm not very good at making seedlings that survive (last year, a lot of my plants were bought in, but the local GC has closed in the interim so not an option this year) so I want to avoid going either too early or late.

What I am wondering is when do I start to plant the seeds below for putting in our lottie in Dublin? (I have all except the leeks, squash family, turnips and some fo the toms in my seedbox already). I was also plannign on direct sowing (DS) quite a few things...are there any I should consider a few pot sown for safety/early crops?

And yes sorry, I know the list is long, but this is the whole season's ideas, including the overwintering stuff for late autumn.

Spring onions (DS successionally)
Peas (DS successionally)
Lettuce (DS successionally)
Carrots (DS succesionally)
Climbing french beans (DS)
Broad beans (have overwintered some, maybe 5 more beans to plant - pots or DS?)
Radishes (DS)
Beetroot (???)
Potatoes (1st and 2nd earlies - will start to chit in 2 weeks)
Parsnips (Loo roll pots)
Tomatoes (pots - few weeks away?)
Sweet peppers (pots - few weeks away yet?)
Yellow and green courgettes (pots - another few weeks yet?)
Mangetout (DS)
Summer brocolli (pot)
Summer cabbages (pot)
Summer cauliflower (pot)
Brussels sprouts (pot)
Spinach
Butternut squash (pots?)
Pumpkin (pots?)
Sweetcorn (pots?)
Minipop sweetcorn (pots?)
Leeks (pots?)
Winter cabbages, cauli and brocolli (pots - a couple of months time?)
Turnips
Pak choi for overwinter
Lettuce for overwinter

Any words of wisdom gratefully accepted.
Wings

Faced with a list this long I would read the packets carefully! Look at the suggested planting out time. If it says you can plant it outside in May (or June) then you need to make sure it isn't ready to go outside before that. In other words, only sow about a month before the planting out time. Otherwise you'll end up with loads of leggy plants drawn towards insufficient light. Even a well lit room is gloomy compared to a lottie bed. Hope this helps a bit!

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If a man is in the garden and speaks, and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated January 3rd - Birdwatching.

One thing I learnt last year was not to plant all the seeds too. Keep some in reserve (or buy more of course) for Justin.

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - 1st update of 2009 - 6th January

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/p/dev036pr___.png

I know how you feel WO, I'm itching to get going and I'm trying to sit on my hands to hold on

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aka
Suzie

Flummery, that makes sense (that's probably what I was doing wrong before). So a month before planting out time is early enough, means I shouldn't do anything (except maybe an early pinch of leeks and brassicas) for a month or so yet.

HeyWayne, that also makes a lot of sense. I have 15 courgette seeds (only want maybe 3 full plants) so I was going to give a lot of them away, but I might plant 6 and keep another 4 for Justin. (And still have 5 for swops/donations).

Piskie, yeah, that's kinda where I am at, but I don't want to rush it too much. I hope the voise starts getting better soon too.

I know where you coming from Winged One because I'm kind of feeling the same way too, a little bit lost and 'frightened' at the prospect of too many veggie type growing tasks ahead.

To give me an sense of order and some 'sanity', I can call upon my 'software tool' that is basically a seeds spreadsheet of my entire seeds collection. I put in seeds details via column titiles that goes something like this:

Vegetable Type: Tomato
Vegetable Variety: Sungold F1
Vegetable Family: Solanacae
Growing Place: whether you plan to grow in container or bed or lottie
Germination in Days: sometimes these are specified in the seed packet
Cropping in Days: sometimes specified by seed suppliers
Sow Indoor from: Calculated as the month ahead from one specifed on packet
Sow From - Sow To: from seed packet
Harvest From - Harvest To: from seed packet
Comments:

I actually order the vegetable list by the sowing time, so those that can be sowed in January onwards are entered right at the top of the worksheet, although not always that rigidly as I like to see the same vegetable family entered close together (e.g. squash or tomato family but doesn't work with Brassica family as they're so varied). I'm sure you can vary your columns to reflect your preference and requirements.

Having said that, I've also opened another seed worksheet to record the growing details like one below (where you should be able to incorporate details of successional sowing):

Veg type, Veg Variety, Qty Seed Sowed, Sowing Date, Germination in Days, Actual Germination in Days, Planting Date, 1st Harvest Date

I hope the above will give you a rough ideas on the sort of details you'd like recorded that you think will be helpful to you. Obviously any more suggestions/criticism from others on how the worksheet could be improved will be fully welcomed as I'm always looking for ways of 'lightening the GYO load'.

BTW Direct sow is not an option for me as I prefer to start off from pots coz 'I is slug paranoid' as Ali G might put it.

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Food for Free

nice sheets Veg - good idea

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aka
Suzie

Ho. I've done a database for my magazines (you know, date, articles, hobby), I was about to incorporate my seeds into it. Software is probably personal taste. Whether it's spreadsheet or DB, it's getting round to updating it that I find problematical.

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"I prefer rogues to imbeciles as they sometimes take a rest" (Alexander Dumas)

I have one like that too, Veg - although I have a 'last harvest' date too, and the spread sheet then calculates 'no. days to sprout', 'no. days from sow to pick' and 'length of picking time'

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 20/12/2008......End of year report - plot d (legumes)!.....