Dead of winter

Lots of snow this year and cold too. At least next growing season there should be fewer snails and slugs (hopefully).

The garden is mostly shut down. I left some white beetroot leaves out there, not sure if they survive or will be any good. Raspberry canes have been cut down. Plenty of material from guinea pig cage cleaning is being dumped on the beds. The ornamentals look a bit bedraggled but that is to be expected in early January (especially as there are some where frost-hardiness is doubtful; at least I managed to bring my pelargoniums inside).

I still need to go through the seeds which I ordered and that have arrived (rhubarb will arrive for planting in March). There are some items in there which I may be able to start off early inside. I am also contemplating getting a cheap greenhouse, which means I can move things (like tomatoes) outside much earlier. This year I am going to try the individual growing medium, having not had much success with the toilet roll method and also the normal seed trays.

Still haven't had a chance to build myself a better compost bin - lack of light/time and surplus of snow has been against me. As soon as it warms up a little bit I shall try though.

Probably not much happening for the rest of January...

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

I usually stay away from growing tomatoes from seed. I tried but they all turned out spindly, weedy and small. Moreover, I usually ended up with too many yet felt unable to kill off the runts. Last year I had great success with just buying plants from a nursery (grape tomatoes for container-growing). This year I was going to buy plants for my plot.

This intention has been nixed (or at least been reduced in scale). I just got some tomato seedlings from a colleague at work. All were second leaf and in need of further transplanting. Apparently, her boyfriend, never having had a garden, has commandeered their bedroom and turned it into a greenhouse. I think she is glad to be rid of a few of them, however, that means that they are my responsibility now.

Varieties are Momotaro (mid season, indeterminate, two seedlings), Early Girl (early season, indeterminate, two seedlings), Black Tomato (dark purplish colour, indeterminate, four seedlings) and Gold Nugget (yellow cherry, determinate). Let's see how they are going to turn out.