And The Planting Begins

This week saw the start of a great tv programme on the BBC called The Big Allotment Challenge . It's said to be the gardening version of The Great British Bake-Off.  Nine pairs of gardeners are given a patch of ground in some scenic gardens of a country house and they compete against each other with weekly challenges.  The couples seem to have been picked because of their different approaches to gardening, such as the couple who garden bio-dynamically (with the moon's phases), the couple who use llama poo from their pet llamas, the glamourous couple and the couple who like to achieve the best results with the minimum amount of work.  I can identify with all of these approaches but never seem to quite achieve what I'm aiming for so hopefully some of their tips may rub off on me.

This week it was all about growing radishes and sweetpeas and was interesting to see the different approaches and attitudes the teams had, all convinced theirs was the best way!  The programme's commentary was also useful as gave a good "beginners guide" to the best approach.

This has been really good for me because at the start of each growing season, I get a little overwhelmed by what to grow and where to start.  This year I've decided not to buy any new seeds at all, but to use up the supplies that I've been storing over the past couple of years (I hardly ever use up a whole packet of seeds in one season).

As the focus this week was on radishes and sweet peas, I rummaged through my seed collection and found 3 packs of both and have now got them planted up.  Apparently, having just reached a full moon, this is a good time to plant rashishes, being root vegetables, but I don't think its meant to be so good for sweet peas but these do take a while to grow so there's not really any time to delay... .