From Seeds to Plants

Having just moved into a new flat with a great size balcony, late last year, the preparation for this years crops started in early February. As normal I tend to sow far too many needs, which I prefer to do rather that buying small plants later on in the year, with the exception to Garlic, Strawberry runners and a very hot Chili plant collection, containing Thai Dragon, Inferno and Tabasco.

My little propagator has been well used over the years and always creates great results. This year it held: Carrots, Peppers, Serrano Chili's, Baby Sweetcorn, two varieties of Tomatoes (Moneymaker & Gardener's Delight) and Aubergines and small pots held Courgettes.

                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: March 2011

I grew these to a suitable size, before re-potting into smaller pots, making sure each plant had sufficient water to keep growing. Around late April - early May I started to harden these off, by placing them outside during the day and bringing these back in at night. After a couple of weeks of hardening, these were planted out into larger pots / vegetables containers, using multi-purpose compose and as an added water helper, I added a small spoonful of water crystals, which will soak up water and release slowly.

                                           Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: May 2011

My Balcony is a south-east facing balcony, so it gets sun all morning into mid afternoon, but as a large part of this is covered I have to make sure that I water the plants daily.