Sowing the seeds of ......................

Today I have dusted off the tin that I keep all of my vegetable seeds in, and attempted to work out what we will be growing this year. This is always such a great time for me, I am filled with excitement and hope for the forth coming growing season   I always want  to try and grow as much as possible, so that we have amazing fresh food and save money at the same time.  I love the summer days when everything for dinner comes from the garden, these are normally omelettes and salad or ratatouille.

Hubby and I went a little crazy at the end of last summer at our local garden centres sale, and bought lots of packets of seeds for 50p each. Last year I also started saving our own vegetable seeds, (we had lots of success the year before saving flower seeds) I saved seeds from runner beans, broad beans and sugar snap peas. Its a really simple process of leaving the pods to dry out,  then removing the seeds, and storing them in paper envelops in a dry place.  Today I managed to sort out the seeds that we will not use, as we now do not have our allotment and I have donated some to my girls primary school for use in their allotment.  The school have the most amazing allotment, it is situated on an island just a stones throw from the school.  They have a shed, raised beds, mature fruit trees and a big grassy area that they use for forest school.   I am hoping to go and help the children with their planting, I always find helping them to be extremely rewarding and so much fun.

Next month I will sew my tomato plant seeds indoors, and try to get an early start on the plants.  As last year we were really late in starting to  pick tomatoes, but they did carried on through until October.  I will also start the peas off early, as my kids can never get enough of them.  Last year I managed two plantings of peas, but the third and fourth failed thanks to help from my chickens and some dodgy germination.  Peas rarely make it into the house here, the kids pick them for snacks whilst playing.  This is also true for the strawberries, sugar snaps and my middle child has a thing about red currants. 

A while ago now I was asked what sort of gardener I am, I answered that I am a survivalist gardener.  Its a miracle if any of my plants survive the" help" that I receive from my cats, chickens and children :-).