Coldframe crowding.

Space is becoming a much sought after luxury in my coldframes at the moment, a few over enthusiastic bursts of seed sowing have produced a bit of a pile up. Oooooh the pressure, how will we cope ? The temptation is to lob a few of the bigger lads into the garden and see how they manage. Does gardening sometimes feel like playing God ? Albeit on a much smaller scale, I have the power to decide who lives and who dies. Actually it's more like who dies and who lingers in the world between life and death before finally succumbing to the inevitable ! But I digress.....



Back to the seedlings, the cabbage " Golden Acre " and the Brussels sprouts " Bedford Darkmar 21 " are doing quite well. The " Ailsa craig " onions and " White Lisbon " spring onions are proving to be a worthwhile sowing. Don't you just love spring onion sandwiches ? The Swiss chard is flying up as is the beetroot " Boltardy ". I grew this last year as the wife loves beetroot, but somehow she was unimpressed by my crop so I gave it away to more appreciative folk who showered me with compliments, saying that the pre-boiling of the beetroot really brought out the flavour. I tried to hide my ignorance, as idiots that we are we ate it raw !! I have three varieties of lettuce this year " Little gem ", " Cos parris island " and " Red oak leaf " What can I say ? ... wifey likes lettuce ! " Bambino " and " Nantes 2 " are the carrots although sowing in modules may prove a pointless exercise as they don't like to be transplanted.



The over spill has landed in the front porch, not ideal as temperatures are difficult to control but will have to suffice for the moment. There's more cabbage " January king " and some leeks " Autumn mammoth " lurking about, I sure hope the leeks live up to their name ! This year I vowed only to grow what we will eat, the radish incident of last year reinforces this mantra. Something I may share on a later post perhaps.