Ran out of pots...

 

Clearing the weeds (again) Mar 2025

Well, I've run out of pots again, like last year.  Even with the addition of about 50 new ones (actually we've been washing out and saving the small tubs we buy cream in), I have seeds to sow and seedlings to prick out and no pots to put them in!  Most of them are holding my 300+ snap peas (two peas to a pot), all stacked up in trays on my patio tables, shown slightly at the top left corner.  I soaked them first and some started to sprout little roots before I could get them into their pots.  It looks like some are just starting to come up now--hopefully as soon as possible because I need those pots!

Why didn't I sow direct?  Peas and beans in particular are really susceptible to pest damage at my allotment and garden;  often I lose most if not all direct sown peas:  maybe to mice, maybe slugs, birds, who knows.  I actually sowed my broad beans direct this year (soaked first), but covered the bed fully in insect mesh after sowing.  I tried to bury the edges of the mesh so no mice or birds could get in, but it looks like a few did get dug up anyway;  regardless, it looks like most of them survived which I am thrilled about (last year I sowed them in pots and still lost a significant amount).

My patio table is also full of larger pots which are sprouting up lots of broadcast seeds, ready to prick out as soon as possible.  I've got cabbage, lettuce, purple sprouting broccoli (actually just started harvesting the ones I grew last year), Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi and more.  How did I mistime so badly?!  Well, I'll make it work somehow;  I can prick out some directly into the few trays I have left;  I think I can get some into the ground too.  The rest can wait until the peas can transplant.  I hope.