Perpetual Spinach

I sowed some perpetual spinach in June. The name perpetual spinach almost put me off trying it. It sounds like a condition! "Oh, did you hear, Mr Davies was diagnosed with a bad case of perpetual spinach. Poor soul."

I can't remember exactly whether I left them outside or germinated them inside, but either way it didn't take long. Within 3-5 days the first seedlings were popping through.

I was so impressed with how well it grew. I let it grow to this point before I took any leaves. It looked so beautiful I could hardly bear to cut any off!

 I wasted a lot of seed as I sowed far too many. But I gave some plants away to one of my friends, so it wasn't a total waste. I'll know for next time to sow thinly. I'm learning all the time!

Looking worse for wear

As a result I didn't buy any salad from the shops for the rest of the summer, just from 9 plants. I don't think I'll ever buy salad from Tesco ever again. It was far more fun popping outside to grab a few handfuls whenever I needed some, rather than buying an oversized bag that I've rarely ever managed to finish. By the time salad leaves reach Shetland, they are always a few days older than they would be if you bought the same bag on the mainland. In no time they go soggy. Growing your own salad just makes sense. Plus its stupidly easy.

A plant in the ground for comparison.

Seeds!

I've since let the plants go to seed. They're looking pretty sad now, probably a combination of the plants coming to end of their lives and the fact that I haven't fed them for more than a month. There can't be any goodness left in the soil of the shallow tray they're living in.
I'm hoping I'll get some seeds before the wind blows them away. It would be much more satisfying to grow it next year from my own seed rather than buying them again.

Definitely one of the best successes I had this year.  

Seedlings galore

Late 2014, my mam was clearing out my grandad's cupboards. She found my late granny's old seed box. She found rocket and a few other things that she gave to me to try. The seed was 15 years old. Not much hope for germination, but it got me thinking, what ELSE could I grow the following year.

Around March/April this year, my mam was starting to propagate her seeds for the coming summer. I was inspired.
A few weeks later I agonized over seeds in the Planticrub at Tingwall. I knew I couldn't try everything at once, as much as I wanted to.

I came away with Kale, Leeks, Corncockle, field cornflower, primroses and strawberries.
My mam decided she was going to try her usual assortment of annuals including pansies, livingston daisies and for the first time, tomatoes.

I sowed my seeds in my garden shed. Unheated, dark, cramped and not much light. Having no shelves, I constructed flat surfaces out of old bird suet boxes on which I laid propagation trays. It was a mess.

After a few weeks some of my seed trays showed life, others none at all. It just wasn't warm enough to make the seeds happy!
In desperation I bunged everything I had in the back of the car and headed north to Heylor with them. I begged my mam to find room for my trays otherwise I'd have a very bare garden.

Being the wonderful mam she is, she squeezed my trays in among hers in the considerably warmer and lighter potting shed.

My granny's potting shed

Old school glass sheets instead of plastic to trap the heat and moisture

Shelves and shelves of plants!

After I handed over my seedlings to her, I had a very lazy few weeks, gardening wise. It was an awful time at work as we were in our busiest period of the year at the same time as having our office refitted with custom built units. Whilst that was going on, I was also working on a huge commission for a children's book.

My mam soldiered on and pricked out all my seedlings and brought them on for weeks by herself. Poor her!
However she did pinch all but 2 of my primroses and strawberries and a kale plant. So it worked out not too badly for her.