It is always exciting sowing the first seeds of the year, and I've picked a lovely sunny day to do it! The fact that it is only 1 degree Celsius outside and the compost was frozen didn't put me off: I had to bring the compost inside to defrost before sowing any seeds! I'm sowing my chilli seeds 3 weeks earlier than last year in a bid to try and extend the fruiting season. Here is this years selection:
My absolute favourite from last year was "Cherry Bomb" from the South Devon Chilli Farm. We also had 2 recommendations of easy-to-grow medium-hot chilli plants from Simpson's Seeds when we visited their stall at our local chilli festival last year: "Aji Wrecking Ball" (sounds brutal!) and "Red Cherry Hot". I also found a packet of Cayenne pepper seeds that I received at Gardeners World Live last year so decided to sow a pot of those too. Five seeds of each variety were sown into a 3-inch pot of compost and lightly covered with vermiculite. The Simpsons seeds recommend a temperature of 28 degrees Celsius for germination! I find that the warmth of a sunny windowsill is usually sufficient so it will be interesting to see how they do.
After scrubbing pots and trays for the chillis I was on a roll and decided to prepare some more pots for growing herbs indoors:
The above selection includes 2 types of basil ("Sweet" and "Purple Leaved"), 2 types of coriander (the usual type plus "Delfino" that has ferny leaves) and some parsley ("Plain Leaved 2"). These were sown into 5.5" pots.
Finally, whilst sifting through my tin of seeds I found an open packet of Wilko "Autumn Giant 3" leek seeds still in date and perfect for sowing now for an autumn crop. We grew these 2 years ago and they did really well despite having rust. I preferred them to the variety "Musselburgh" grown last year. I sowed the remaining seeds (probably 50 or 60?) into a shallow tray and covered with vermiculite. If they don't germinate there is still plenty of time to sow more.
