Sowing toms despite the cold

This year we have decided to stick to our 3 favourite tomato varieties:

Black Cherry and Bejbino are cordons and Garden Pearl is a bush-type. I sowed 6 seeds of each. The Black Cherry seeds are now 8 years out of date(!) but all the seeds germinated last year so I am hoping they will this year too!
Usually we sow some sweet peas for cut flowers. However, from July onwards they are always covered in pollen beetles and despite our best efforts at removing them (shaking the flowers and leaving them in the garage/greenhouse overnight before bringing them into the house) the beetles get everywhere! I thought this year we would try some zinnias so on Wednesday I sowed 12 seeds into a tray:

At the moment we are experiencing a cold snap which is expected to continue for the rest of the week with temperatures down to minus 5 or 6 at night and only 5 or 6 degrees during the day. Our pots of spring bulbs have been frozen solid for the past few days, but before the sub-zero night-time temperatures two of our dwarf Iris Reticulata came into flower so hopefully spring is on its way:

We are still picking leeks from the allotment, seen in the foreground of the below pic:

Last year (end of March?) we were given a free garlic bulb from our local allotment shop that they did'nt manage to sell. I'm not sure on the variety but in Autumn green shoots finally came up and now the plants look quite strong:

Here is a view of our allotment from the other side:

We will have a bit of digging to do when the weather improves.

Sowing lettuce seeds

Although it is still quite early, I always like to start a few lettuce seeds off in pots on the windowsill:

These are:
"Intred" - Described as a 'compact Little Gem' with outer reddish purple leaves.
"All the Year Round" - A compact butterhead variety. One of our favourites from the mixed variety pack that we grew last year.
"Lakeland" - Another compact variety with a 'crisp head'.
We have not grown Intred or Lakeland  before so it will be nice to try something different.
Last year we sowed our first hearting lettuce seeds on 8th Feb and picked the first ones towards the end of May (approx 14 weeks? we didn't record the exact date on the blog). I might try and sow some more seeds in a couple of weeks time just to see if they mature over a shorter timescale (if I remember, that is!).

Sowing seeds (chillis, shallots, cabbages and caulis)

Long time no post but we are back for a new season! On 5th Feb we sowed the first seeds of the year:

Chilli seeds:
Cherry Bomb: The last in the packet from the South Devon chilli farm (5 seeds in total). Our favourite mild chilli.
Red Cherry Hot: Similar to Cherry Bomb but not quite as sweet. 6 seeds sown.
Chilli Shake: A mix of hot chilli varieties. 6 seeds sown. We have no idea what these varieties are.
Pepper 'sweet rainbow colour mixed' from Wilko. We have never attempted to grow full-sized sweet peppers. Could be interesting. This seed is 4 years past its use by date! 8 seeds sown.
Pepper Cascabella: A small sweet bell pepper variety. Seeds were purchased from Lowes in Florida. 7 seeds sown.

Shallots:
We never get great results growing shallots from sets. Given our success with growing spring onions from seed last year we thought we would try growing shallots from seed. We have two varieties to try:
Banana shallot 'Zebrune': Approx 20 seeds sown.
Matador F1: Approx 23 seeds sown.

Today (10th Feb) we have added to the collection of pots on the windowsill and sown a few brassicas..... but only a few as we always have too many and there are only so many cabbages we can eat!

Cabbage 'Advantage': Small pointed cabbage. Can be sown in the summer for spring cabbage the following year. We are growing as a hearting cabbage this summer. 4 seeds sown.
Cauliflower Autumn Giant: Always a challenge to grow. They require a longer growing season than the pointed cabbage. 4 seeds sown.
All seeds were sown into pots now residing on (sunny) windowsills around the house. Well they are sunny on the odd occasion that the sun comes out!.
The allotment is largely dormant now except for the leeks:

Some of the leeks have been damaged by leek moth. We will be giving the allotment a break from alliums this year to try and prevent the build-up of diseases, so all shallots will be planted into our raised bed at home.