Indoor preparations

It’s still too cold to plant much outside but we can compensate for this by planting indoors, on a window sill or in a small propagating unit.

The first job is to get a potato ‘chitting’ or beginning to sprout. I’ve chosen to plant Pink Fir Apple, a nice waxy potato. Children like the shape because it’s a bit rude! The photo shows a large 5 tuber spud from last year and the one by itself which I’ll chit and plant this year. To chit simply put somewhere dark, and some say warm, but I leave mine in the garage. If you don’t want to plant more than one just pick an old potato from your veg cupboard and chit that.

The other job was to plant some seeds to germinate in pots on the window sill. I’m using an ordinary, peat free, seed and cutting compost. I’ve just under-filled a 100mm pot, watered it and planted 5 dwarf French bean seeds, then covered with a few mm of compost. In the smaller pot I’ve scattered about 20 cut-and-come-again lettuce seeds and covered lightly. This variety will give mixed leaves and produce a crop for some time.

In the picture below, I have included "one I did earlier", a small pot of rocket seedlings to plant out when it gets warmer.

Planting in pots means an earlier crop and less chance of frost or slug damage. An alternative to pots are modules in a mini-greenhouse which sits in the porch or window sill.  I’ve started some tomatoes and peppers in these modules (for pots in the garden) but there is just space for the pots just planted.

Keep an eye on the seeds, when they germinate and pop through they can easily grow really fast and become ‘leggy’, tall and spindly. Try to avoid this by moving pots to somewhere cooler until ready to plant out.

Soon, I’ll be planting a few onion sets and two or three broad bean seeds to go with those planted earlier (and have survived the cold snap last week). Watch out for more photos.