While I aspire to achieve a certain level of vegetable self-suffiency, I am a realist and accept my limited mobility and available growing space dictates how much I can grow. The secret is probably to keep a constant supply of new seedlings in production and, unlike other years, the moment a plant becomes stressed or near end of productive life, throw it away and start with the next batch! The challenge for me is knowing how long I need to allow from seed to harvest. I also need a planting rotatation plan.

1. COMPOST BAG POTS – Who says you can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse?

When I went to the DIY shop  this week I tried to buy some large basic plastic pots to plant on my melons, squash, pumkins etc. No luck, the cheapest pot I could find was about €10 and even that was too small. Normally, I would have extended my search to include several shops, but one scary visit to LeRoy Merlins at Guia where people had no concept of social distancing, left me feeling a nervous wreck. There was no one controlling the numbers that went into the store and it was chaos!

Although we extended our search for empty plastic paint containers (normally dumped everywhere), there were none to be found so, thinking outside the box, I decided to recycle some compost sacs.

My Gnome said they looked untidy, so I made him hide them behind some disused rockery stones. It’s still work in progress but it does mean the rocks will offer some insulation against the heat of the sun.

I hope the Haokkaido Pumpkin seedlings appreciate their new home. I acquired these seeds on a swapsie for lettuce seeds. I’ve never eaten yet alone grown these before so yet another challenge I’ve undertaken thanks to the lockdown.

2. GALIA F1 MELONS SEEDLINGS

The seeds planted on the 11th April are almost ready to plant on.

3. TOMATOES GROW WELL IN CONTAINERS

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4. LETTUCE

Okay, I cheated. When I went to the Co op to buy some compost a couple of weeks ago, I noticed they had some seed plugs.

The lettuce seeds I planted over a month ago have still not developed beyond a couple of leaves. At this rate it will be months before my lettuce are anywhere near this size.

I lost my patience and emptied nearly the whole pack of seeds in this pot. These were planted 11th April

5. STRAWBERRIES

The new strawberry bed we planted at the beginning of March is now teasing us with a few strawberries.

Not enough for a feast yet, but I’ve never grown strawberries this size!

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A couple of the plants have produced runners so I am allowing thses to take root in pots so I can pass on to a friend.

6.  CUCUMBERS

The cucumbers are coming along nicely. This is one of the plants I bought from the local open air market before lockdown. However, the skin is SO prickly.

I also have another misc variety of cucumber plants I inherited from a friend. I think he said they were English cucumbers. I am growing these in a pots

Related Post:

Garden Diary: Fruit and Vegetable Seedlings – 24th -25th April

That’s it for this week, folks. If you are interested in gardening why not pop over to other Six on Saturday garden bloggers at Mr. P’s Blog.