The seed sowing chaos of the caravan spare room has been taken in hand and professionalised!
We now have durable shelving with UVA grow-light strips attached to the underside of each shelf. I’m feeling very happy.
The days of my rickety cardboard box tray balancing act are over. I think that husband realised that he was in danger of having the next seed tray balanced on him if I ran out of space… 😊
We now have pak choi, Sutherland kale, leeks, onions, borage, calendula, rocket, mustard leaves, coriander, parsley, mint, lettuce, salad burnet, nasturtiums, garlic and shallots underway. All glowing eerily blue under their UVA lights.
Today I will be sowing borlotti beans in pots in the probably vain hope that I can get them to maturity on the croft despite the wind. This one is a bit of a stretch, but it’s worth a try..
The directly sown plants, such as carrots, parsnips and yacon roots will all be in May. Same for the potatoes.
The garlic, shallots, babbington leeks and onions have already been planted out into the beds, and we covered them in enviromesh yesterday for a bit of protection.
I can already see that my three initial raised beds won’t be enough, even with separate big pots for the herbs, so we will be building a long no-dig bed directly onto the croft for the rhubarb and berries. We will put in more raised beds next year after we’ve finished the house.
Next up it will be windbreak hedging…
This will be an interesting year – let’s see what grows.
Ravencroft Skye 
Hi Luffy,
I like the idea of the strip lighting. Where did you purchase them?
Thanks Sue
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Husband bought them online,on Amazon. They come in rolled up strips with an adhesive patch on one side. Not expensive 👍
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Apparently he bought them on Ebay, although they’re also on Amazon. A lot cheaper 👍
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Your caravan now looks like an alien mothership (I am always really interested in the hydroponics bay in those movies). You certainly have a whole heap of choices for veges to try out. I can see many more raised beds in your future.
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It’s uncanny – you’re like Madame Zara with a really accurate crystal ball on the raised bed front…. 😊
I know what you mean about the hydroponics bays in SciFi movies… Brilliant 👍
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Wow, you are going to grow quite a bit. Amazing. As an aside, do you have slugs. That was our biggest ongoing battle last year.
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We almost certainly do have slugs. I’m just not sure how much of a problem they are as we don’t have much in the ground yet. I suspect we’ll find out in the next few months!
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Good luck. If you have local ducks they may help.
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Great minds think alike! 😊👍
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Husband is planning to dig a pond. I’m really hoping that a mass of frogs, toads and maybe ducks in the future will help keep them to a manageable level. Other than that I’ve never found the suggested remedies really work – you know, wood ash, beer traps, eggshells, copper rings..
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The copper rings worked for us, but it only helps during formatives stages. Loo roll cores also worked a treat to protect our corn seedlings last year. Then there are nematodes. They (NemaSlug) did a brilliant job, but can get pricey as they need to be reapplied every six weeks.
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Good to know, thank you. I’m sure I’ll be out on night patrol in the pyjamas and head torch picking them off soon! 🙂
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