About me



I'm a half Finnish designer who has since taken a break to bring up my children. I used to work in Graphic Design, but now I prefer working with textiles and illustration. This blog is about my allotment and garden. I have been gardening for many years and grew up watching my mum and dad do the same. I began my allotment in Jan 2010 in memory of my father who passed a way just before then. I also love cooking and finding inventive and delicious ways to make my produce into meals. I'm growing with my experiences, and welcome any helpful advice! Sometime soon I hope to use my garden as inspiration for my art.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Stale seed

I used to keep seeds for years, but I'm gradually cottoning on to the fact they have a sell by date for a reason. Many of my crops have failed for this reason, especially parsnips which apparently don't store well at all.

I've noticed that some of my lettuce has suffered this fate this year, so as we are moving house I decided to have a seed audit and cull of any packets that were too old or looking the worst for wear. That of course meant replacements! As most of the lettuce varieties that were remaining were quite similar and very green! I decided to buy some red varieties. I have now planted oak leaf red and bulls blood red chard. I can't wait to see them up and contrasting against the fresh leaf greens.


Posted by Jome at 05:37
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2 comments:

  1. Sue Garrett11 May 2011 at 12:40

    Generally any parsnip seed not used in the same year is best thrown away. parsnips can be a pain to germinate at the best of times so you need to give yourself the best chance by sowing fresh seed.

    Also I think the sow by date on packets is referring to an unopened packet in many cases.

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  2. Jome30 May 2011 at 13:07

    Good advice!

    ReplyDelete

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