Garden Bears' World - More Seeds and Seedlings with Endon Bear

Hello Everyone!  It's me, Endon Bear, with another Garden Bears' World report for Sonning's blog.

Yesterday, the other bears wondered what Polar and I were doing, as we put lots of toilet-roll middles in an empty mushroom tray.  Hanley Bear joked that it looked like we were trying to grow toilet rolls!

But we are actually going to grow some parsnips.  Polar has tried growing them direct outdoors but they don't germinate well in cold ground and often get eaten by slugs when they are very little.  She does what she was taught at college, and sows radishes with them so she can see where the row was sown, but the slugs eat those too!

One of Polar and Grizzly's allotment friends says he grows them in a different way and gets good results.  This is what Mr (Allotment) Steve says to do.

Fill your loo roll middles almost to the top with a nice compost mix - we are using peat-free compost with some added sand and some sieved garden soil, so it is not too rich or heavy.

Make a shallow hole in each and put two parsnip seeds in each hole, in case one doesn't grow - if they both do, you will need to take one out.

Top up the tubes with extra compost and water well, as the cardboard will soak up lots of water.  Then put them somewhere warm, but not too hot, to germinate.



We found that the plastic tray that had held our little cherry tarts fitted over the top very well - just in case any mice decided to dig about in the compost!  Then we put them on a shelf in the greenhouse where they would not get too hot or too cold. 

While we were there, I checked on my tomatoes - don't they look good!  They will not be able to go outside for a long time yet but they are getting just the right amount of light and warmth on this shelf.

We had some compost left over so, when we came back in from the greenhouse, we planted another tray of out-of-date baby salad leaves.  They went out in the greenhouse to germinate in a shady spot, as lettuce do not like very hot conditions.

Before Polar and I finished our morning's gardening, we checked the seedlings on the window sill.  The ones in the brown trays are the chilli peppers, sown by Hanley Bear.  They will need their own pots quite soon as they are starting to form 'true' leaves rather than just seed leaves.

Some of Sonning's sweet peppers (in the green tray) have grown too, but it looks as though only the newer seeds have come up.

'I don't expect my old tomato seeds will grow then,' I said to Polar but, when I checked the tray, there were already a few tiny shoots showing!  How exciting!

'You really are a very green-pawed little bear!' said Polar.  'You'll have to help me take some cuttings soon.'

I am looking forward to that!