Nursery
Why did the club start to offer free seedlings to its members?
Several reasons: seeds have a limited life hence are expensive if you use only a few. Some seeds come in packets containing of hundreds of them (lettuces) and it may take years before you use them all. Of course, you could share with other members, but when the cold frames on garden 43 became available, it seemed easier for everybody to share seedlings instead of seeds. Another reason: not everybody has facilities to seed indoors.
Please take only a few plants. It is for all the members. If you want to have more, please make the seedling by yourself ...
When you take seedlings, take care of not disturbing the other plants (reset the soil along the remaining plants), and look where you put your feet too!
News of the Nursery (May 2019)
From the vegetables listed in the Seed List May 2019( see section Documents), all those in bold letters have been seeded and many reseeded already.
When ready, the seedlings have been transplanted in the cold frames on garden 43 . In the large one facing south are broad beans, peas, chards, and cabbages. In the large one facing north are lettuces, beetroots, artichokes, fennel , French beans green and yellow, runner beans and climbing French beans. Sweet corn will be also planted there later.
In one of the new cold frames near the entrance are plants of courgettes and pumpkins, in the other plants of tomatoes. All these last plants could only be planted outside after the cold period beginning of May.
Among the tomatoes, there are 2 growing sorts: cordon and bush. For bush, just let them grow, maybe remove some leaves to let air circulate, they are good for pots. For cordons, you need supports 1,50m long at least , the fruit trusses grow on the main stem and you have to remove the stems growing laterally to let all the plant strength to produce fruit along the main stem. If theselateral stems are large enough ( often the case for those low down), put them in a glass of water or in a pot with fine compost, they will grow roots and... you get a nice new tomato plant.
The choice of tomatoes was limited to the best cherry ones ( yellow Sungold and red Sweet Million, both cordon, and Red Alert and Maskotka, bush), the popular gardener's Delight, Rosella( middle size), and blight resistant Mountain magic (small size), Ferline and Crimson Crush ( medium) and Crimson Blush ( large).
Nursery beds
We started with lettuces: even if you seed a few, you get a glut of lettuces ready at the same time and you end up composting most of them. In the nursery, you will find more than 10 different sorts of lettuces, many more sorts than available as seedlings in the garden centres.
Yes, if you cannot wait for the club seedlings to be ready, you can buy several sorts of seedlings in the gardens centres, but again, the choice is limited, and they are quite expensive as compared to a packet of seeds. For this reason, the range of vegetables grown in the club cold frames has been widely expanded.
Very popular are all the courgettes and squashes/pumpkins seedlings! A few per plots give you a large crop (2 courgette plants cover 1m² and are sufficient for most families), so good reason to use the club seedlings.
The current seed list is available in the Documents folder.
Be aware that those seeds are not for sowing by members, they will be sowed in the nursery beds by Françoise, and then members are allowed to use the seedlings to plant in their plots.
All the seeds in the list will not be sowed because there are too many of them. If you specially want some of them to be sowed, please send an email to the Club here.
How to use the nursery bed?
Seedlings are free to take, but they are there to share! If you want to grow a lot of vegetables of one sort, then, buy your own seeds! Don’t take more than you will eat!
When you take seedlings, take care of not disturbing the other plants (reset the soil along the remaining plants), and look where you put your feet too!
If seedlings of a sort are all gone: contact the club here.
What you will not find in the nursery
Some vegetables are better seeded directly then thinned (beet roots, bulb fennel), some cannot be transplanted without risk of damaging the tape root (carrots, parsnip) and some are usually seeded in large quantities (cut again lettuce, spinach, radishes). You will not find carrots, parsnip, radishes, spinach (except perpetual), most cut again lettuces, in the nursery bed.