We have never bought plants, we have always grown from seed. Buying in small seedlings is just too expensive and a little bit cheating, maybe. I don’t know if it is a mixture of the hot dry weather and the peat free cheap compost, but seedlings for winter veg have not done very well this year. Nothing has thrived. If they last for me to plant them out, then they do recover but they have a lot of catching up to do. This means I’m slightly worried about the sprouts and purple sprouting, will they grow enough before the days get shorter and colder?

The swede seedlings never got to a good size as seedlings and they eventually frazzled in the heat. I decided to buy in some seedlings, a year without swedes would be a sad year I am sure.

The ground is dry and dust like so I mixed in some composted manure, watered very well, and put in the seedlings. I’ve been up to the plot since and given them another watering.

I now have a number of winter veg planted out, all of which I’m keeping as watered as I can. I’ve dug up most of the rows of potatoes to make room for them. The first rows we had a good harvest but the others not so. Not bad, but not great either (like last year). The heat and lack of rain meant these plants died off a bit too soon. Saying that, we do have a lot of good potatoes.