Getting the veg started
Happy Easter
Easter weekend is the start of the gardening year for many people so I should be listing some gardening tips but instead I will just show a few of the things I have been doing in the past few days.
The yacon tubers have been sitting in open bags with a little compost all winter, kept free from frost and just about moist. Now I have cut them up to separate the shoots and potted them up.
I will keep them dry for a few days to help prevent rot and then start moistening the compost, going steady with the water until they are well rooted. They cannot be planted out till May. I did much the same with the cannas below.
Seeds have been sown for a while now and some pricked out. But these petunias and nicotiana are now ready for their move to cell trays.
Antirrhinums are the first seeds I sow in spring because the seedlings are so slow when they are young. For some reason you always get a proportion of seedlings with three seed leaves. I have never followed their progress to see whether these plants differ from the others in vigour or not – must make a note to do so.
I always grow lots of parsley and I sow the seeds direct in cell trays – just three or four per cell.
The dahlia seedlings are now desperate to be pricked out and I see that a slug or maybe woodlice have discovered they have a taste for them.
The lettuce are almost ready for planting out.
The tomatoes are still small but they are now settled in their (6 cell) trays.
And just for a bit of Easter colour, I posted about daffodil ‘Spring Sunshine’ a few weeks ago. I was a bit dismissive really and the flowers had only just opened. Now they are weeks older I can see that the petals are paler and the cup is a rich yellow. They have lasted well and put up with rain and frost and I humbly say that they are a great garden daffodil: early and short – ideal for naturalising.
The Biking Gardener 
In my naivety ‘is that a real word’ I need to ask what are yacon ? And the daffodils are glorious, love the swept back petals.
Yes, yacon is a real word though the botanical name is Smallanthus. I posted about them in autumn and described the crop but I thought I ought to mention them in case anyone was starting them now. They are easy to grow and form crisp tubers that can be used like water chestnuts. Yes, I like the daffs now although I wonder if they have held up to this wind and rain – I will check later! Have a good day.