[Liparis]

Can I offer some advice/tips on planting/sowing times.
As I read through the threads it sincerely worries me how many people are desperate to get on with planting. believe me, I fully understand the keenness to get seeds sown and potatos planted. We get a warm sunny spell and your raring to go. Try and reign in your horses. I know some things should be done, like shallots, onoins and garlic etc. Go ahead, sow your seeds that need it in the greenhouse, but sincerely, most stuff does ok straight in the garden. If you start planting your potatos too early, all that happens is the tubour sits in the cold soil doing nothing. It waits until it's warm enough then grows, in the meantime you increase the risk of tubours rotting in the ground or being checked so severely they don't produce any quicker.
This warm spell we had might even encourage you to sow some carrots. OK the soil feels warm enough, but go down a few inches where it matters and it's cold and damp. We can still get frosts. If your not careful, it will hit your early seedlings. Look at what nature is doing, take your guide from there. Only now are leaf buds begining to break, even then they can get caught with frost and be checked back and damaged.
I will plant my potatos beginning of April, over a two week period I will plant early, mid and lates. Begining of April will see my Brassicas and lettuce sown into the seedbed, carrots into where they are to grow by mid April. Leeks, early April in seed beds.
These are just a few examples. It means that my plots are still sitting rough. Not raked over and sealed. Lots of air pockets to get warmed up and thus warm the soil better. When things are sown, extremely few things have been checked by cold spells and you get continuous growth.
I had to drive to Kinnegad today and on the way I was horrified to see someone planting bedding plants Honestly, what's going on? We're being conditioned by chain-stores to buy our plants early, so we think we are late with our growing. I've seen so many people succumb to this, only to go back a month later to buy more because a cold snap or frost wiped them out. They buy more because they think they did it wrong, not because the supplier is wanting more of your hard-earned cash! It's become a nasty habit over the last ten or fifteen years. I'll guarrantee you could go into some of these garden centres at the end of April and see stacks of plants for sale that shouldn't even be in a coldframe yet.
So my tip is, slow down, If you feel you need to sow seeds, get a soil thermometer and push it into the ground, you will then realise how cool your soil really is.
Bill.

[James Kilkelly, was GPI.]

A lot of sense being spoken there Liparis.
Especially with the bedding plants causing a vicious circle of "consume, consume, consume,"
In saying that, as per your post, the shallots went in today.

[medieval knievel]

i only regained access to my small patch (about 4x6 foot, it's an urban back yard) last week; and it had been sitting under several foot of building rubble (nowhere else to put it, unfortunately), and i was amazed at how well the soil came out. not very compacted at all, though i had several sheets of ply sitting on it so the rubble wouldn't be in direct contact. the two rhubarbs even survived, growing in a pocket i'd deliberately created so they wouldn't be crushed.

so i was spared the temptation to sow. and the rain was kept off the soil, so it didn't get waterlogged.

[michelle M]

Should onions be planted now or are they ok to leave until I sow everything else in a few weeks ?

[verge]

Are you talking from seed or sets michelle M. from seeds you could leave them until a few weeks with the rest, it wont do much harm. from what I have seen many sets are already sprouting, so get them in now.
Seeds or sets?

[Liparis]

If you have your sets, get them in, normally mine would be in, but for some reason, perhaps just plain old procrastination, I haven't even bought them yet I've got evrything else but.
If you haven't got your sets yet, don't panic, just go and get them then plant as soon as you can.
Gardening's like the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Don't panic.
Bill.

[Moggi]

Hi Liparis,

Thanks a million for your advice and great tips. I really found it useful and will breath a sigh of relief now as I was beginning to panic.

Thanks again for the advice !!
M

[michelle M]

I have onion sets, so at least I can get stuck in with that. I was reading a topic here recently about which veg not to grow next to each other. I wanted to read over it again, but can't seem to find it. If anyone knows where it is, would you mind posting the link, please?