Tuesday 18 November 2008

Lazily, tiredly browsing the web after work and before dinner

Erratic thoughts while chilling out, allotment beds map

Not so long ago Thompson & Morgan updated their website, and although this is a purely commercial site and not specifically dealing with organic, they have included a little interesting content - on the other hand they have ended up messing up the online order form considerably, and you never seem to know exactly what you will pay.

Anyway, I find useful the "What to plant this month" page, which gives me ideas for last-minute planting (being a compulsive buyer of greenery). Also, I find that you often get extra information on the plant from the website cards that is not on the seed packet, and keep telling myself that I should go back and read it before planting - but that is too time consuming so I never do. Having the information grouped by month has slightly increased my chance to read it , i.e. when I receive the newsletter - beware: they do send quite a lot of paper and email, which is quite annoying, but obviously it does them good because they keep sending more.

The Seeds of Italy newsletter, which I received as well, has also a little bit of suggestions on what to plant in the coming month (and they are more sparing with information): I did not realise you could plant some peas at this time of the year, so much to learn for me yet!

Back to the T&M newsletter, I followed it through tonight and had a lazy look around so I noticed a "Gardening Hints and Tips" section. Some areas were fairly easy to read - such as the 'Germination guide' and the 'Growing potatoes' page - I will print it out for taking to the allotment.

There are also pages on geraniums but I did not find any information on overwintering them, which I am quite keen to do as last year I managed to grow only 1 of 5 seeds of my Summer Shower Mix and the plant was really beautiful (unlike most of the varieties that are sold as plants). I still hope to save my lonely plant, despite the fact that it got frostbite when it snowed last month.

More allotment-wise, I have almost done preparing my beds map to plan next year's planting. I will post it when it is ready.

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