Early March seed planting programme

Well March has arrived, and what a difference a few days can make. After the late frost at the end of February the temperate has shot up, it is not exactly T shirt weather, particularly with the wind blowing down from the snow covered Pyrenees But it is 12 to 16C in the afternoons, and on Saturday it is promising to be 18C. it bad for the first week of March.

So its gloves off and all hands to the planting station. The first boxes of 35 pots of the 13 varieties of tomatoes we are growing this year are done and in the poly tunnel. The first wave of basil, Thai, Greek, Génovèses Eleonora and Marseillais are in. We are trying an experiment of wrapping some of the boxes in cling film to see if what is in effect  poly tunnel within the poly tunnel has any noticeable effect on the speed and efficiency of germination. It was a right faffy job as I bought a large roll of cling film from the hard discount shop Netto, There was  a good reason it was so cheap, flimsy and easily torn. I’ll not make that mistake again.

Every week we will repeat the exercise with the tomatoes and basil util we have got all four thousand planted, in a couple of weeks time we will be get together a whole bunch of friends and have a mega day of planting to get up to speed with the vegetables. It is a lovely way to work, 10 or 12 of us planting all morning, then a late lunch with lots of food and a little too much wine. Common work days turn a boring repetitive job into a fun social event, and it gets through a load of work in one fell swoop.

Down in the poly tunnel the coriander is germinating as are the chives so the next batch is bring potted up. Caroline has been seeding up the marigolds to be sold as companion plants for the tomatoes. We will also have parsley and basil which love being planted at the foot of tomatoes, the aroma of them both dissuade pest from approaching the tomatoes,  the shade of the tomato leaves protect the herbs from direct sunlight, they have common water needs, and of course they taste delicious together. For me the true taste of the South of France is not cassoulet but a simple plate of home grown tomatoes, a splash of our local olive oil, and freshly cut basil. Heaven.

Also in today was borage, which is an early Spring herb, and last year’s rave discovery, Syrian Marjorie. the Syrian Marjorie is a spicy herb with a bit of a bite, it is the principal ingredient in the Arabic herb mixture Za’atar.

The next wave of parsley seeds are soaking, we find that a day or two of soaking massively increases their germination rate. The previous wave did not germinate well, probably due to the fact they froze a couple of time, the only one that worked was the green pearl variety of curly parsley. The problem with that is the French down here love the flat leafed varieties like Commun and Giant d’Italie and turn their noses up at perfectly good curly plants.

Tomorrow I will write up all the tip cuttings and plant division that has being going on this week.

All told a very satisfying week so far.