I’m not a person known for patience, I try (some people would say that I’m very trying!) but I like things to be done the minute I decide it’s time. So this year’s surprise is that I only sowed by indoor seedlings on Easter Monday.

I don’t have an awful lot of windowsill space, and allotment aside, no outdoor space and no greenhouse, which means that things get leggy. I generally, get around this by sowing everything I can but that doesn’t work for everything and this year I made the decision to wait a bit longer. It’s been hell. I love social media for the support and inspiration but everyone with an allotment and an Instagram account seems to have a houseful of seedlings and I know that comparison is the thief of joy but I was getting itchy fingers.

So this is what got sown.

Basil

We love basil and companion plant it with tomatoes. My basil sowing has never been 100% successful. The first year 100% of the seeds I sowed died, the second about 75% of them did. I topped up by buying supermarket basil and putting those out, which was fine. This year, we’ll see if I can at least get to a 50% survival rate!

Tomatoes

We have space for about 33 plants (although I’m sure I’ll end up with some buckets because I always seem to because I can’t not plant them out). My plan is two beds of 12 plants, one bed of san Marzano and one of red and yellow cherry tomatoes (yellow delight and red pear). The other bed of nine plants will be a mixed bed of marmande and cuore di bue. Yes, I sowed way too many (about 260 seeds, they may not all come up and you can always give them away!)

Courgettes and Summer Squash

We will always grow the crookneck squash because it’s Ma’s favourite and one plant happily takes over a square bed. We also plan on 4 courgette plants, two green (last year’s striato d’italia), two yellow (atena polka). I sowed four crookneck seeds and eight courgettes.

Cucumbers, gherkins and cucamelons

We will eat all the cucumbers so we sowed six of our favourite Boothbys Blonde and four marketmore. Then two cucamelons and two gherkins for fun.

Winter squash

I sowed six seeds each of burgess buttercup and Georgia candy roaster (both from Real Seeds) and then nine uchiki kuri and 11 butternuts (from Wilko and that was the entire packet). We like squash and we can give some seedlings away