A few weeks ago, I said that once I finish sowing the summer seedlings in the garden, I’ll finish my sowing season. Well, as it turns out I was wrong. I decided to buy more bags of seeds and start sowing more vegetables. 

The truth is I didn’t think I would need so many plants in my new garden. Once I’ve finished sowing and planting in the main garden, I saw that I still have empty space in the main garden and that in July I’ll also have room in the side garden. This is why I sent my hubby to buy me more seeds.

Buying seeds after May 15th in Croatia is actually a real pain to do. Most of the stores order seeds in March and sell what they have during the whole gardening season. In May there’s actually a very small selection available, and you have to buy what’s left. Usually, the varieties that are left are the most popular ones, which are ordered in huge amounts. This is great for a normal garden, but for my forest garden sometimes this just doesn’t work. Still, I had no choice but to buy what was left.

Most of the seeds will be grown as seedlings first, except for the beans and carrots which will be directly sown. The rest will be grown separately and sown where I have empty spaces. For example, the pepper bed will be filled with beet seedlings, growing seedlings first will enable the chance to plant the individual beets between the pepper plants.

This is why this rainy weekend I went to sow some of the bought seeds. For the first time this season, I managed to use my new sowing station in the basement. I’ve managed to clean the basement enough to be able to work freely, and since it was raining, this was a perfect spot to sow without the need to constantly walk up and down the yard to get the pots and containers. During the winter this wasn’t possible since the basement was just too cold to work. Now with the rain, the basement is actually warmer than the outside, so I was cozy and warm while sowing.

I’ve sown some beets, chard, lettuce, cucumbers, and more brassicas. The beets, chard, and lettuce have been sown to seedling trays separately. It will be easier to transplant them individually to the garden. Now that most of the seedlings have been planted, I have some room for the trays, during the seedling season I didn’t have enough room for them.

Cucumbers and brassicas have been sown to joined containers. Brassicas will be transplanted to individual containers once they grow big enough for transplanting, while cucumbers will be transplanted to the garden directly from the pots they have been sown into. I’ve sown around 10 seeds per pot since I know that not all of them will germinate. The pots will act as a cucumber hole, and once they will be ready for garden transplanting I’ll just dig a hole and plant the cucumbers. This year I will not grow any cucumbers in a row. I’ll grow some of them as a carpet, some I’ll sow in holes and add sticks around them to climb, and some I’m planning to grow on a net on the side garden retaining wall. I’ll see which way will work best.

For now, I’ve left the containers on the first terrace for the rain to water them well. Later I will probably move them in front of the basement entrance. This is where I have my outside water pipe, and it will be easier to water the containers here. Also, I will need to move the seedlings from the terrace, to finish the second terrace. Hubby started building a supporting wall on the second terrace, but the rain has been messing with the work.

The rest of the already big seedlings will be planted this week. Some, like tomatoes, will go to the main garden, and brassicas will be planted into juice bottles. I’ve collected some more bottles, and I will try to sow as many plants as possible. We will need to buy a second freezer once the basement is finished. The upright freezer with drawers I have is not enough for the monthly groceries and garden vegetable storage. Especially now, when prices of food in Croatia went through the roof and I buy bigger amounts when I find something on a big sale. We’ll have to make room in the basement for a bigger, normal freezer.

This should be the last seedling sowing until July when I’ll sow some autumn vegetables for the side garden. Autumn vegetables in the main garden don’t work, but the side garden could work, especially since I can easily cover the beds with nylon and raise the bed temperature, but for now all that’s left is to wait for the freshly sown veggies to germinate and start growing.