Seedlings are in the wars whilst I dream of polytunnels

You know those tomato and basil plants I had started on the windowsill?



Well, when we got back from 'supervising' the foundation work we discovered that they had been cat attacked (I had taken them out of the propagator as it is warm enough inside and they were getting a tad leggy). I guess it was inevitable.

Anyway, the tomatoes had been completely trashed, but some of the basil plants were ok.

It isn't a big deal as I'd started the tomatoes too early ( they'd started to germinate when I left them to ferment too long when collecting them).

Not to be defeated, I hastily came up with a new, hopefully cat proof, enclosure. It is an old rodent cage, so should keep the cats out and keep the seedlings safe.


I have also added a very crude 'lightbox' ( to reduce spindly growth caused by the plants continually leaning towards the light from the window) by putting white polystyrene on three sides. This should reflect more light back to the plants. Silver foil may work better - I might try an experiment with one propagator lined with sliver foil and the other with white card to see which gives best results.

Anyway, at least the basil is safe for now. I'm still rotating it every couple of days to stop the plants leaning out too much - so maybe the white polystyrene isn't that great.

I'm not going to sow too much else here, as I don't want to clutter up my aunt's house and I don't want to leave germinating seeds unattended while we are away at site.

So, most of the sowing will be done in March and April on site. I'm not in a mad rush to sow early anyway, as later sowings can usually catch up with earlier ones, so it doesn't make a big difference to me not to be sowing right away.

Anyway, I still have to prepare my soil. Mind you, I'll be growing a lot in containers this year - and in the Polytunnel. The tunnel is still being researched right now, but I'm hoping to get it in March as we have friends over to help with putting it up - and then I can get to work in it straight away. I still have to prep the soil that will be underneath it though .. and figure out what size of tunnel I want!