Over the past eight or nine months or so, I have had snail issues galore, with the wet weather we have at the moment bringing them back out again! On another subject, my onion seedlings are still proving a very handy point on why it is often a good idea to start seedlings off indoors before planting outside, beyond snail protection!

I’ll start with the snail I found on my little walk around my garden. The first lot of broad beans that I have sown were growing fantastically well up until this past week, where the snails have had a party! And not just on my beans, either! I saw this snail on a bean leaf this morning, so it got removed. I am hoping that the two plants that have some leaves on can recover and produce some beans for me.

This is also one of the reasons why I sow more than one lot of seeds for many of the things I want to grow. I have done this with my broad beans-the smaller plants have so far been left alone, but I cannot say it will stay that way! It is going to have to be snail patrol every day from now on to reduce the damage.

Another reason for sowing more seeds is so that I can have more of a crop over a longer period of time. Having the ability to pick a few things from the garden to add to a meal every evening is a really good thing to do-if only for the better taste compared to the supermarket! I also know how that food has been grown, and that is becoming more important to me, mainly so that I can have control over that process.

Moving on to my little onion growing experiment. I have to say that the new seeds are doing the best by far over the old seeds.

With my indoor seeds, the Onion ‘Red Marksman’ seeds were the first to germinate, with the Spring Onion ‘Evergreen Trident’ seedlings not far behind them. As for the older seeds of both varieties that I have sown, there isn’t any sign of life yet, but seeds can take a few weeks to germinate. There is still hope for them yet.

With regards to the outdoor seeds, they are a lot slower. With my new seeds, the Spring Onion ‘Evergreen Trident’ seeds have produced one seedling that still looks the same as it did the other day, with one or two other seedlings now poking their heads above the soil. As for the Onion ‘Red Marksman’ seeds, there is a hint of life appearing. What often happens when seeds germinate is that the soil above them gets pushed up as the seedling start growing. This is happening for the ‘Red Marksman’ pot, which is good news. For the old seeds located outdoors, there is nothing at all to suggest germination at the moment. We shall see how we go with them.

For germination to occur a littler quicker in cooler areas/weather, based on my tiny experiment and many thousands of words written on the topic, it is good to start them indoors. It can give you a few weeks of extra growth and protection against snails!

Gardening is often the tale of two halves. Every year, there are successes and failures-with some things doing really well one year and terrible the next, but other things being really successful in their place. I am hoping that I do actually get both onions and beans over my winter growing season-along with sprouts, broccoli, peas and cauliflower.