According to the seed packet I can just chuck courgette and beetroot seeds in the gorund and they'll grow

[LaurieFairyCake]

Really

I've always bought proper plants before.

It seems too easy

And where has the allotment topic gone -there was one, yes?

Dh dug me a new 15foot square bed at the allotment on Saturday and I need something to put in it

I wouldn't put courgette seeds in direct yet-far too early as one frost will kill the plants.Leave them til May or start them off indoors on a windowsill.Beetroot,salads,peas,carrots,onions,spring onions,cabbage,broccoli,ect can all go in direct now.

I don't know about beetroot, but our local park was colonised by a courgette plant that went beserk. Honestly, it must have covered 200 sq metres. I was quite sad when the council came and dug it up - I had just been working up the courage to harvest it.

Thank-you for the great advice Mirage.

of that courgette plant nine - they are amazing and frankly the only thing I can grow with any success. Luckily it's the veg we eat most of.

That's good news Mirage - I started some peas on the window sill and they are now in a trough on the window sill and getting very tall but I wasn't sure if it was too early to put them out. Can I put them outside now then? Do I start off just putting them out during the day for a few days then stick them outside against the netting at the end of the week?

That will be great as I am running out of space on the window sills for all my seedlings - I've never grown veg before so I have probably started off too many seeds hoping that at least a few will survive but I forgot how much space they would need once I move them out of the modules and into pots. My tomatoes, peppers and chilli's have all grown much faster than I anticipated . I have some pak choi that I also started in modules and is now ready to be moved - can that go out yet and is it better in pots or in the garden? I don't have much space, just a few borders, so am mostly growing in pots.

Sorry for hijacking LaurieFairyCake!

BTW I must be the only person in the world who can't grow courgettes. For the last 2 years my dad has given me a plant to grow on the patio. Both times we didn't get many courgettes (maybe I didn't feed it enough) and the few we did get rotted at the end furthest from the plant and were all ruined. Trying again this year - I have planted seeds on the window sill and if we get a couple of plants I am going to try one on the patio and 1 in the garden and see if we can actually get a courgette to eat. DD loves them so fingers crossed!

Yes,peas and Pak Choi can go out now.You can harden them off a little first for a few days by putting them out in the day and bringing them in/covering them up at night,but they are fairly tough and it doesn't matter if you put them straight out.

I know what you mean about seedlings all over the window sills-I've been growing veg all my adult life and still put too much in too early.

I'm going for direct sowing at allotment this year and stuck some Beetroot in Saturday before last. Can't do windowsills this year as demon kitten eats seedlings. So unless he turns over a new leaf tomorrow after the chop, we're stuffed on that front.

Have a courgette resolution this year, only two plants.,said that last year but somehow turned into 9 plants. Am also going to try to direct sow them this year when it's a bit warmer.

Don't think we had an allotment topic but there was a thread last year.

I am crap with direct sowing because all the weeds come up too, and I can never work out which are the plants I want!

We definitely had an allotment topic til very recently or I'm utterly losing my marbles

Wynken - you have just pointed out my soon-to-be error - I was going to sow the whole packet of courgette seeds in the ground - dimwit

There's 150 seeds - it didn't occur to me I now have enough for the next 10 years

ROFL, can you imagine it midsummer, everyone would run the other way when they saw you carrying a bag ! I managed to miss the allotment topic last year then. Could do with it as getting a new one in 4 weeks and very excited.

Went down and did my direct sowing but forgot to take labels so have to guess a bit, sticks sort of mark the spot and hoping can tell what will be weeds and what are seedlings but not overly confident about that!

Thanks Mirage - how long will my pak choi take to grow? I have some space I was planning to put leeks into once I grow them but wondered if I can stick the pak choi there until the leeks are ready since I'm told they take ages to get to 'pencil size'. They are still in the packet so they will be a while yet . I don't have the hang of timings yet but I don't have much space so if I can get 2 crops in the same place that will be great.