I sowed my first seeds on 29th March, anxious to get going once I knew I was definitely having an allotment plot. I’d been saving toilet roll tubes since I moved house last year – hoping I’d find a use for them somehow in the garden. I cut some in half and left others whole, the latter I’m using for tomatoes although ten days later I can’t remember what my logic was in this! Anyway as you can see from this box on my kitchen window sill I have been getting some germination. The largest ones in the foreground are courgette (Verdi di Italia) and you may just be able to make out some spindly seedlings in the bottom left corner – these are Claytonia. The tomatoes (Green Zebra) have just started to emerge but are not yet up to the top of the roll.
I have been using other reclaimed items too that would have otherwise gone into my recycling bin: tin cans, plastic veg trays, and egg boxes.
But I soon ran out of those I had available so have also bought some peat free fibre pots and peat free growing pockets (made of coir & wood fibre). 
The latter I have used for sowing some peas and mange tout as they don’t like being repotted. I’ve also planted some peas into a drainpipe but havent managed to find anywhere particularly warm I can put this so not sure how effective it will be at getting them started earlier than if I planted them directly outside. But the ones in the pockets are just starting to emerge after just 4 days and these are in an unheated shed.
I’ve now utilised all the space on my kitchen window sill and a set of shelves in my shed. The shed does have a window but doesn’t get a huge amount of light so I’m moving some of them outside into my lean too on sunny days. Not sure how many I’ll want to keep moving on a daily basis so they may have to take turns.
Once I’ve cleared vast amounts of cardboard out of my shed to use on the allotment both as a mulch and in my compost heap, I should be able to get at some more shelves and be able to continue sowing. I’ve concentrated on getting a small quantity of lots of varieties sown initially and will then make further succession sowings of some of them. I’ve been assiduous about labelling and dating everything but have slightly lost count of exactly what I’ve sown and when. I need to spend an hour or so setting up a recording system so I can keep better track. I’m using Garden Planner to plan my plot and so I get reminders sent of what I should be sowing and planting every couple of weeks – but I don’t think there is a way of recording on the plan that you’ve actually done it.
As I’m just starting out I can know if a seed packet is open then I’ve sown it (somewhere!) but that won’t be much of a guide over the months – and years – to come. There is a facility to add notes on the garden planner to each variety so I may try to see if that is a good way of doing it – if not a simple spreadsheet should do the trick.
My Plenty Food Project 