Celery gets planted out

Celery seedling

Lads did ye know that celery is not frost hardy? I was a bit shocked when I read it on the seed packet as I always imagined it standing through the winter with the Kale and Brussels sprouts. Anyway it means I might as well plan a detox for September/October cause it will have to be out of the ground before the cold sets in.

It should be a crime to be talking about frost in the middle of June (rapidly approaching the longest day of the year) but last night horror of horrors the weather forecast after the 9pm news promised ground frost for last night and tonight! What the feck is going on with this Summer?

An 8x4 bed can take about 45 celery seedlings

So maybe instead of being shockingly late planting out Celery it looks like I'm actually holding my breath in case the frost gets them tonight. If you want to give Celery a go you need to sow seeds in March and April, transplant them out in May into individual pots (that part is a major pain in the arse). You grow them on until they have 5 leaves and are hardened off before planting them out when all chance of frost has passed.Old celery types had to be trenched up (another major pain in the arse, bad enough earthing up spuds) but the modern varieties are all self-blanching, I'm trying out Sutton's Golden Self-Blanching 3, not the most romantic name for celery plants but so far I have had excellent seed germination, good strong young plants and hopefully a bit of flavour and good size at harvest. I'll keep ye posted.