Time

Sunday 20th March provided a long overdue opportunity to spend time in my garden. I could have made an immediate start on cutting back all of last years ornamental grasses. Equally I could have headed straight to the greenhouse to start sowing this years flower seeds. However…

I took a leisurely walk around, taking in the foliage and flowers and the sound of robins and bluetits. It really was time well spent.

This tiny space, is one that I rarely step into, as I mainly look out onto it, whilst I’m in the kitchen.

This courtyard is in fact a concrete slab. Over the years, fallen leaves from the surrounding woodland have rotted down to form a growing medium, enabling primroses , foxgloves, violets , welsh poppies and cyclamen to self seed (from containers ) literally all over the place.

Later in the afternoon I finally got round to sowing the first batch of flower seeds. Twelve packets down, many more to go.

This polystyrene box is really useful.

With the greenhouse being unheated, temperatures drop at night. The insulation provided by the polystyrene is perfect to protect my seeds.

Clear plastic lids go on top of the boxes, which help to increase and retain the heat. I’m going to buy a minimum and maximum thermometer to see what the difference is in temperature between the greenhouse and the boxes throughout the day and night. I’m really quite interested to find out.

As you can see, from the above image there is no uniformity in how the containers look. For example Ratiba seed ( image below ) is sown on the surface of the growing medium, as it needs light to germinate.

I prefer a topping of horticultural grit rather than compost over seeds. I find horticultural grit is really effective, as it helps to weigh the seeds onto the compost. I also find that when using compost as a covering, it can dry out really quickly, and a cap can form, which makes it difficult for your seedings to grow through. Additionally, if a cap has formed, when you water, it tends to run off, rather than soaking through the compost.

An exeption to this is with very tiny seeds ( such as Amaranthus ) I mix them with fine sand and sow on the surface. A blog – Get set, get ready grow (4). explains this.

When it comes to seed sowing, make a mix of 50/50 compost and perlite. Perlite is a naturally occurring volcanic rock , which is processed to produce very light weight porous granules. When mixed with compost it improves the aeration, moisture retention and drainage of the growing medium, which is all very useful for successful seed sowing.

As the images detail below, I overfill a pot, tap it on the work surface to make sure the growing medium is consolidated, and level off. I gently press down with a lid to make a level sowing surface. It is then watered , and then I sow.

Sunday also found me searching on line for Rudbeckia Chim Chiminee seeds. Strangely ? I felt compelled to acquire yet more dahlia tubers, seeds and chrysanthemums at the same time.

There is only potential problem, in that my garden is already quite full. Every year I grow a fair number of plants, the majority of which, are very good at self seeding. The result as you can see is that already there really is not a great deal of space for this years flower choice.

What am going to do ?

The answer is ” I’m not quite sure yet ”

Part of me wants to leave the garden to its own devices, and for it to purely be an experiment of self sown hardy annuals and biennials from 2021 . This would enable me to find out how all these plants work and grow together. But I also really want to fill my garden with orange and pink flowers this year.

Maybe I will have some pockets of planting that I will just leave as blocks of self seeded plants, and other blocks where I thin out some of last years self seeders, and incorporate this years new plants.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog, there will be another one along in a fortnight