Thursday 26 February 2009

parsley

I've got quite a few herbs growing in my garden and no i did not take the advice of growing it near the back door so it's easy to get at in the winter. I thought the walk would do me good though a couple of times in driving rain I have regretted it but not for long. Garden isn't that big. I've got rosemary, sage, bay, bronze fennel and caraway thyme and golden marjoram.
I had some parsley growing in a pot but it finished some time ago. I miss it so have just sown some in a pot indoors. I sowed some seed thinly in an old ceramic pot in multipurpose compost. Watered it with hand hot water as parsley likes heat to germinate. Then I put pot in clear plastic bag blew into it and tied it like balloon(homemade propagator like I've described before). Hopefully they'll germinate if they dont I'll just try again. If you are using old ceramic pots etc that don't have any drainage holes at the bottom put old broken tile, plate,cup in bottom so mud sits on top and has something for water to drain into. Used stones when couldn't find broken plates - not sure if this spreads diseases. I suppose if you wash stones first it's ok.
Seeds are different - some don't like to be buried but just sprinkled on surface and left uncovered. These tend to be ones that are fine almost look like soot. Most like to be covered with fine layer of soil. Some have thick skins that need to be nicked with a pen or safer still soaked over night in water. Now you'd think how does nature cope with that. Well of course it does -sometimes ice cracks them but more commonly I think the fruit or veg is eaten by an animal- stomach acid works on the seed then they come out the other end and if they've landed in a hospitable place they are ready to start to grow. Will try and get pictures of herbs tomorrow.




3 comments:

  1. Wish this silly house had windowsills - I miss them!

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  2. I bought basil seeds this week - am going to try and get them started by the weekend. Thanks for the advice.

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  3. jinksy- yes window sills are great better still when kids nolonger want to knock things off them but am very grateful kitchen one is safely out of reach.

    martha - thanks I'd forgotten basil!!! and i did manage to get some to a decent size last year but they got covered in aphids didn't catch them early enough.

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