Sprouting seeds

Parsley can be sown all the year round if it is going to be grown indoors. I sowed curly parsley seeds in an old icecream carton on 2nd March. I watered them leaving the soil just moist and put the carton inside a plastic bag. I made sure the soil stayed moist not waterlogged especially as I hadn't put in any drainage holes.
I wasn't particularly hopeful as parsely is notoriously slow to germinate so it was a lovely surprise to see these seedlings.
In the coming weeks I will be pricking them out and transplanting them into pots of their own.

Here are my darling leek seeds. They look so slight it still amazes me that treated right they will grow into delicious stout leeks. I'll be charting their journey to/ and on the allotment over the coming months.





Beans can be sown indoors now as can tomato seeds. As it has been so cold. I am not in a hurry.
In the next week or so I will prepare the ground for my beans. I will dig a trench a spades depth both sides of my frame and fill it with leaves and any other organic matter that doesn't contain perenial weeds or seeds. The idea is to provide ground that is a water retentive as possible as beans are so thirsty. Then I will erect a structure for the beans. I usually build a tunnel rather than a tipee as then I can harvest from the inside and outside.
I have slowed down somewhat as I've got a nasty cold which was preceeded by a sore throat and a cough producing green stuff. I had a fab day yesterday ignoring my cold. I went to see the Wallace Collection and had lunch with a dear friend in its beautiful conservatory. Only ten minutes walk from Oxford Street it was incredibly peaceful.
Today I'm finding it hard just to rest. It's like since I turned 40 I have been overly aware that time is precious but ignorant of the dangers of pushing my body when it needs to rest. On that note I will curl up on the sofa with a blanket and watch rubbish tv.

sunny afternoon in my garden

I love my garden at the moment. These tulips have come up from the year before last. I like the red against the purple of the perenial wallflower. The wallflower was a present from my friends daughter and it has flowered continuously all seasons since I got it two years ago.








This is my parsley before I pricked out the seedlings and put them two to a 3 inch pot.










These chanomeles (spelling?) otherwise known as flowering quince are lovely can't wait till the climb up against the fence and cover it.






Oooh and this ribes is related to currant family but is just ornamental but flowers smell beautifully fruity and the colour is gorgeous as the bush is covered in these flowers this time of year.






Last but not least the forsythia that has grown on me. When I need a burst of sun I just stand under, look up and soak up the yellow.

This time of year my head is full of all the jobs that need doing. Poems I need to write, seeds to sow and potatoes to plant. My tomatoes germinated and have now got four leaves which means they need rehousing. Need to get some peat first and wash some more pots or I could stick them in toilet rolls. I got a poem accepted by Everday Poets - not up this month but will keep you posted. Very excited as will be my first ever payment for writing - I know it's only a dollar but it means a lot to me.

A new post on a new laptop

Finally I have made the transition to the new laptop and it's been pretty painless. It's so much faster than the old one. OOps spoke too soon - can't seem to add photos. Oh dear will try and describe them. Well in my garden now the forsythia is looking splendid. I can't believe I'm saying that as I don't really like it - I must be going soft. It's filled with yellow flowers which come before the leaves. You actually feel like you are covered in sunshine even on a grey day when you stand under it - it is that gloriously yellow. It warms. More daffodils are budding. I picked some from my allotment and there are at least four varieties there. My favourite has pale petals and a yellow heart deeping out to orange. It has gorgeous scent that greets me everytime I come back in the house. I'll really miss it when they fade. My parsley now has four leaves which means it's time to prick it out. Basically each seedling needs more room so it can grow. I put two seedlings in a cup filled with compost I got for mothers day whose ear got broken off even before I got it home. I put some broken crockery in the bottom of it to provide drainage. Need to pay my rent at allotment tomorrow and will get some more potatoes(Charlotte ones coz we love them). Have let kids stay up as they have made up a brilliant game and it doesn't seem right to stop them. Got a poem accepted by EveryDay Poets will let you know when it comes up. It will be my first ever payment for writing. It's only $1 but that'll be the best money I've ever earnt.
I got the go ahead from physio to start digging. Have to take it easy at first. Weather permitting hopefully can get started soon. Need to sort out when I'm going to write and when dig. Think it's all going to get a bit busy soon.

seed sowing

Yesterday I washed loads of pots and sterilised them in dishwasher ready for some serious seed sowing. Then I sowed some tumbling tomatoes in a modular tray. The try comes with a plastic roof which keeps the seeds warm and helps them germinate. I then filled some 3 inch pots with multipurpose compost and sowed one cucumber seed in each pot. They say to do two seeds in each and after they grow into seedlings pull out the weedier looking one but I find it really hard to do that. So I am just gonna try one in each. I did two types of cucumber - the first one is called Crystal Apple and they are lovely - my friend introduced me to them years ago and I keep growing them. They are weird looking as they are yellow and round. You have to harvest them when they are the size of duck eggs(yeah I didn't know how big that was but evidently they are a bit bigger than hen eggs) and before they turn orange coz they taste horrid then. The Crystal Apple cucumber is so nice that my friend who hates cucumbers loved it - almost like melon it tastes. I also sowed cucumber Pasandra (more like your regular cucumber)as they are never bitter my friend said. Last year I grew Cucumber masterpiece and was not impressed with the taste as bitter - someone said it's coz of the sex of the flowers but unfortunately I can't remember what they said to do to avoid them being bitter so i have just avoided that particular cucumber instead. I labelled the pots - unusual for me to be that organised but i did get a load of labels and pen for my birthday so decided to be good. Parsley seedlings still alive!!!! Hoorah - am managing to keep them moist not drowned. Through the post I got a five pound thompson and morgan seeds voucher - very pleased with that so I ordered some mixed lettuces and green dwarf beans as only seem to have purple ones and some chocolate coloured cornflowers. I seem to have a slight obsession with chocolate flowers. It started with some chocolate cosmos flowers i bought a few years back. They smell like chocolate and are a gorgeous dark dark crimson in sunlight and chocolate colour when it's cloudy. They are so beautiful but are not hardy. I never have the heart to dig them up while they are still flowering so the frost ends up killing them, so I end up buying new ones each year. I should put them in a pot really so that I can easily move them out of the cold.

hellebores, sprouting seeds

Pictures of hellebores in my garden. The second photo is how they really look as they are very shy. Propped one up so you could see what the flowers look like.

I peeped through the polythene bag I had placed over the pot I'd sown my parsley seeds in and I could see GREEN. So I took the bag off and was very happy to see the parsley had sprouted. Parsley seeds are notoriously hard to germinate so was very pleased. Just have to wait till each seedling has four leaves then can prick each one out into its own pot.


My friend gave me some Physalis franchetii (Chinese lantern plants)- the flowers are gorgeous orange lanterns. The leaves are a bit nettle-looking but will excuse them that. I split and moved some arum plants -think i was meant to do that in autumn but they seem ti have survived.

Forgot to thank my friend Tina (see followers) for inspiring me to take the crocus photos last week. She took a brilliant photo of a crocus -you can find it under the post titled blue skies.

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.