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.

cuttings

I took some cuttings from my rosemary bush and penstemon and potted them 7th October 2008. I'd been meaning to do it earlier in the year but hadn't got round to it. Best time to do rosemary is in August but I thought I'd give it a go and thankfully they are doing well. Penstemon seem ok whenever but correct me if I'm wrong.



For the cuttings I prepared some three inch pots filled 1cm. shy of the top with cuttings compost ( I didn't have any so mixed bit of sharp sand with multipurpose compost). Armed with a plastic sandwich bag and secateurs I set out to the the rosemary bush and penstemon plant in my garden. I looked for new growth on the plants -i.e. still flexible and green rather than brown and rigid and from the rosemary took cuttings about 8-10 cms long and from the penstemon 10-12 cms long. Pop them in the bag to keep them fresh.



Then I prepared the rosemary cuttings first using sharp secateurs to trim to under a leaf node(basically cut them to just under a pair of leaves). Then pull off the leaves of the bottom 1cm of the cuttings. You can use them in your dinner if you like. Then stick in five cuttings round the edge of one of the pots. You are meant to use a dibber to make a hole for them but I usually forget and just shove them in. I watered them so moist but not waterlogged. Then I get a label write the plant and date on it - actually managed to do that this time and that's how I could tell you when I took the cuttings. Then I turned the pot into a homemade propagator by getting a plastic bag and putting the pot in it, blowing into bag and tying it up like a balloon. Some of them I just put the bag over the top and the label stopped it flopping and tucked the ends under the pot - they did fine too. Keep them somewhere light and frost free.

It's the same principle for the penstemmon but the cuttings are a bit longer. Again trim to a leaf node but this time strip off bottom 2 cms of leaves and carry on as above.

Cuttings are great as they are cheap and are also the only way of propagating bred cultivars. Plants that have been crossed to get a particular plant may not be grown from the seed of that plant as I think they can end up reverting back to the characteristics of just one of the parents.

When the cutting have grown some new leaves (2 months?) you can take off the plastic bags. Then keep compost moist. I'm not sure when they get to a decent size but will keep you updated on the progress of mine.

Anyway have a good weekend. Enjoy the sun! I'll be back on Monday.