I slipped up a while back, lured by the temptation that dreams of summer hold on a poor gardener during the last month of winter (i.e. February)…
A newsletter coaxed me – rather too willingly, I fear – to visit a seed-pusher’s website, and before I knew it I had place an order where only one item was actually on my list of things to grow this season.
The above is a randomized mosaic of the seeds I ended up with, ranging in difficulty from “suitable for children” (PERFECT!) to “Experience useful” (i.e. sow at 24C, then keep moist for five weeks, place in plastic bag in the fridge for 2 weeks, do ritual shamanistic dance to encourage germination, transfer seedlings to individual pots, have nervous break-down and end up throwing them from the roof of the apartment building at innocent passers-by).
In other words I don’t count on all of these seeds to actually produce plants… But if at least some of them do – which does seem likely – they will be lovely additions to the garden and would make me forget the failures along the way. (Or so I hope.)
Except for the vegetables (which will – not surprisingly – go into the vegetable beds) and the climbers (ipomoea and Asarina antirrhiniflora which will go into the hedgerow to add some summer blooms and some bulk) I haven’t the faintest idea where the rest will go, but I suspect I might have to do another major “carve-new-flower-bed-out-of-the-lawn” project, probably as part of The Ambitious Border. I know for sure that there will be very little – if any – space for them in the Sunny Border if I want to reserve some space for dahlias.
But here’s to wishing, hoping, dreaming and – perhaps – realising some of these wishes, hopes and dreams.
You grow seeds like I do…a wing and a prayer and then what ever survives gets planted…I bought about 40 different flower seeds this year and 30 vegetable…what was I thinking? Can’t wait to see how yours turns out!
I can’t afford to buy plants, especially not in the quantities I’d like, and even with appalling germination rates this seed order will still give me more plants for my money than if I’d gone to a nursery with the same pitiful amount of cash…
(Also, there’s something very gratifying about being able to say “I grew that from seed”…)
they look lovely including the veggies, I’m no good at growing seeds but have some from magazine giveaways which I intend just scattering as I did last year, some of the giveaways involve complicated instructions I loved your description just how I feel with difficult seeds, I hope your passers by are wearing their steel helmets, good luck, Frances
My husband recently bought me “The Grumpy Gardener's Handbook“, and the author is advocating mandatory difficulty-ratings on seed packets, ending with “DEGT – Don’t even go there”…
Scattering is always a nice way of sowing; let live what will live, but don’t force it. I will also be doing some scattering in the “wilder” areas of the garden where it seems the most appropriate approach.
haha! I think the seed pushers rely on winter’s cold to coax us into trying those seeds – especially the ones that need the dance, nervous breakdown and rooftop!
And of course their strategy works. I’m much less susceptible to news letters like that when spring gets fully going, and during summer it seems pointless to contemplate NEW plants when we’re busy keeping our existing ones in check!
I love the Grumpy Gardener with his humor and your post rings with his witty descriptions, like your Experience Useful description. Very entertaining. What is the plant in the third row, very right. It is very pretty?
Good luck with your seeds and may the seed fairy be with you!
It’s Liatris scariosa Gracious; it claims to be “experience useful”, but the sowing description doesn’t sound TOO horrid compared to some of the others (like the one that actually DID involve sticking the sowing tray in the fridge for a few weeks…).
I am not ashamed to admit that I was definitely influenced by his humoristic language, though I did try to make it my own as much as I could. I think it’s easy to always be so goddamn HAPPY in a garden blog, and we know it’s just not always like that. And seedlings are a recipe for joy and disaster alike.
Starting from seed is not that difficult. Even those with some special requirement will germinate freely if the directions are followed. I suggest the booklet from Thompson & Morgan seed co.. Very useful with precise instructions.
I do like the Shamans dance tho!!!
Good luck, I’m sure they will work out & you will have a sensational garden.
Most of the seeds I’ve bought are the nearly-fool-proof sort, so that will be a breeze, and I also have some seeds gathered from annuals last year that I know will just get on with their thing. There will be plenty of plants no matter what, so I’m not too concerned if some “special needs seeds” might not make it through my hap-hazard sowing.
I need to be banned from any garden centre and plant nursery at the moment. I have massively over estimated the space I have for the amount of seeds I’ve bought. There’s only two of us do we really need 5 types of peas and 6 types of beans!!!
I haven’t bought any peas… I’m gambling on some seeds that I let ripen in their pods and that may or may not produce plants. If it fails, I can always do a later sowing with bought seed!
But yes. Enough is enough, and I also need to be careful not to put myself in a position where I have to dig up 50 square meters of the lawn ASAP just to find room for the plants I’ve bought. (Maybe next year…)