Seedlings

Hardy annuals, what grew well, and a planting plan

I think I lost my mind slightly on maternity leave when it came to seeds. As usual, I didn’t listen to my father when he said I had bought too many seeds, thinking that because I wasn’t working I would have time to grow lots and lots of seedlings. Reader, he was clearly correct but we mustn’t tell him. Ever.

Instead, I tried to grow too much, and the April heatwave firmly killed off lots of the tiny seedlings. That was before my greenhouse blew over. And don’t even mention ranunculus to me- I must have planted 100 corms, and got about 2 flowers. Sigh.

I tried to sow some biennials this summer, and they also frazzled in the heat in the south facing greenhouse. I also didn’t water them enough but let’s blame the heat.

I make myself sound totally incompetent; the reality is I didn’t have any time to care for anything else in addition to my babies and my husband. My sweet peas did really well at the start of the season, but they just couldn’t cope in the heatwaves.

Never one to be defeated, I am going to try again and learn the lessons from my prior failures.

1. Don’t try and grow too much

2. Direct sow what I can, as it’s easier!

3. Sow a small amount and nurture the seeds! They need water, bizarrely.

4. Don’t try and grow anything on the top shelf of the zippy greenhouse, it’s too hot.

Planting plans:

I planted lots of annuals in the borer along the hazel fence this year. I never intended there to be a border there until after we’d installed the fence, and I thought it would be a lovely way to soften the look of the fence, and keep the kids further back of leaning directly on the fence, as well as adding additional growing space. I started these annuals last autumn and planted them out in the spring.

The hazel fence bed in full bloom

Dad and I shared out the excessive volume of seeds, so I benefited from the lavatera seedlings he grew, and the pink statice. I grew the calendula, candtuft and snapdragons. Dad also grew the cosmos Rubenza, which I adore. All the lovely cupcake and double click cosmos I wanted to grow died as tiny seedlings.

I really like Higgeldy seeds and took advantage of the recent sale of hardy annuals. I went for a purple theme this year. I plan to direct sow most of these in the next few weeks, and see what happens over the winter.

I also ordered some lovely seeds from Grace Alexander including some sweet peas ready to sow midwinter. The other seeds are all biennials, and I plan to direct sow some now and also keep some for the spring, and see what happens.

I tried to collect as many seeds as I could from the flowers in my garden- I have little brown seed envelopes full of sweet peas, lavatera, Nigella, snapdragons (although I need more like I need a whole in my head). I will probably direct sow the lavatera and nigella, and I doubt I’ll grow more snapdragons this year, as I have so many already.

Dad is growing to grow more cape daisies and Zinnias, two flowers that did really well for him this year. A Cobaea has grown amazingly well we can’t believe how big it has grown in one season!

I have so many packet of seed I didn’t grow this year, Zinnias, Snapdragons, Cosmos, Aramanthus and some partly used seed packets. I need to plan carefully what I grow and think I will try and plan more in the pots I have now I have planted all the dahlias into the borders. There are some small spaces as this is the first year of the plating and everything is still settling in.

The only other seeds I want to buy are some pansies from Alma Proust, as they look beautiful! Their seed sale starts again today, and I’d really recommend their seeds- the Lavatera and Cosmos came from their shop.

I think I will mainly directly sow as much as I can, and only grow a few things in the greenhouse (Sweet peas and Cosmos mainly).

I also have no idea what to plant in this planter. The Nasturtiums were munched and the Zinnias did not like it in here, but a random Amaranthus has grown and is huge! I did collect all my bulbs from last year, and part of me is tempted to plant those and see what happens. It felt too wasteful to bin them all. Has anyone had any success with replanting bulbs?

I recently went to our local Blue Diamond shopping centre and their National Trust seeds were half price, so I obviously had to buy some! I released from writing this post I have bought two lots of Cerinthe!

I plan on starting to sow today, and hopefully they’ll survive!

Please let me know what you’re planning on growing and sowing.

I am due to go on holiday in the next few weeks, and plan to share my bulb planting plans- I am going to avoid over purchasing bulbs as last year I bought loads and chucked them in!

Until next time.