Sowing a birthday card!

That going to be a great surprise for you both when the seeds germinate...They showed these cards on the Chelsea Flower show.

Lovely idea, Balc!!! It'll be a really nice surprise when you start to see developing plants! I can't wait to see what appears, you must show us!!! 😊

That’s a lovely idea David … really hope they germinate for you both!

Thanks all! 👍🏻 As far as I know it was all her idea! As her dad likes gardening (a right chip of the old block!) he may have been watching the Chelsea Flower Show on TV or she may have seen the card went they went to a garden centre, I don't know.

But, like you, I look forowrd to seeing what germinates in a week or so's time! I will certainly keep you updated as well!

What a lovely card to have, I wonder what the seeds are, you'll have to let us know when they flower :)

No worries, Hywel! I'll keep everyone up to date! I had to water the tray again today it had become quite dry & as the seeds have only a light covering of compost, (you should have seen her telling me off because I tried to put more compost over them than she though they should have! 🤣), I hope being dry for 1 day doesn't stop them from germinating or she will be very upset!

That's a novel idea and I shall look forward to seeing your photos of the seedlings ... :o)

The black specks you can see if you make the photo bigger we think are the seeds. We should know in a few days.

9th July. No seeds germinated from the card! 🙁 I sowed some out of date Cosmos seeds over the top of the card after a few weeks which have germinated & become plants that now need to be pricked out & put in their own little pots ASAP!

Now that's a real shame that none of them germinated. At least the Cosmos are growing though.

Just this morning I transplanted the Cosmos seedlings to 1 of the planters the Town Council gardeners put on 3 sides of the cash machine that is very close to where we live.

A couple of months ago I emptied all the used compost from the hanging baskets & the troughs into this planter. I thought the gardeners would plant them up this spring (they were put in place last August!) but they didn't.

On Friday I saw a man pulling out all the weeds that had grown in the little soil the gardeners had left in the 3 planters. I thought he might return & put some plants in them as it seems the TC is not going to do, (even though the Lord Mayor, when he was judging the balcony last August, said would "Be planted up in due course"!), as the man hadn't returned to do that this morning I thought I'd put my Cosmos in it!

I took a photo which I will try & upload.

I hope they grow well ... :o)

They do seem to be growing well, Shirley! as we have had a lot of problems with GoY during the last 3 weeks at last I haven't been able to complete 2 blogs I had started. One of them is about showing off the balcony & the other is about the Cosmos seedlings I put out in one of the planters around the cash machine.

I'll try & finish them this coming week. Though it may be a bit difficult as I will have a lot less time than usual as our son, who lives in Cuenca, Spain, & his family made a surprise visit to us on Saturday! We had no idea they were coming, so this week we will be spending more time with them! 👍

What a lovely surprise for you, enjoy their company.

Our other son invited us all to his place for a BBQ yesterday & the weather was fantastic! We all had a good time & our son is good at cooking & the BBQ turned out great! 👍

Today we had our son from Spain & his family for lunch & they stayed till around 6pm! We enjoyed each others company & the 2 daughters of our sons get on fabulously together! 👍 It makes me so happy to see how they play together & do things together! 👍I'm also happy that our 3 children get on so very well together, too! In fact the 3 of them have gone to the local pub for a long overdue chinwag! 👍

Life is good ... :o)

Balcony I received a card like that a few years ago, nothing seemed to happen which disappointed my grandaughter, I kept that tray in the g'house and obviously must have watered it, lo' and behold its sprouted this year and the plants have grown, not many admittedly but they are special so I transferred them to a trough, think they are native wild plants, after they have flowered I'm hoping to set some seedheads and spread them over Dereks grave,its a green burial site so only allowed native wild flowers, I'm making certain first...

I’m glad you’ve been having some happy family time. So it was you who planted the Cosmos in one of the planters. I hope it does well for in late summer. Your TC needs to get their act together. If they do nothing for Spring, perhaps you could adopt a planter, and put them to shame, when your planter is in full glory & theirs is still empty.

Nothing happened with the card so I sowed some out of date Cosmos seeds on top which germinated AROUND the card but not on top! Perhaps they got too dry.

It was these Cosmos seedlings I planted in one of the planters around the cash machine!

In spite of the cats using it for a toilet the Cosmos seem to be growing very well!

Tomorrow I will take a bottle of water (5lt) & water them again so the heat of this coming week doesn't kill them.

I will do the same with the other 2 planters in which I put some Geraniums & some fuchsias.

FF: I've already adopted all three of them!

Now I've published the blog on "Guerrilla Gardening" I'll see if I can finish the other blog I started about the balcony!