waiting for things to happen

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I could not wait for the Spring to arrive. After months of dull, extremely wet and windy weather I was really looking forward to some sunlight. This is probably why, my impatience to see new plants growing took the best of me and I sowed the first seeds early in February. Some of you probably shake heads now, quite a novice mistake that was… Yes, you know what happened next. Seeds germinated but the seedling grew weak and leggy (anaemic, my mother calls them). It was too cold and way too windy to put them outside and without a cold frame these would be very vulnerable. So indoors they sat and grew even longer. Not enough sunlight, too warm for some. Overall not a great start.

On top of that I think something else was going on with some of the seeds, which failed to germinate at all. Some of the flowers had grown in abundance the previous year, failed to produce a single seedling this time. How disappointing! Not sure if that was the soil used (general planting compost) or if anything happened to the seeds themselves?

I think it was the soil and I’m testing my theory running a little experiment now. I purchased turf discs (see pictures below) and hopefully these will be the no-mess no-fuss method of growing healthy seedlings. The discs go into a tray (or propagator) into which water can be poured later. Each disc has a dip at the centre into which you put few seeds. Then the water is poured onto the tray and slowly the discs start to swell and swell and swell until they look like little turf cylinders in a teabag. It’s quite impressive to see how much bigger those little things get. Then you just have to maintain the moist conditions and wait for the seeds to germinate…. Or at least that’s the theory.

I sowed my seeds last Sunday (6th of April) so it’s too early to see anything yet but I’ll keep an eye on these and will update this blog once things progress. Fingers crossed!

Other than these newly sown ones, there’s a few of the runner beans seedling almost ready to be planted out. I just want to harden them off a bit beforehand so I take them for a daily walk into the garden and back home again for the night (just in case a strong wind or a storm passes over). The plan is to have them grooving over the arch alongside the new climbing roses, which will probably not grow to their full potential this year. But I won’t complain if they do ;)

So that’s it when it comes to what’s happening behind the scenes at present.

Some more seeds to be sown directly outdoors in the next few months in spaces between the other plants, but we’ll get there when we get there. I need to learn to be patient and not to rush Mother Nature ;)

waiting for them to germinate.

and the sweet peas planted outside being protected by upcycled plastic bottles.

To answer some of the questions and comments…
decking would be lovely to have instead of the horrible concrete flor. Previous house occupants had a dog kennel there and for me it’s a terrible waste of a south facing wall! I would be most happy having a large veg patch there (or more flower beds, LOL). Will have to investigate this further, as you said, there’s nothing to lose.

The wooden pallets hanging from the wall are indeed my foldable potting table. Very handy and cheap! Found a similar table on Pinterest once and thought we could also have one here. Not difficult to make either!

PS: Help! How to stop the pictures from turning?

• 8 Apr, 2014
• 5 likes

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