In an effort to give the garden a chance to come into its own this summer, without having to rely on buying in too many annuals, I am starting off some flowers from seed earlier this year. I also like to complement the flowers with the challenge of growing herbs and veg from seed too. I’m learning lessons along the way – but here is an update on my first seedlings of the year:
Herbs
The first action I took in January was to sow sage, rosemary and oregano for the windowsill – last years oregano and parsley has just finished. So it’s a good investment to start them off now and have plentiful fresh herbs to enjoy throughout the year. Supermarket pots of herbs are disastrous – they are overfilled seedlings in tiny pots which the only way to make them last longer than a week or is to separate them out into 5 or 6 pots and give them extra soil and space. Once I realised how rewarding it was to grow my own herbs I promised never to buy supermarket herbs again…(I’ve relinquished on this on occasion when a whole batch of coriander was needed for a recipe, but as a rule..) I will start off basil, coriander, parsley and thyme in the coming few weeks. But space is a premium in the propagation station (aka kitchen windowsill) this all needs a careful rotation plan.
Flowers
The first seed (and my favourite) flowers to get sowing in the 3rd week in January were the heady scented Lathyrus odoratus (sweet peas!). This year I’m trialling a couple of varieties; ‘singing the blues’ ‘skylark’ and ‘cupani’ which is one of the oldest heritage varieties found in the wild Italian hedgerows apparently. All will liven up the fence space and walls from May onwards. But I also plan to sow perennial ‘everlasting’ varieties later in the year which should flower next year.
The first week in February I started with some more traditional sowings of summer annuals that are new to me. Sweet Williams should work well as gap fillers in baskets and borders, (to add to my self seeding ones springing up over the winter), likewise the fluffy flowers of ageratum will work well for cutting in borders and I’m trying out Aster duchess for late season colour and height. To add some structure I’m adding some verbena bonariensis for added purple colour and spiky height which should be hardy enough to stay through to autumn. Im also trying out some heliotrope dwarf marine, which is a half hardy perennial and given its nickname as ‘cherry pie’ it’s a scented attractor for bees. Most have set off quite well the ageratum seems to be struggling in the propagators so I’ve given its tray the special treatment (a sealed sandwich bag!)
Veg
The broad beans went in pairs into each pot without a cover and all 8 sprouted within a week. In my experience (from last year!) they are the easy wins of the veg plot. I’ve started off a couple of pots of heirloom tomatoes ‘tigerella’ and ‘red pear’ – less is more this year and will concentrate my efforts on quality tomatoes rather than an over abundance! I’ve also started aubergines from seed. It’s a new one for me so I’m looking forward to see how challenging and fruitful they are in containers. In the next few weeks I will start to plan out the veg beds in detail – looking at best places for carrots and parsnips, runner beans and sweetcorn.
Until the weather improves I am only admiring the garden from afar but the daffodils are cheering everything up. It seems like the 2016 season starting off rather well. Long may it continue.