Who’s getting excited about planting seeds…? ME! If you’ve started already then that’s cool; I just don’t have the space to store my seedlings without taking out all the space in my flat and probably should be considerate towards the others living here aka my husband and son.
The new year is so full of promise – especially when the seed catalogues plop onto your doormat on the gloomiest day when you need them most. It starts with one catalogue and will escalate to a lot more as the years go by.
I feel like a kid at Christmas with the Argos catalogue and my marker pen. Highlighting all those I love, have wanted, are new or fun and those other ones you definitely don’t need but you’re doing an order anyway. Plus the postage becomes free when you spend an inappropriate amount for the size you have to plan for.
So! What’s on the list for me so far? I have some cool looking field beans to try called ‘Wizard’ from Real Seeds. You sow them direct from early spring (but I have problems with wildlife who steal all my beans and peas and bulbs), but I will start them in modules. These are popular beans in the Middle East and apparently good even when picked late so I can’t wait to give these a try.
I’ve got various Zinnia’s to try and also a few different sunflowers. I don’t know what it is about sunflowers but the past couple of years, I have found them so amazingly awesome that I want them everywhere! I have ‘Mammoth’ Zinnia’s from Higgledy Garden and also have some ‘Jade Green’ Sunflowers to try from Suttons. I hope the germination on the sunflowers is better than the Ms Mars ones I’ve tried and failed for years. I just can’t get pink flowers to germinate so they’re not meant to be.
I’ve also wanted to try and grow Mimosa Pudica (Sensitive Plant) for a little while too so I bought some seeds from Franchi Seeds of Italy.
I am trying both green and red Amaranthus this year too. No idea where they will go but I am looking forward to eating them somehow.
I could go into every single detail about every seed that I am planting this year but it would only bore you all. These are just some that I will be starting early off in the year as I plan for at least some of them to succeed.
Does anyone else get that sense of dread when they’ve not planted a certain type of seed before? I am fine with tomatoes and chillies but when I start going into the flower territory then I start to panic. I’m going to give it a go regardless and hopefully my greenhouse will be ready in time to store the seedlings at least as there was a plastic greenhouse massacre last year with the wind. I don’t want to risk that again SOOOO that leaves me one choice to build a greenhouse. I don’t know how I have managed 5 years without one…?!
I’d love to hear what you’re excited about planting this year. Inspiration from others always gets my brain buzzing!
