The unusually cold weather at the moment (particularly at night) is slowing down gardening progress. I have trays of tender seedlings that can’t go outside, which is causing a backlog. I am awaiting herb and vegetable seedlings (mostly salads) from Rocket Gardens, who I am trying for the first time this year, but they have been delayed by at least a couple more weeks.
In an attempt to make some progress, yesterday I potted up my caper seedlings which I sowed from seed last year. I have three varieties from a seed swap with Michelle at From Seed To Table. As the capers we eat are pickled flower buds, these plants are one of the new things I’m trying for my Edible Flowers project this year.
I have also potted on some nasturtium seedlings. I have three kinds – tall, dwarf and trailing/ climbing.
Doing that freed up three plug plant trainers, so I could sow some more seeds. Yesterday I sowed cornflowers, opium poppies and lemon marigolds. I also made the first comfrey cut of the season, and packed the leaves into my old bokashi buckets to rot down for comfrey liquid feed later in the season.
Today I have sowed the other two sets of modules. In the first are Abutilon x Suntense, Honesty and Marshmallow.
In the second are seeds that may not germinate until they’ve experiences fluctuating temperatures – which they may get in the next couple of weeks, or they may not! If they don’t then they can stay in those modules until the winter. Those are rosa rugosa (alba and rubra), malva moschata, viola odorata and daylilies.
I have also sown a tray of clover, to see how it grows – the clover is actually for my Herbal Tea project – an idea I got from Subsistence Pattern. And a tray each of calendula and dwarf french marigolds, thickly sown to use up seeds well past their use-by-date (I have home-saved supplies that are fresher).
And it was time to brew up the chamomile tea as some of the seed trays and pots were getting a bit mouldy. A weak solution stops fungus in its tracks and makes for a healthier growing environment for seedlings.