Today I wanted to tackle a job that has been on the to do list for a while – finish the winter sowing. Three months ago I began with mulberries, blackthorn, sweet violets, Malva moschata, dog rose and meadowsweet. As of today, only the Malva has emerged.

There are many plants whose seeds are designed not to germinate until they have been through a cold period, so that they come to life in spring when they have the best chance of survival. There are others that need fluctuating temperatures – overcoming seed dormancy can be quite problematic for some species.

But for most of these seeds a simple period of cold stratification will suffice, and the seed packet may well encourage you to pop them into a plastic bag in the fridge with a bit of damp compost and forget about them for a couple of months.

That has never worked for me, the seeds tend to rot during their time in the fridge, probably due to a lack of air flow in the plastic bag. So now I simply sow the seeds during a cold patch, leave them in the Grow Dome, and let nature takes it course. I have had far more success this way.

So today I have sowed three more batches of seed. When I said I was winter sowing there was some interest on Twitter about what I was sowing, so if you’re interested this is the list:

If it looks like an odd selection that’s because it’s the sum total of my obsessions over the last couple of years, and I wanted to sow them rather than let them languish in my seed box any longer. There’s shrubs with edible fruits, edible flowers and a couple of spices. If they all come up I will struggle to find room for them, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it!

I have also taken the opportunity to cross a couple more jobs off the list. I have potted up the Chayote – all 4 of which are now sprouting, 2 far more enthusiastically than the others. The spines have dried and softened a bit, which made potting them up less hazardous than doing a cactus, but firming the compost down the sides was a bit dicey. They’re going to live in the old (unheated) kitchen for the time being.

And I have planted up two new plants in my perennials bed. So far the only resident has been Dobby the Daubenton kale, but he now has two friends – a bergamot (Monarda didyma) and a lovage (both given to me by Victoriana Nursery Gardens).