A View with a Room August 7, 2009

Finally remembered to take the camera out with me to get a few pictures of the window boxes from street level. As you can see (hopefully) they’re too overflowing to turn around from inside any more so they’ll stay like this until the frosts come back and it’s time for the winter clothes to return. After spending the first few months thinking months ahead now I’m trying to do the opposite and just live in the moment – dismissing all thought of colder, shorter days.

The pictures below show just how much the nasturtiums have taken over. They were all planted directly into the boxes from seed after my idea of transplanting from seedlings proved to be a failure. Seeing how quickly they’ve grown now however I know that next year I don’t need to worry about getting them off to an early start.

Grow Your Own July 1, 2009

Those of you who have followed this blog or have somehow stumbled upon it and read a few postings will know that I tried to grow the majority of my own plants from seed for the first time. To say it was a steep learning curve would be fair but as it’s hardly a question of life and death (well, except to the plants of course!) so if there were as many failures as successes then it was no big problem.

Anyway some things were easier to grow than others so I thought I’d put together a little list of how I did.

Planting … Joel May 26, 2009

I think it would be fair to say that the marigolds were both planted too shallow and more than ready to be planted elsewhere.

This picture of the extensive root system was repeated in all eight of the marigolds that were grown from seed. It’s quite satisfying to see just how much they’ve developed and they must like the conditions they were grown in. Some others like the nemesia and convolvulus haven’t fared so well while the verbena and brachycome have grown quite slowly and are still weak even though they’ve had lots of light and heat.

Planting … Chris May 23, 2009

I really do feel a bit bad for Chris. Out there on his own ledge, doing his own thing, travelling the path less travelled. And in this case, getting a random mix of everything that wasn’t getting used somewhere else.

The phrase ‘runt of the litter’ might be a bit harsh but the reality is that this is where all the strong, well-developed plants ran out. No geraniums, marigolds or shop-bought plants here. Instead it was a rather sad mix of verbena, asters, sweet pea and brachycome – none of which looked truly ready to flourish outdoors.

Unfortunately for them, and for Chris, this has become my experimental box. The remaining seedlings were basically split 50/50 between being planted outside and remaining indoors on the sunny ledge. We’ll see how they compare in a couple of weeks.

Decisions Decisions May 4, 2009

After being so sure that this was the time to plant out the window boxes for summer I’ve been overcome with indecisiveness. The geraniums and marigold seem strong enough to have a fighting chance but everything else looks a bit weedy and straggly. A visit to the garden centre didn’t reassure me, in fact it only made things worse.

I know I’ve said before that I’m aware that garden centre plants seem to be generally forced or at least grown in near perfect conditions and therefore are far ahead of home-grown specimens at this time of year. That may well be true but it’s hard not to compare my weak and straggly verbena with the strong, lush and healthy examples on the shelves.

The geraniums match up reasonably well but the brachycome, sweet pea and impatiens are all unworthy of comparison. The plants on the shelves seem tighter and bushier than my home grown ones as well. In some instances they look like completely different varieties although sadly I know they aren’t.

Idle Hands April 28, 2009

Well they do say that the devil makes work for idle hands and while I’m not sure this is what the saying intended I’ve certainly been busy. After ducking out of a full scale planting of the window boxes due to the incoming bad weather I decided to attack the last set of seedlings in the propagator.

The sweet pea experiment prove that the non-chipped seeds germinated while the chipped ones didn’t. It was 3-0 in the shootout which alternatively means that none of the five chipped seeds germinated and two of the untouched seeds didn’t either. A bit of an odd result but I might have been too harsh with the chipping.

Weekend Non-work April 27, 2009

So when it came down to it I chickened out of planting everything this weekend. Instead the boxes that will get completely re-done have been left to do their own thing – which is mainly to do nothing with the supposedly dwarf tulips, which ended up growing to about 12 inches, still looking lush and healthy. The won’t even die back despite my neglect. The others got a quick tidy up which consisted of deadheading the pansies.

After looking at the weather forecast it looked like it’s going to be a colder and wetter week and I just didn’t think that was a good way to start the still-tender seedlings off. As much as I think the garden centre plants have been pushed along, and are therefore a couple of weeks further on than my seedlings, the brachycome, verbena and sweet pea still look very weak. I just didn’t have the confidence that planting them today would give them the best chance of survival.

Between Seasons April 15, 2009

Anemone Blanda

I seem to have found myself between seasons at the moment. The tulips and crocuses were a welcome blast of spring colour after the dark nights of winter but all too soon they have fizzled out. The pansies and anemone are doing their best to keep things colourful and there’s plenty of foliage to make it colourful.

The seedlings from the indoor nursery are coming along nicely but it’s still a bit early to plant them out. Instead they’re getting a bit of hardening up by sitting on a sunny (sometimes) and bright window ledge in front of a slightly open window.  The hope is that a storm doesn’t blow in while I’m away and ruin all that, well… all that waiting really. Sow, water, wait and worry – there really isn’t much more to seeds than that, is there?

Seed Sowing April 13, 2009

Seeded Seed Pots

I get the feeling that I take an overly scientific approach to gardening and it’s this that is the source of both my success and failures.

Seed sowing is a good example. Generally I carefully read the packet to find the time of year to sow them and the conditions they prefer – mostly to see if they need to be covered by a little sifted soil or just pressed gently to make contact. Then if there’s anything left unsaid I might scout around on the internet to see if I can get the missing info. This results in a range of advice, often conflicting, so I need to make a few decisions.

Once I have a set of conditions there’s a near-religious observance. Each seed will be sowed in exactly the same manner and after-care will be carried out in strict accordance with the instructions (unless of course I leave the seeds in a heated propagator in front of a very sunny window!) Basically my modus operandi is that of a white-coated lab assistant – preparing the seed trials for future rating.

Seed Stroke April 8, 2009

So I have to confess to my first rookie mistake in the seed factory. At some point in the mid-afternoon last week, as the sun blazed through the window, I remembered that I’d left the heated propagator switched on, sitting inside on the window ledge, at the sunny side of the house with the cover full on and the vents closed. In fairness I did feel bad at that moment and rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. Some hours later when I lifted the lid I will also admit to a slight stifled laugh at the carnage this simple mistake had caused. Well if we can’t blame anyone else (really – sunny spring days in northern Britain – who thought THAT would be the problem?!) we might as well laugh at ourselves.

Unfortunately the fail-count is 8 1/2 Sweet Pea, 9 Nemesia, 5 Lobelia (which were proving just as rubbish as the last lot), 5 Aster (also proving impossible to grow – radiation treatment or not) and 9 Impatiens.

Until this major misjudgement I’d been pretty good with the propagators – moving them into the light and turning the electric one off in the morning, then moving them back from the chill window and applying the heat again in the evening. It just reminds me what a delicate bsuinesses this whole seedling thing is and gives me a kick up the backside to pay attention in future. The ambient temperature is probably good enough to do without the heated prop now although I’m always aware of how suddenly temps can drop again so after a bit of repotting (while I’m typing this) and reseeding I’ll start them off again and keep the fingers crossed that nature forgives me this one goof.