Nicky Adkins

Making, Doing and Mending

Blog for Nicky Adkins, at Nicky Adkins Handmade

Seed sowing time

It seems strange that only a couple of weeks ago the garden was under several inches of snow. Now that the cold spell is over it looks as though spring is properly underway, with bulbs springing up all over the place. Suspect some have been eaten by mice though, as I’m sure I planted more than that! Perhaps it’s a good thing that I’m supporting the local rodent population while the cats reduce it...

Every year I sow seeds, often hundreds of them, and usually end up with hundreds of strangly, weak little plants. Part of the problem is that I feel responsible for every sprout that comes up. I planted them, and they’ve been strong enough to grow, so every one of them must be planted out, coddled, then mourned when their weak stems inevitably succum to slugmageddon. The plan for 2018 is to be ruthless. Instead of large trays which I then pick out and deliver to scores of black plastic plugs, I’ve used biodegradable recycled paper pots and planted 3-4 seeds in each one. Only the strongest will be allowed to survive. Resisting the temptation to plant up the weaker ones instead of letting them die in the compost bin will be difficult, but it must be done.  Hoping that this (ruthless) throwing out (murdering) of the weak will mean a more successful crop of lovely flowers! The gardening budget is reduced this year as I’ll going self employed in May, so there’ll be no last-ditch runs to the garden centre for annuals in late spring. 

 

Update: 

Three days in and I’m already seeing Cosmos and Alysoms coming up.  Let the Hunger Games begin. 

Nicky Adkins