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September update
Well the end of September is coming crashing in – on a personal level September has been an odd month – yes another odd month, it seems to be a recurring theme this year, hopefully it will be the last odd month and Oct /Nov /Dec will be lovely relaxing and a fun run up to Christmas and then the new year. To be honest I hate the fact people are talking about Christmas already and the shops are getting items in – but it is what it is. I haven’t done as much seed sowing as I wished – but I have started off some Sweet Peas – I…
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Autumn Jump Starter ’22
I have catalogued my seeds that I already have – I have invested in the new jump starter Zoe Woodward Gardening and I am now going to make the decision on what to sow this autumn, how many and aim to keep them alive until such time as to plant them out next spring. I need to think and plan how many seeds to sow and think about where I am going plant them up. Ammi Majus Cerinthe CornFlowers Nigella Orlaya Snapdragons Sweet Peas Sweet Rocket – sow early in September – in the greenhouse – no lid – until Jan / Feb time then – 22 cm apart (flowering…
- About, Allotment, Annuals, Biennials, Bulbs, Corms, Flowers, life, Me, Month, Perennials, Planting, Seeds
September 2022
As Summer comes to an end and Autumn looms and September usually brings the feeling of new beginnings for me I am beginning to take stock of the year so far and look ahead at what I would like to achieve for next year. I didn’t really join in the Autumn seed sowing in 2021 – I just had way to much over whelm and I had just started a new job (turned out to be 2 new jobs as the 1st didn’t work out!). I didn’t stress I just decided that I didn’t need the pressure and that I would sow seeds in the spring time.
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July Sowing 1
Today I sowed my first Biennials for this year… Foxgloves, Echinacea, Verbascum Phoeniceum. I just sowed them up in a mix of compost and coir compost and in plastic fruit trays that I keep, the trays already have drainage holes in the bottom and I fill with the compost mix and water from underneath. I have put these 3 containers into the greenhouse and I will cover with a mesh to allow sunlight through but to stop the birds from eating seeds and then seedlings. Where I live at the moment we have a HUGE amount of wild birds and while this is absolutely fantastic and an honour that they…
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Mid June
My plants, garden and allotment are in a weird place – not at all where I wanted them to be… I seem very behind on the blooming of flowers and I am beginning to doubt if they will flower at all TBH. Well not a lot I can do about it now – but I need to make a note to be more prepared 2023. I am tending to only sow seeds of plants that I love – for me at the moment they are too tricky to grow if I don’t really like the flower or plant I just don’t enjoy it. I am sowing my biennial seeds this…
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Ideas For Planting Biennials 22
Pencilled in to my seed planting diary June 21st Summer Solstice – Biennials are sown usually end of June-ish and should flower the following year. I am going to try sowing these in the soil blockers and Lupins I just love Lupins and I have too many seeds already really but I am going to order more – what is they say to plant a seed is to believe in tomorrow… So I have PinkFairy Sunrise (these are annual so I will not sow these now but spring to flower in the summer) I am going to order and sow in June The Governor (Navy Blue) Mixture of all the…
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Geums
Yet another flower I adore! This year (2022) is the first year I have grown them from seed and I am very impressed I have sown Lady Stratheden seeds from here. Also sown Blazing Sunset seeds from Chiltern Seeds . Many of the other variety seem particularly difficult to find seeds for – I have now found out that this is because some can only be propagated so I will need to invest in a few plants, or get some more plugs when they come back in stock – keep them healthy and then propagate like a crazy lady so I have plenty and also back ups for frost and…
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Mid May Thoughts
I am playing catch up BIG TIME – I didn’t autumn sow this year/last year… 2021 because my Autumn sow 2020 left me feeling huge over whelm both while sowing and then in the spring when supposed to be ‘bumping up‘ most of the negative feelings came from the house move we had to do – it wasn’t my choice and really wasn’t a happy experience. So Autumn 2021 the decision was made not to autumn sow – I purchased seeds and basically got myself somewhat ready for an Amazing spring sow – with the idea of succession sowing – limited seeds / flowers not in numbers as in plant…
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Planting Equipment
There are so many shopping lists and so much equipment you can buy out there for planting seeds – below I will share with you what I have trialled and where I got most of it from and share some links to helpful advise you may like to look at too. So if you haven’t already read here in previous posts I started my seed sowing journey in earnest in the Summer of 2020 -yes like so many millions of others… a direct connection with Covid-19 (or Rona coming to stay as I say! – good ol Aunty Rona HA HA) Lockdown hit and we were house bound – I…
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Soil Blockers
In 2020 when I first started planting seeds in earnest I used the below seed trays and last year (2021) when I ramped up and started planting seeds like a mad crazy woman – packets and packets at a time – I decided that the small trays… were just not really working for me for various reasons… I will do a more in-depth round up of equipment I have trialled for you. Above seed trays are about £4 for 5 trays from most garden centres and stores… You can get other brands at varying prices. So I began to look into alternative methods and solutions – I decided on 2…