More seeds: leeks, sunflowers, early salads

After Saturday’s sunshine, yesterday was a washout. Pity, as we’ve now lost the momentum of weeding and tidying (Matt was going to re-felt the shed yesterday). According to Gardener’s World I should be mulching my autumn raspberries to keep the weeds at bay: another thing to add to the list.

In the meantime, I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon starting more things off: leeks, chillies, winter lettuce, viola, sunflowers, lemon balm, radish, cat-nip, hyssop, parsley and coriander. All are now precariously balanced on windowsills, lodged in place by appropriately sized books – I wonder how long they will last until the cat sends them all flying. (I don’t have much hope for the radish but last year’s, planted directly outside, were terrible. This lot are experimental to see if an indoor start in finer compost makes a difference.)

2015-03-08 17.15.18

Balanced seed tray

Meanwhile last year’s amaryllis is in bloom again. Bulbs are such a miracle: that so much life can be contained in such an unpromising papery shell.

2015-03-09 09.36.37

Amaryllis in bloom

This morning I flipped over a postcard which I saved from the first amazingly warm spring weekend of 2014. I was in Sussex on a yoga retreat, surrounded by singing birds, bobbing daffodils, catkins and primrose. Turned out that it was a year ago today! That weekend marked the true start of the calendar year for me. March, the month of hope and new beginnings.

Planted for windowsills: Sunflowers, viola, winter lettuce mix, cayenne chilli, hyssop, parsley, coriander, radish, cat-nip, leeks, lemon balm.

Leave a Reply