The cut annual flower plot through the months

Orange zinnias and double click rose bonbons

As its now November and a deluge of water has pretty much finished off any remaining annuals in my front vegetable and cut flower garden hybrid, now seems like a good time to take a look back over the bed through the summer months. It has been a continuing thing of beauty, but each month it has looked different. First were the cornflowers, then the gladiolus, the cosmos, the beans and then the zinnias.

I started putting my annual plants in the bed in about June, although the gladiolus started to go in before that. I grow nothing in terms of annuals from scratch in situ. I just do not have the soil. My soil would make even the most robust, eager little annual seed give up with the heavy heavy clay. Although the front bed actually isn't too bad from years of bush roots tunnelling through.

Flowering kicked off in July with my cornflowers. Beautiful dark claret tufts waving around in the wind. Also bursting into action prolifically were my four varieties of beans in white, pale lilac and orange and these provided a lot of the colour at this time. A few cosmos had struggled out and my first zinnia.

Early August

At the beginning of August the antirhinnums were livening up the bed with their small mounds of bright colour. The first gladiolus made an appearance at this point too, a lovely pale coral one and unsurprisingly the first variety I planted. The bed was still to really get going, especially as the beans had moved into vegetable production by this point, but things were starting to look up.

Mid August

By mid August I had two different colours of gladiolus in bloom - the original coral one and fresh green star. The gladiolus definitely looked best when there was an assortment of colours out at once. My yellow zinnia was also brightening up one side of the beans.

After a wet few days

This was a bad day in the annual bed. We had the most torrential downpour of rain over several days and my upright straight as a dime gladiolus all flopped over and a bit of remedial staking was required.
By the end of August the gladiolus end of the bed was really starting to look pretty. There were the glads, cosmos, zinnias and cornflowers all vying for attention. I put the plants that had reached maturity earliest down that end as I was waiting for the beans to go in before planting up the other end.

Early September

Two of my favourite coloured plants appeared at the start of September and they complimented each other perfectly it turned out. The dark red glad was a winner with the neighbours and I just loved the zingy orange zinnias. They were a star of the bed right from this point onwards in my opinion.

Other than the orange zinnias the glads were the focal point of the bed. All the different colours started coming up together and totally ignoring my planting scheme, it was a riot of summer colour and this was the point people started stopping in the street. As long as they are not clutching a big pair of scissors thats fine with me!

This purple tobacco plant turned to be a pillar of the bed, complimenting the glads and the zinnias, but I actually didn't plant it. I don't know how it got in there, but once it started flowering, despite taking up half the bed I didn't have the heart to remove it.

A stray tobacco plant

It wasn't until early October that the double click bonbon cosmos plants down the other end of the bed really reached perfection and there was a seamless line of colour from one end to the other. Although it looks great with multiples of the same plant dotted around, there clearly is room for more varieties as I have planned next year.

I thought the bed looked really odd after the height of the beans was removed at the beginning of October. I liked all the colour against the backdrop of green. The early showers started to die at this point and I turned my attention to seed collection, which doesn't exactly improve the look, but oh well.

At the end of October the colour had begun to die off quite dramatically, but some heleniums and the antirhinnums were still flowering strong and keeping things interesting until last week when I imagine the colder nights finished most things off.

End of October

Now I am just left with a lot of dead plants to pull out to leave my vegetables. I have been gradually replacing the dying annuals with vegetable and salad plants so there shown be continuing greenery out the front through the winter and the soil wont go to waste.

Im really thrilled with how my annual bed turned out this year, especially as I hadn't planned it. Where I thought I was going to find the space to plant all my seedlings without digging up the front bushes I really don't know, but in the end they had their own dedicated area and it worked really well. Next year I hope to get a wider variety of colours and plants in and really make it something spectacular.

zinnias - queen red lime, red spider, purple prince

Such a beautiful flower the zinnia, such dense complex blooms but with
surprisingly dry petals, or at least this one has

If there is one annual that is guaranteed to liven up a bunch of flowers then it is the zinnia in my opinion.  Yes they are a little princessy as seedlings desiring as little manhandling of the roots as possible, but once they are past that stage they truly are worth their weight in gold.  For that reason they have been a staple in my annual border this year and brighten up the garden every day.

Last year I grew two varieties, double envy and a whirlygig one. Green envy was a great variety with lovely green petals in that shade I always think seems unnateral in a plant although clearly green is the most natural colour for a plant to be! Whirlygig were less successful but I think this is more to do with where I planted them out the back where they get less sun as the year draws on.

Zinnias have such interesting centres when they first flower but as they get older like the one on the left the centre vanishes, bizarre

This year I have really expanded my collection, growing several quite different varieties encompassing sinlges, doubles, bright, pale, big and teeny tiny flowered ones. Each one is worthy of praise in its own right.  And one of the joys of zinnias are they are rampant maters. Keeping them pure to a variety when grown in the garden in nigh on impossible so while you can't grow the same variety again from seed you collect yourself, the possibility of getting wierd and wonderful concoctions from the babies opens up and im down for that.

They were lovely blooms, but I only got the two purple princes unfortunately! 

It has not all been a bed of roses though.  One variety was particularly disappointing purple prince has huge dark pinky purple single blooms, really big and imposing.  Only I only got two flowers, one of each of my two plants before both keeled over onto the path after some heavy rain and literally uprooted themselves.  To say I was disappointed is putting it lightly.  If I could have stuck them back in I would have done but the damage was too great.  So while I thoroughly enjoyed those two flowers, I did not get any more.  Next year I will make a note to stake this one!

I just love these bright zingy orange blooms, they really brighten up the flower border. The centres rise up as these age

The brightest zinnia I have grown this year is also probably my favourite.  I have decided it must be a sprite zinnia because I only sowed a few varieties and I don't remember any of them being particularly orange, except in the sprite mix.  Orange is putting it lightly.  These are sock-it-to-you orange, and I always appreciate anything that really goes for something.  These have been great in vases in the windowsill but I can't really bare to cut them because they look so great in the garden.  One particular featre of these is the central cone really protrudes out from the flower as the bloom ages, making it quite dynamic and rather similar to echinacea.

These queen red lime zinnias vary slightly from the other plant I have of this variety, these
have a whole section of lime petals, but are equally big and round

These really highlights how zinnia flowers never remain static, they start one shape and colour and continually evolve 

My only double zinnia is this badboy, queen red lime.  Look at that for a flower.  I don't understand how flowers can possibly construct themselves so intrically in a bud, but clearly they can.  These start out flecked with a lime green colour and turn a lovely dusky rose colour with age. These big pink balls last literally for ages.  Only one came out to begin with and even the mother commented on how long I held out for before finally withering.

I didn't know I had planted any yellow ones, but up it popped! Such a nice shade, this shows the true pastel quality

Again I think this pale pastel yellow one must be from the sprite mix because I didn't plant any yellow ones and I only have the one.  It contrasts beautifully with the lilac cosmos sat next to it, a real pastel combination. Im very fond of a yellow flowers, and while I love a good honking yellow I can also appreciate the subtleties of life so this one has very much been appreciated.

This photo makes it look more saturated than it actually is.

And finally to my last and teeny tiniest, red spider.  I bought these at Kew in London from a stand of seeds from around the world.  They looked exciting with their thin blood red petals, and they are.  They are just absolutely miniature. I do think some measure of scale should be included on seed packets because I was rummanging about one day, came across this didy flower and actually exclaimed "thats it!?" In my mind it was going to be so much bigger.  But no matter.

One of my teeny tiny, itsy-bitsy, diddy red spider flower. Yes its a zinnia, just
an absolute miniature one!

What I have been attempting to do all summer with limited success is collect the seeds from my zinnias this year so that next year a whole world of mixtures is openend up.  I just can't get the blooms to dry and make seed without wilting into a black rotting mess on top of the stalk.  Its been quite a challenge but I am perserveering.

Buying cucumber seedlings - Pipinex and Delta Star

The cucumber trough, im expecting big things from these girls this year, except that one on the right, already a disappointment

Considering I have seven cucumbers grown from seed this year already, you may have thought I would not need to buy anymore.  Need rarely comes into my purchasing decisions, especially when it comes to plants.  I enjoy having as many different varieties as possible, and a girl can only grow so many. So when I was at the garden centre buying my tomato plants a few weeks ago I also threw in a couple of sneaky cucumbers.

I have bemoaned numerous times that I find growing cucumbers intensely annoying.  Satisfying, but annoying.  A cucumber plant is as likely to keel over and wilt as it is give you cucumbers, and I was not successful at growing them from seed either last year. Having learnt my lesson with warm rooms, I have discovered the real culprits in being cucumber pains are shop bought ones.  They look great in the shop, but get them home and they turn on you.

I would like to say that the reason I only picked up three varieties is because I knew I had so many already at home, but I would be lying.  The real reason is thats all the selection there was.  If there had  been more, id have bought it.

A beautiful pair of Delta Star cucumbers from last year

I picked up a Delta Star cucumber because I grew it last year and the cucumbers it produces are just so attractive. Tasty too, but predominently good looking. Although this is meant to be an indoor cucumber exclusively for those with a greenhouse, mine sat on the patio last year and was very productive.  Being somebody who likes value for money I actually got two plants for the price of one as I managed to find a pot that had two plants growing in it.  Made me very happy.

The second variety I bought was Pipinex. This is a new one to me, but the picture looked nice, and I thought what the hell, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Lastly I bought a super cute mini cucumber.  Like a gherkin size-wise, but still a cucumber.  I was so looking forward to having whole mini snack-box cucinos to take to work.  But alas, it was not to be.  I think the cucino lasted all of five minutes before something came along and razed it to the ground.  Sheered, clean off, right at the soil level.  I didn't think slugs were interested in cucumbers, but something of that nature ate this.

One unhappy cucumber

So left with just the three I set about planting, as one usually does.  And this is where it all started going wrong.  The two delta stars I decided to keep together rather than try and split apart, and they are fine.  But the pipinex? A different story! I gave that cucumber one of my prime spots, at one end of my large trough that I bought last year specifically for the growing of cucumbers, snuggled in with three home grown ones.  But rather then stretch its rooty toes into my manure-rich soil and grow big and strong, the damn thing wilted. Initially I thought it must have a virus or a bug, but after pulling off most of the wilted leaves I spotted that the stem had started to go orange at the soil level and had either rotten or been eaten through. It might have been something I did, who knows. Death was slow but steady, I tried to be supportive with a little cane but it was in vain.

rot, or nibble

So having freed up the end space in the bed I stopped off at the garden centre for a replacement and picked up a Fernspot.  After all, cucumbers don't come back from the dead do they?  They do however have little friends.  On returning home with my new plant I discovered to my horror two baby seedlings in place of my original plant. Obviously this isn't really something to show horror at, but it threw my replacement plans out the window.  Basically cucumber seeds did what cucumber seeds always do which is don't grow in your special seed prepared soil, but burst into life months later in some random location.  Which is great because now means that not only am I not without a pipinex, but now have two.  But also means I have a cucumber and nowhere to plant it.  The trials and tribulations of cucumber growing continue.

Two babies surrounding the withered body of their predecessor.  These better not let me down now

Tomato plants Ildi and supersweet 100

Clearly these are not from this, otherwise my tomato plants would be seriously overachieving, but this is what I am hoping to emulate again 

It may sound surprising considering the wealth of beautifully flowering plants there are in the world, but tomatoes are one of my favourite plants.  They completely take me back to my childhood when my granddad had a whole greenhouse exclusively for the growing of tomatoes.  Oh those were the days.  He even had a deckchair in there to read the paper in the glorious warmth.

My tomatoes are not so lucky, instead slumming it on the patio, which to be fair, is pretty sheltered and toasty and we do alright by them.  Can't say we were inundated last year but then I had to put them in a shady corner for a good month of the year because of the roof requiring work which no doubt had an impact on production.

Buying my tomato plants is one of the big moments of my gardening year.  I love it.  I always seem to go back to the same place to get my plants, part of the tradition I guess, but this year a few extra cheeky plants have snuck in to the mix from other sources.

The mother plays a lot of badminton, and at one of these sporting gatherings that she goes to one of the men turned up with a whole host of tomato plants.  The mother knows I am not overly fond of yellow tomatoes, it just seems wrong, tomatoes should be red.  This man seemed to have an exclusively yellow  ones, as you do.  However the mother shares my 'what the hell' attitude as they were only cheap and bought two to spice up our tomato lives.

I can't wait to have a constant steady supply of these all summer

And of course once she had broken that tomato plant seal she couldn't help but pick up another she spied outside a local greengrocers the same week.  I have had all three plants for just over a month now, quite early in my eyes, but I have potted them up and they are romping away.

The last tomatoes to come from an unexpected source appeared via the father.  Evidently word has got round that I am in the market for tomatoes as everybody is bringing them home!  A lady turned up at his work with teeny tiny tomato seedlings which she was hoping people would have as she had too many.  How it is possible to have too many I don't know.  So we took a couple of pots off her hands.  They were far far too tiny to go outside so these are currently residing in the garage.  A couple have died as seedlings tend to do, but I should get a few out of it.  Only problem is I don't know the variety again.  Oh tomato surprises.

My first three plants all potted up and raring to go! Two Ildi and one Supersweet 100

And finally to the ones I have grown myself.  i have never attempted to grow tomatoes from seed.  The great man that was my grandfather always bought plants and I figure he knew best.  From the results of my first attempt I now have evidence to prove that he did.  I won a packet of losetto tomato seed from the UK gardening programme Gardener's World which was giving them away so that viewers could join the presenter Monty in 'growing together' tomatoes apparently resistant to blight.  They were also apparently resistant to growing because not one seed germinated. I always think that if not even one seed was willing than you have dodgy seed.  I haven't entirely given up on them, but I think `i probably should.

So there we have it, three plants and potentially more to come and I haven't even started on my garden centre purchases, and there are an awful lot of them!  But I will leave that for another time.

Cucumbers - seedling progress report

Its a veritable cucumber seedling fest out there in the garage these days!

I have faced numerous struggles in my life, passing my driving test, choosing my career, getting enough sleep, but mainly growing cucumbers.  I know it should not be as hard as I make it seem, but to me the cucumber plant is a tetchy beast.  I have had problems with starting them off too hot and just having them wilt, little splints desperately trying to keep them upright.  I have had problems with seeds not germinating, and then randomly popping up amongst the annuals in the front border where I threw the soil.  Nobody wants cucumbers amongst the annuals.

My seedlings are now at the stage of developing proper leaves and generally
putting on a bit too much height for my liking

But that was all last year, this year things have vastly improved.  I have sown eleven cucumber seeds and I am thrilled to say I have seven proper seedlings.  Things didn't start so well, my first batch of five produced very mixed results.  One New Telegraph cucumber popped up virtually immediately on the kitchen windowsill, and ever aware of wilting, was promptly moved to the less balmy environment of the garage.  Socrates and Louisa also made an appearance within a week, and joined the seedling party in the garage.  The shock of this move proved too much for Louisa, which stopped dead in its tracks and refused to grow anymore, dying about six weeks later.  Socrates did not take this departure well and despite appearing to be loving life, it also randomly curled up and died a few days later.  The final two seeds have not germinated and remain in situ on the windowsill.  I would throw them away but I have been burned this way before.

Good strong cucumber plant that, just hope they don't all wilt when I get
them outside!

The second batch has been far more successful, producing a full house of seedlings.  These I germinated on my bedroom windowsill, although I doubt thats the reason behind the improved results.  I sowed two Louisa to make up for my loss (this was before Socrates also kicked the bucket) to give me two of each.  Im not sure where I got this theory from because I now have two Telegraph and Louisa seedlings, and one of each of the others.

Things are going well, each has produced their first proper leaf, although the next hurdle is moving them outside.  Things are beginning to get a bit leggy and I would have put them out safe in the knowledge there won't be anymore frosts being May, but there was a frost this week so maybe not.  So thats the next challenge, moving the whole operation outside and getting it all potted up.

This is the only cucumber which is potentially being a problem.  The seed leaves got very brittle and haven't grown anymore, one has even snapped in two, but its still producing proper leaves, its just very diddy!

Although seven cucumber plants will probably more than adequately meet the whole family's cucumber needs, and that of the whole street I would imagine, I plan on purchasing at least one ready grown plant.  Last year I grew Delta Star, which although isn't technically an outdoor cucumber, produced the loveliest shaped fruits and I am keen to have him back in my life.  If I have to hand out cucumbers to strangers in the street to keep up with supply that is the sacrifice I am willing to make.

A sorry tale of two sunflowers

I was so proud when I took this photo, both my velvet queen's looking
big and tall and so full of promise 

Its very rare that the garden is the scene of a mystery, apart from in a popular UK TV programme called Midsummer Murders, im sure in that programme over the years at least one or two of the dramas has focussed on a garden.  But my garden is less exciting.  I plant things, they grow, or they don't grow, its all very simple, the action is cut and dried.  Until now.

Last weekend I finally planted out my first two sunflowers, and boy was I thrilled with them!  My other variety, sunburst mixed, had both died, but velvet queen had grown big and strong and started to put on height, as all good sunflowers should.  I was worried they were beginning to feel pot bound so I decided the time was nigh to plant them out.  Being so very tall I carefully selected my planting spot so they would have something behind them to grow up in front of, and hopefully be undisturbed.  I settled on the mothers herb bed which has a nice fence behind it.  Perfect I thought.  Oh how wrong I was!  I dug them little holes, tucked them in, bedded them down and left them happy in the knowledge that all was well.

Such a root system, shame its all gone to waste now!  Oh it could make me cry!

Approximately a week later I went to water the largest of the two sunflowers, my pride and joy, and discovered to my horror, a terrible, terrible thing had befalled it.  In my absence the mother had gone to remove a pot that she had randomly placed at the back of the border.  And being a complete blunder-bus she managed to virtually decapitate my sunflower.  How she managed that with a blunt pot I don't know.  She claimed she didn't know it was there, but I clearly told her where it was, and discussed with her that we would have to cut a patch through the choisya behind to allow it to reach its full height potential.  So she can't claim she didn't know.  She did quickly admit that the blood was on her hands, and set about cellotaping the head back upright using a splint.  Now I don't know what anybody else thinks, but I think that sunflower is effectively a gonner.  The whole point of sunflowers is they have the one stem that produces a big head on the top, a nice strong, complete stem.  I don't think sunflowers are like starfish; cut a leg off and it simply grows another.

I turned at this point for comfort in my second sunflower, merrily growing slightly further along the bed.  At least he would be able to still give me sunflower success.  Only when I went to inspect him, he was gone.  Not partially eaten, not decapitated, gone.  Not one trace of that sunflower remained.  Of course I immediately blamed the mother.  Now if it had been eaten by the slugs, or pecked by a pidgeon, or got by the frost, well that's fair game.  It is the outside world after all and one can only expect casualties at some point.  But my own mother?!  What treachery is this?  Had I know she would be such a problem I would have laid down a ring of biscuits while I was slug pelleting to distract her.

She claimed as her defense that maybe I hadn't planted it there at all, which really doesn't help anybody's feelings.  I have two theories.  One is she mistook it as a large weed and just yanked it out.  Two is something came along and ate the whole thing, every last scrap.  That seems doubtful as nothing has been remotely interested the whole time they were growing in the pots.  Either way I guilt tripped the mother for the rest of the evening.  And this is why I had to sow more sunflowers this week.  Hopefully sunflowergate has not put me too far behind.  It would seem that every year you have to experience a great gardening loss, last year it was the peppers, and this year it has been sunflowers.  Im going to be keeping a firm eye on that woman from now on though!    

Broad beans and the vegetable patch

My very small vegetable patch pre-manuring

I have managed, mainly through butchering a choisya, to carve out a small segment of the garden in a sunny patch for the growing of vegetables.  To say it is a 'vegetable patch' or garden, would be to award it more gravitas than it deserves, like calling a Brighton beach hut a holiday home.  Somehow the mother snuck a pair of alliums front and centre of the space, and one year I will finally get around to digging them up and relocating them elsewhere.  Not this year though.

One of the trenches with manure in.

Last year I neglected this special space for far too long, until a bountiful luscious bed of weeds had formed and I was de-weeding from left to right as necessary to be able to get my plants in! Not the way to do it.  This year, I promised myself I would be far more organised, and come rain or shine get out there in advance and get the soil sorted so nothing was left stranded in small pots becoming root bound while everybody waited for me to get my act together.  That obviously didn't happen.  I plucked out the odd weed here and there as I went past but the job remained firmly on my to do list.  Luckily this attitude actually paid dividens and the mother finally got fed up of seeing the weeds and instructed the father to pull them all out.  And he was able to be convinced to go and buy two bags of manure from a local farm.  Solid gold that man is, has no vision but great for the manual labour.

My first batch of broad beans growing big and juicy leaves

I did do some of the hard graft myself and set too with fork and spade to really work it over and add some manure in there to get things going.  Having used this patch as a veg bed for the last few years and done a lot to the soil it is quite a different beast to the rest of the garden where a pick-axe or automatic road drill are essential tools to hole-digging.  The method for adding manure, so the mother tells me, is to dig a trench along the back of the bed, spade in some delightfully rotted horse poo, and then cover it over with the soil in front, digging down far enough to create a second trench in front to take the next batch of manure.  In this way the whole bed is fertilised and the soil moved about.  That's the theory, problem is by the time I had finished I had managed to create rather an impressive hill.  The mother said she had never known anybody be able to create a hill on a completely flat piece of ground quite so effectively.  I have attempted to flatten it but essentially my veg are on a gradient.

Some solid roots

So patch all primed the first seedlings to be planted were my first batch of broad beans.  Now im not going to brag, but im rather pleased with how my broad beans are coming along.  I bought a new variety for this year called Witkiem (manita), why the manita is in brackets I don't know.  I felt panicked after checking back over last years blog posts to discover I had my broad beans up at the beginning of April, so chucked them in this year on the 14th March so as not to be behind.  They took their time and only started appearing on the 6th April, so almost exactly the same time as last year.  A total of thirteen out of fifteen came through. which is not too bad I thought.  I neglected to note down when I actually planted them out, but I believe it was around the 20th of April.

All neatly tucked into their new bed

Having got one set it I embarked upon a second batch, and ignoring such trivial things like sow-by-dates, sowed a tray of last years variety as well.  Im pleased to say the beans weren't bothered about not being in date either and I had a similar amount of Masterpiece Green Longpod germinate too.  These were growing great guns so I also got them in the patch this week.  I can't tell you how chuffed I am to be so organised and ahead of the game this year.  And I managed to defend every single bean's honour from slugs.  

They are all now about a foot tall and coming along nicely

Look how well they are coming along!  My first batch is over a foot tall now, and although they currently look fairly sturdy, this is what they looked like last year before collapsing all over the lawn.  So this year I am primed and ready to stake them at the first sign of weakness.  I also now know that broad beans require tonnes and tonnes of water when in flower so hopefully I should get a good crop.  I love growing broad beans because the seedlings are so satisfyingly lush.  I am out of space for broad beans now so im all set in terms of sowing for this year.

My second batch again bursting forth and needing planting out pronto!

Seat Pea update - planting out

Three pots of seedlings from my third batch, I need to get my hands on another pot soon to put them in!

I am so on the sweet peas this year.  If you have read my previous posts on the popular flowering pea, you may be aware of my long-standing jealousy of my neighbour's bountiful supply, and my complete inadequacy at growing my own.  But not this year.  Experience, pre-planning and the weather means I have not one, but two large pots of sweat peas getting increasingly closer to providing me with a bountiful supply all summer long.

I started early with my first sowing just before christmas.  Pre-soaking the seeds and using the garage resulted in almost a full house of germination without leggy-ness.  Yes the seedlings were perhaps slightly taller than one might like, but totally workable.  I picked out growing tips and moved them into my coldframe as soon as possible.  Nothing died at this point - hurrah! and I was able to pot them on merely two weeks after my infuriating neighbour did his.

Look at all that bush! Such strong and luscious growth, a vision of sweet pea
success, I couldn't want anything more

If you want to compare and contrast last years apologies with this year's strapping lads I would click here  What a difference.  Im slightly embarrassed thats all I managed last year, but everybody has to start somewhere. The key differences I feel are - don't germinate in a warm house, and don't use compostable tubes unless you want a house that smells of mould.

My first pot of peas, they really are getting established now and have started
putting on some serious growth and thickening up

There was also an issue with pots last year as I had to wait for the daffodils and spring pot to be over to plant them up.  Not this year.  The great fuchsia purge of 2015 freed up a nice big pot so I planted out my first batch the third week of March.  They are going great guns, bushing up and producing nice thick stems.  I am trying to keep order and train them to their allocated canes but they are always growing behind my back and intermingling, sneaky things.

My second pot of peas, a little behind the first pot but still doing pretty well
I haven't restrained these seedlings yet, but their time is coming

I got started on my second batch pretty much as soon as I moved the first outside which freed up room in the garage.  Exactly the same method as before with equally as good results, only I shifted them outside virtually the moment their noses poked through.  I figured this was the best way to avoid legginess and keep things moving on the window shelf.  Here is where I hit a slight snag though, as my second seedlings were coming on a pace and I was fresh out of large pots.  My eyes hit upon an old pot of the mothers, crammed full of random bushes and mini versions of things in the garden that she couldn't resist trying to make a cutting from.  It was an eyesore if Im honest, which I generally am.  Prime candidate for being emptied I thought.  Luckily the mother agreed.  Problem solved I thought.  Oh problem not solved!  Problem only just begun.  Could we get the contents of the pot out?  No we couldn't.  The father and I yanked, and pulled and held it upside down and shook, we chiselled and levered, and still it would not free.  Somebody needed to get in there with some butter and grease proceedings up.  There was also a small tree and a rose in the pot that the mother was keen to plant into the garden so we couldn't get to rough with them.  Two hours it took, by which time the old man was pouring with sweat and knackered.  But totally worth it as empty pot for me!

The pot that just wouldn't give up its contents! It was a hell of a struggle
but eventually we got it out

I have taken a different approach to planting up this year.  The neighbour wraps his in netting so they have something to climb up, and puts a collar of chicken wire round the bottom to keep out the pests.  Last year I did both.  This year I have done neither.  I just didn't get the netting, the peas didn't really climb up it and it made a netty prison around them meaning I struggled to get at the flowers to cut them.  Im not sure what pests the chicken wire is for, but I have taken my chances, and all is good.

Sweat peas is a numbers game as far as I am concerned, so I have sown another two batches.  Both contained fewer seeds than the first two but as I have said before, it would be nice to have them literally coming out of my ears, and for that you need a lot of plants.  I would say at least 35-40 plants with a few more to come up from my last batch.  I can't promise I wont sow anymore, but I might be done for this year.  I can't even compare to me neighbour's ridiculous crop, he has a full seven pots, so depending how bad my jealousy gets, I may sow more.

My week in sowing 6 - Cosmos, cornflower, zinnia and echinops

This weeks 'my week in sowing' is actually last week's 'week in sowing'.  I planned to put this post up last Wednesday before I jetted off to Berlin for the weekend, but as is often the case the best-laid plans of mice and men, it all went a bit awry.  Very unexpectedly one of my friends suddenly died, and obviously blogging had to take a back seat.  But I got up to a lot last week and I would still like to share it, so here is the post in its original form:

So last Saturday I was not to be found in my garden as I had people to see and places to go, and clothes to be bought.  It was all very nice, but this weekend I was back in the garden attacking the long list of seeds still to be sown.  Taking a little break was no bad thing as the garage was rammed and it allowed a few things to come up sufficiently that I could transfer them into the coldframe.  Im starting to sow all the varieties that say 'from mid spring' which is really un-specific.  I would say we are now mid-spring, but then spring only technically started a couple of weeks ago so I might be really really early.  Who knows.

Double click rose bonbon cosmos in all its glory - great flowers and great foliage

Cosmos - Double click rose bonbon. This is not a fresh packet of seeds as I actually grew these last year.  The packet really sells these, saying they are the biggest, frilliest double cosmos around, or something along those lines.  It doesn't lie, I think these are well worth the effort and if I had more room I would definitely grow more cosmos.  The flowers are a delightful pink, good and frilly, but also the foliage is rather pleasant too, quite feathery and ferny.  The only thing is I do find the flowers to be a hotbed for earwigs.  That slight flaw aside these were firmly on my list for sowing this year.  Unfortunately they are quite fussy seeds and insist on being germinated in a polythene bag to keep a temperate of about 20 degrees.  Im not keen on this as I have a habit of cooking my seedlings for far too long and then having them wilt on me, but Im sure I can time it right this time.  I sowed nine seeds on the surface of seed compost and covered with vermiculite - like I said, fussy - and stuck them in a bag on the kitchen windowsill.

Stocks - Yes I have already sown two pots of stocks but having seen the likely number that are going to germinate I want more.  They are my favourite cut flowers after all, and a bunch is shockingly expensive to buy from the shops so I want to make sure im stocked all summer long.  Same method as before; pot, seed compost, chuck them on, you get the gist.

A lovely red zinnia, they tend to have really interesting middles with contrasting coloured circles like this one has

Zinnia - Queen Red Lime.  I am very excited about these.  I have several varieties of zinnia to sow this year, but these are the ones I am sowing first.  I think zinnias make a really good, reliable cut flower and they come in quite an exciting array of bright colours and structures.  They also cross-pollinate freely, so much so I believe it is virtually impossible to stop them.  I really want to collect seed and see what appears next year.  But before then we need to get these going.  Zinnias are beyond fussy and hate root disturbance so I have sown only four so far, one to a pot.  This annoys me greatly.  Talk about space hoggers, I don't have room for such high maintenance seedlings.  And yet they are so pretty I endulge them, spoilt little things.  These will at least germinate in the garage I hope, although I believe they would prefer a bag.

Zinnias are interesting at every stage of their blooming, this one has yet to fully unfurl

Cornflower - These are new to me, and are quite frankly the weirdest seeds I have ever encountered.  Each one is like a miniature paintbrush, only with the handle cut off.  Quite large, they consist of a bunch of hairs wrapped in a partly transparent sheath.  Its weird.  That apart Im hoping these will be good.  Sarah Raven doesn't scrimp on these, giving you 300 seeds in the packet so I chucked on 10 and covered with a little more seed compost and hopefully we are good to go.

Incredible - I don't really know what these are, I have certainly never seen these growing anywhere but I liked the photo I saw and thought why not.  The seeds were absolutely tiny so I just sprinkled on a whole bunch.

Echinops - I tried to grow these last year, I can't remember what happened but lets just say, I didn't get any flowers.  So lets try again shall we.  These will be lovely blue balls.  The seeds are quite large so I buried six or seven in seed compost and they are snug in another polythene bag.

And that's it for this week.  It seems like I achieved a lot, but I didn't sow many of each variety so I could sow quite a few.  I would have liked to turf out a few more fuchsias while I was out there but it was surprisingly cold and miserable, typical Easter weekend weather so to be honest, I couldn't wait to get back indoors.