My Week in Sowing 8 - Calendula, carrots, zinnia

I have so many little pots of green tendrils sprouting all over the joint that I am rapidly losing my grasp on order and descending into chaos.  I am at the point now where some pots don't look like they are going to germinate, but I am loathe to discard them as last year I did this and two cucumbers popped up in random places.  So I have pots growing, pots not growing, second batches, lists of things to sow more of, and seeds I haven't even got to yet.  Some seedlings will definitely need potting on soon and I am rapidly running out of both regular and seed compost. I really don't know what I will do if I run out of seed compost as I don't want to buy another full bag for just a few pots. Seeds are having to bunk in together to make the most of the space.  This was another busy week of sowing, including some new stuff I have never grown before.

Calendula - Sunset Buff and Sherbet Fizz. I have never grown Calendula before, but being rather daisy-esque in form these should be right up my street.  The packets were keen for the seeds to be sown where the plants are to grow and as they only wanted sowing now and I plan to grow them in pots, I have direct sown into plastic containers.  I am replacing fuchsias for calendula.  I made my usual mixture of fresh compost and old soil from emptied pots mixed with regular garden soil.  I find this dries out less fast than just compost on its own.  Calendula seeds are really interestingly shaped, like little gnarled horns or tusks, all small and curly.  While the seeds for sunset buff were mainly brown, sherbet fizz ranged from red to green.  I buried ten seeds in each pot, a quarter inch beneath the soil.  These will just sit on my patio to germinate.

Zinnia - Red Spider.  I am becoming increasingly fond of zinnias.  While they require a whole little pot to themselves, they do at least come through nice and fast.  The ones I sowed last week are already making an appearance, so the production line is pretty speedy, freeing up space for the next batch.  I have never grown this variety of zinnia before but it looked a bit different with less petals so I thought, why not!

One of last year's zinnia flowers, not the one I sowed this week

Carrot - Paris Market Atlas. This is last year's carrot variety, I have sown two because everybody likes a little variation in their carrot supply.  These are gloriously small and round and are aimed at kids, but being a big one myself these rather appeal.  I have not got the soil for carrots so these are sown in a little mixture I created myself - compost, garden soil and several trowel-fulls of sand to open up the mixture and give the free draining quality the carrots enjoy so much. I plan to sow several more pots to ensure a good stock, now that I have endless empty pots to fill.

Part of last year's paris market atlas crop.  Wouldn't feed the five thousand but a tasty morsel none the less

Sunflowers - Sunburst mixed.  Unlike the other variety I sowed, velvet queen, both my sunburst mixed seeds have been woefully disappointing.  One came up, and then thought better of it and died, while the other did not even bother doing that, and finally I have given up on him.  I sowed another two seeds in a single pot of seed compost (a little soil saving technique I am now employing) so hopefully these will have more oomph.  I need to do a post on my other sunflowers as they are going great guns and will need planting out soon!