Seeds of hope

Such tiny balls of promise. I persist with seeds, follow instructions faithfully and so on, and I'm always so sure I'll have rampaging healthy seedlings and acres of flowers and fruit in no time, despite years of evidence to the contrary when all I end up with is sad, empty trays of damp seed raising mix. How could this possibly not work?! 

These are yellow columbines collected over the weekend from MIL's garden. I have just the spot, should they only grow! 

Seed sowing

I certainly don't find seed-sowing fool-proof, and I don't have a fabulous success rate, but I keep trying because it's just so cool to see something I planted sprout and grow xx

Late night shopping

Sometimes I think I shouldn't be left unsupervised late at night, because when it's quiet except for the TV, and the babe's finally in bed, and everyone else is out I start browsing on my favourite websites and adding things to the cart as a bit of a memory aid. I try to decide if I'd rather have a tomato currant mix, or just some Wild Sweetie tomatoes, or if I should get scarlet runner beans and painted ladies, or just settle for one, and then the next thing I know I've clicked 'checkout' and bought the lot...

(click to enlarge)


Some of it's for now, and some bought for next year (like the crimson flowered broad beans), and I like to think of it as stocking up but really I'm just buying Hope in little paper packets. Like drugs, only legal.

Chef D must despair of me sometimes.

A pocket full of peas.

I picked some peas today. Not having any hands free, I stuffed them in my pockets; the pods squeaked and creaked as they rubbed together: SP tried to take them out of my pockets again.


Meanwhile, some of the masses of seeds I planted are poking their noses out of the warmed earth. The corn seems to be shooting up in front of my eyes, the squash are also growing super quickly, and the carrots have finally appeared (fingers crossed a few survive this time!)




My little apricot tree is putting on a second round of blushing leaves.


And the coriander, which went to seed quite a long time ago, has a pretty crop of rose-pink and minty-green seeds drying to dun-brown.