An Itch….
That needs scratching…
I’m done with the tea drinking, blanket wrapping and looking out the window into a coal black sky every morning and evening.
We are emerging from the shadowy winter and I couldn’t be more ready to put those flower dreams into reality.
Such a calming time of year where the blank canvas of the bare soil allows you to begin to envision the flowers you yearn and need to grow. This is where all those dreams that have floated around your head for so many months, the sketches, the doodles, the lists you made throughout last year can now begin to materialise.
It all begins with a small seed and February is just right for those cool weather loving sweet peas, stocks, snapdragons, annual phlox’s and scabious to be sown. This is where my juggling of space, my merry-go-round of trays of seedlings begins. A type of jenga in a horizontal format commences…
I have sown as many sweet peas as I care to mention and I really need to count up the pots and check the total count however I know I am not done and will squeeze another sowing in before the opportunity has gone.
One thing for sure is she can grow great sweet peas but she will never grow great nails.
A favourite around here are annual phlox, such a delicate flower with long stems that fill bouquets out beautifully. Excellent to grow in your field or patch and just as good in pots.
So versatile with their paint brush stroke colours, awash with mulberry, cappuccino, blueberry and barely their blush tones, this should be on everyones growing list.
Every petal is different from the other and this is where I am starting in February…
I move the rocket out the small greenhouse and transport the ranunculus and anemone to the Potager greenhouse. I am eager to evict the daucus and ammi but these little ones need more time having only been sown in early December.
Stay calm Jane, plenty of time…
Stocks are on the list for sowing and are an absolute favourite of mine, some say too much space for little yield but I grow what I love and this it seems is what spreads amongst us like a viral infection. I have trays sown, some for next years spring seed boxes, a collection of icy coloured petals, creamy blossom and hints of the palest cherry. A collection I feel far too excited about and fail with patience but growing from seed is slow and grounding and it is with this very intention that I move onto my own sowings of stocks to grow out in my small flower dream field for spring bouquets.
As I begin ticking off the list of seeds to be sown I find the whole process satisfying and it appeases me no end. Have you made your seed list decisions yet?
A small collection of seeds is available in the Potager store if you fancy giving them a go. It will reward you and excite you all in one dollop.
Happy sowing.
Love Jane x
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