Time to wait in the garden
Garden writer Kelly Dyer is waiting for her seeds to sprout…
Having made a seed-raising frame – instructions and pictures to be posted sometime soon – I have made a real effort this year to grow some of my garden plants from seed. I usually buy seedlings for the garden, as at the Hamilton Farmer’s Market there is usually a lovely lady selling seedlings at three punnets for $5 or there abouts.
It has always been easier to buy seedlings for crops like tomatoes. On the other hand, growing from seed is definitely a cheaper way of doing it (even when seedlings are as cheap as mentioned above). And supposedly, some things like squash and cucumbers are easy to grow from seed.
I do have a good supply of seeds that I have purchased or been gifted, many of which I haven’t opened. So I rummaged through these, looking for particular seeds and making sure that they were within their best before dates. I picked out a good selection and set to planting them.
My selections were: Beefsteak and Bloody Butcher tomatoes, lettuce leaf basil, regular sunflowers, teddy-bear sunflowers, squash and cucumber. At day one there is no sign of sprouting, but as most of them have at least a seven to 14 day germination time, I’m not worried.
Further updates to come as I go through the highs and lows of raising plants from seed.
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