seeds – Page 2 – variegatagal

Nasturtiums! November Seed starting adventures

Nasturtium seeds: Alaska, Jewel and Black Velvet

I’m bound and determined to grow nasturtiums this year. I had some old packets of Alaska Variegated, but turns out they were too old to germinate. So I picked up several packets at Calloway’s and online from Amazon. While seed shopping I also picked up Spinach and Lettuce seeds, along with bunching onions, chives, marigolds and coneflower seeds. I’m also looking forward to my order from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, consisting of baby bok and Chinese broccoli, coming soon!

As it turns out, my last seed starting venture left me with a lot of unsprouted soil blocks: arugula, spinach, bok choy, and various types of basil. Cleaning out the old seeds from my collection turned out to be a simple matter of dumping packets into wet paper towels and storing them in plastic zip lock bags.

No surprise here…well except for a single spinach seed that germinated. It just wasn’t worth the effort to keep it.

I also started another flat of soil blocks. The Parris Cos lettuce germinated within a few days. I’m hoping that the basils germinate. I also broke out the fenugreek seeds and sowed them in a pot. I purchased these seeds from Amazon pantry a few years ago, which sold them as spices. But whole fenugreek can also grown from these spice seeds. Even as sprouts, they are very fragrant.

If this batch of soil blocks fails to produce any basil, I may have to run them all through the paper towel method. I’m still hopeful I’ll get some to germinate. Stay tuned.

Seeds and Plants purchases

Earlier in April, I mentioned starting some seeds from a purchase I made from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I also visited Painted Flower Farm and North Haven Gardens to pick out some plants for the shade bed. Since then I’ve made additional purchases in attempt to satisfy my plant addiction.

Hostas are the last major addition I’m looking forward to dropping in the shade bed. I chased down a Facebook group that lists a variety of hosta sources. Island Breeze, Hans and Dancing Darling are enroute to me, courtesy of Tims Hosta Farm.

My lemon balm seed starting efforts have been frustrating. It’s the only seed that haven’t germinated. Either this is harder than I thought or the lemon balm seed I have today are probably too old. So I found Hayefield’s shop on Etsy and purchased some All Gold lemon balm, along with Golden Jubilee Agastache and Variegated Prunella.

I am highly nervous that the pineapple sages that I planted in 2018 aren’t going to return, so I’m trying to source either plants or seed. Luckily one of my fave online plant catalogs, Colonial Creek Farm, has them sale. I picked up two Golden Delicious pineapple sages, along with white anouk lavender, curly mint and pineapple mint.

Last are the impulse buys from big box stores and the local Calloway’s: herbs, pepper plants and tomatoes.

Seedlings April 2020

It’s amazing what stay-in-place means for my gardening hobby. I actually get to garden!

Of course, strange days also brings strange weather. I can’t recall the last time I saw April temps dip down into the 30s, but here we are mid-April with overnight temps reminiscent of winter.

It’s a much welcome change from the 100 degree plus Aprils I’ve seen in years past.

But back to the topic of seedlings. I started some seed on 3/31 and here we are about 2 weeks later. Thanks to IG gardenspo, I had to have me some Fish Pepper seeds, which led me to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, where I bought more than I planned. I never imagined myself growing tomatillos, but I read somewhere that it (along with radishes) would make great pest-attractors and ward pests from companion crops. So into the basket went Purple Tomatillos and Japanese Wasabi Radishes, along with Thai Long Green (Green Elephant Tusk) Eggplant, Jigsaw Pepper, Lemon Bee Balm, Korean Hyssop, and Sirius Blue Sage. Baker Creek also dropped a couple of free seed packets, which I’m still debating on planting.

Free Seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds

I was also able to source Strawberry Fields gomphrena…which I’m happy to report, have germinated as well. In fact, all of the seed I sourced from Baker Creek have germinated successfully under grow lights, compared to some older seed that either struggled or haven’t come up at all. The radish germinated in as little as 3 days, which provided near-instant gratification.

I direct sowed the Baker Creek lemon bee balm into the garden bed, along with some Outside Pride Mexican Sunflower seeds (sourced from Amazon in 2017) earlier in the month. Nothing has come up as of yet, but I made sure to mark the spot with a pot of wild bee balm purchased from Painted Flower Farm on 4/7.

Anywho, with this cold snap, I’d better go water the plants! More field notes coming soon!

The bug 2008

Once again the seed and plant catalogs are piling high in the mailbox. I’m inevitably reminded by the mild weather and the bare flower beds that it will soon be time for spring sowing and gardening. I plan to take off a week from work either in February or March to devote to the yards. I’m trying to look up weather reports to help me with planning this week off. I did check out the Texas Almanac website to learn about the last freeze dates. Average last freeze dates for Dallas/Collin counties is March 16. I’ve also scanned the Weather.com site to retrieve average monthly temperatures for my area.