Who's growing what from seed?

paddy · #1 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 08:33 PM

I got into the mysteries of raising plants from seed for the first time last year, with surprising success and look at the little devils differently as a result - they're 'mine!'. I just got this year's order in, consisting of sweet rocket, bergamot, hyssop, salvia lyrata, cornflowers, poached egg plants and sweet williams. I'm not doing anything too specialised - just using Mr Fothergill's catalogue and picking out the ones with the 'wildlife' symbols. Got to wondering what everyone else does - the activity of preparing the trays etc in Feb seems to bring Spring earlier!

Mr Mag00 · #2 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 08:47 PM

i suspect some ppl will not be able to say what they grow from seed

. i dont growing anything from seed as it produces too much. i buy what i need and that isnt much either as slowly losing my veg plot to flora invaders and a lack inclination to keep it going!

naturelover · #3 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 09:13 PM

hiya paddy pleased to meet you,i grow from seed most years its the fun of it all dont you agree,two of my favorites are nikatina and delphiniums,but then i grow tagets,pansey,forget me not,marigold,never had much luck with busy lizzy so yes i do buy them,but my best interest is cuttings,you get quicker results with cuttings,i nip them from here and there and i must say i do have green fingers because most things i soe do grow,enjoy the site.

agrumpycow · #4 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 09:23 PM

I grew lobelia and french marigolds from seed last year for the first time. Any excess I gave to family and friends to plant in their gardens.

The numbers, however, were reduced quite dramatically because a few trays blew out an open window! Honestly! I didn't have anywhere warm and light to put them so I put them on a south-facing window sill with the window open and a sudden gust of wind took them away!

I also grew lettuce, spring onions and beetroot with hardly any success and my tomatoes got blight.

I'm still going to try again this year tho

Susie · #5 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 09:55 PM

I grow quite a lot from seed and I occasionally take cuttings of things (which generally involved ripping a bit of something off and sticking it in the mud and voila! It grows for me!) but I am an extremely lazy gardener so don't have any tips or words of wisdom to pass on. I do love the plants I grow from seed though, they are all my little babies and I love them in a way that I don't with the plants I buy ready grown.

Yesterday I put in 30 lavenders that were grown from seed last summer, plus honesty and fox gloves. I hadn't planned to put them in yet but the squirrel decided to dig the pots up and chuck the contents on the patio - bless him.

I have quite a big area to fill with wild flowers so plan to grow quite a lot of seeds this spring, the other day I had hemp agrimoney, ox eyed daisy and field scabious delivered. Roll on March.

paulchandler6 · #6 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 09:57 PM

Over the years, you name it I've tried to grow it. Veg, flowers, even trees etc. Usually sow in fortnightly sequence with packet seed but always end up with too much. Thats if it doesnt die.
Stick mainly to wild flowers and herbs now.

Paul

hedgehog whisperer · #7 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 10:10 PM

For Christmas I was given a bee lovers gift box. It has a bumblebee next box and a packet of seeds saying bumblebee garden. I have never tried growing things from seed in my garden before but I am going to give these a go. Not sure, what flowers I will get but it will be a nice surprise come summer.

paddy · #8 (**permalink**) 13-01-2008, 11:26 PM

Yeah - quantity is a problem with seed - a lot to give away. It's the whole process that's the appeal though. I used a packet of 'bee and butterfly mixture' in Autumn 06 and last summer had an incredible display of poppies and oxe-eye daisy, which got quite out of control - looks like they're back this year as well. I got hold of a load of the small fibre pots which break down in the soil and a small polythene-covered, three shelf cold frame thing - its become a major feature of the year now. Forgetting where you planted them is the main problem though......

tufftie · #9 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 08:16 AM

Not growing anything this year (be a bit pointless really

) but previously on the non veg/herb side anything that takes my fancy from Chilterns seed catalogue and i've has all sorts come up! On the veg/herb side well all the usual herbs and lots of basil types. On the veg lots of cut and come again types, toms (haven't done well the last year or so), onions to pickle, peppers, cucumber, courgettes, anything that isn't a root veg really (shallow chalk here) and i sprout lots of things too!

Looking forward to starting a forest garden in the next year or so...

Susie · #10 (**permalink**) 14-01-2008, 09:13 AM

That sounds smashing, Paddy. Getting self set seeds is a bonus, isn't it? I have corncockle seeding all over the garden from last summer.

Last year I had a lot of space to fill in the garden and I wanted quick, cheap, colour that would be beneficial to insects too so I ended up chucking various wildflower seed mixes on to any bare patch of earth I had. By doing this I cut out all the hassle of transplanting and thinning out, although the results were a bit hit and miss. In some places, due to the very dry April, nothing germinated.

You can see some of the flowers that resulted on the attached pic.