Sowing the seeds of ... chillies and tomatoes mostly.

The doc says my back pain is muscular. So what could be better for it than...
- tea and doughnuts in bed?
- a nice glass of red wine?
- planting up the first seeds of the season?

I think the seeds have won it.


From the collection that have been sitting on my dining room table for longer than they should, I start to pick over the packets and make my choices. First packet is the asparagus - purple passion. These seeds are probably two years old but I'm not one to go by use by dates too much. I'm also supposed to plant them out in the ground but without knowing whether the seeds will sprout or not, there's no way I'm digging an asparagus trench!

I've got a little bit of space at the end of the seed box so I decide to throw in some basil. Lots of little basil seeds, I don't mind if I get lots of little basil plants. I can always take any extra plants along to my garden club show in July. (Not to display, mind, to sell!)

Next up, the aubergines. I had an issue with Thompson and Morgan when I first bought aubergine seeds from them. The packet promised an "average content 40 seeds". When I opened my packet and counted 14 seeds, I was not best pleased. To give them credit, they did apologise and sent me a complementary packet.

I didn't have much luck with the aubergines last year so these seven precious seeds are my last!

My next choices are a bit random: teasel and zinnia. The teasel seeds are probably a few years old now. I tried sowing them direct to ground once before with no luck which put me off trying them again. However I'm having another go this year, a little bit in part because they're supposed to be a good bird plant and I want to do a little something for birds. (I've already got a bell on the cat - that may save some lives this summer).

Zinnias I love. I know they're old fashioned and not terribly trendy but that's what I love about them. They're a plant I remember from gardening with my Mum and Dad when I was a wee young thing. And who can resist the bright cheerful colours?

At my recent seed swap with friend Amanda, she passed me on a mixed bag of chilli seeds. Of the 20 or so seeds I've got, there may be five or six different types: chocolate chilli, chipotle, jalapeno, birds eye... or perhaps none of these but some others! I've planted them, I'll see what grows and take them all as a blessing!

So that's two trays of seeds... but I want a third. And this one is dedicated to tomatoes. Again, courtesy of Amanda's collection I plant Roma, Alicante, Super Marmande and the "nice red one". Amanda also has seeds from the Black Russians I tried to grow last year but I didn't take any of these.

I feel quite virtuous - three trays planted, that's one shelf of my mini-greenhouse full. I make sure I breathe into the greenhouse when I put the seed trays in to warm it up a bit. This is my first try of using one of these flimsy plastic structures - they're supposed to work quite well so let's wait and see. At least it spares me having every window sill in the house crammed with black plastic seed trays.

So seeds planted, and as you can see from the photos, I got my glass of wine as well. Such civilised gardening!