Flowers From Seed: Lupins

I love lupins for many reasons. 

1. They are easy to grow from seed.

2. As you can see from the photo above, they are insect pollinated.

3. They are biennials so they do not flower until their second year. However the leaves are so attractive that even alone they aesthetically earn their place in the garden in the first year, and when they do flower in the second year, it is massively rewarding. They are tough enough in that first year to overwinter in the garden.

4. The flower spikes are majestic. They are reminiscent of the lovely foxglove and delphinium.

4. They often come in a mixed colour selection so waiting to see what shade blooms after a year is like waiting to find out the sex of your baby....kind of, a little.

5. They are legumes, like peas and beans, and like their frequently tinned relatives, they can take nitrogen from the atmosphere and secure it into the soil. Nitrogen is one of the three main nutrients required for healthy plant growth, along with phosphorus and potassium. This is a great reason to grow them in your vegetable beds, particularly with nitrogen loving plants like spinach, cabbage and broccoli.

Get growing lupins!

Flowers From Seed: Calendula

If you are going to raise one flower from seed in your garden, may I suggest Calendula. They grow very easily from seed and are tough as nails despite their other-worldly incandescence. I planted this "Indian Prince" variety last Spring. They are not in a flower bed but in a mass of long grass and thistles and regenerated themselves after winter looking better than anything you could buy in a garden centre. Considering the price of the seeds and potting compost, these flowers probably cost a few cents to bring into existence. They are nectar and pollen rich so useful to insects, which should be the main purpose of a flower. They last ages as cut flowers too. They are used widely in herbal medicine and skincare products so you could awaken the inner alchemist inside you and brew up some tinctures and teas.

 

I didn't use any filters, they really look this good, especially against the grassy background.

Pea Day Battle

Peas are supposed to be easy to grow - and they are - but they can also be difficult! These difficulties, namely stolen seeds (I am watching you pigeons), are easily overcome but I still found myself with an entire row of seeds disappeared. Now before I completely blame the wildlife, I also had seeds that rotted in containers and I'm not sure why. Over-wet conditions is the obvious reasons. I had read that pea seeds need a lot of moisture to germinate but perhaps that is not accurate. The seeds were only a year old so should still have life in them.

Anyway I purchased fresh seeds (Irish Green Pea and Sugar Snap - not easy to obtain with the massive demand at the moment) and sowed another batch outside in a window box which I wrapped in netting. They came up beautifully. This week, when the plants were about 2.5 inches high, I planted them in the same spot as the evaporated seeds and covered them again with the netting by securing it on to the wire frame support that they will grow against.

Then I planted another batch of seeds in the now empty window box and made a protection run for them using another wire frame resting against the already standing one flanked with my potted cherry trees and held in place with containers of potatoes. 

I can just imagine a few hens running in and out that wire run - perhaps the next step for me.

Garden Diary: 2nd May 2020

The food garden is picking up. It's mainly beans, potatoes and raspberries showing significant growth.The big plant to the front is a flower, Yarrow, which will be good for pollinating insects, who in turn will hopefully repay me by eating the aphids that are certain to attack the beans.

For the longest time it was too early to plant anything outside and all of a sudden, it's May! I planted some peas today and when I was writing the label I noticed the month and thought, finally parsnip time! I had a spot reserved in the same bed as potatoes, carrots and beetroot and I spent a bit of time breaking the soil down to crumbs before sowing the seeds. In a few weeks I'll do another sowing.


Back to the peas, my pea seeds are disappearing. I know birds are a major pest outdoors but even my indoor sowings seems to be evaporating. I'm reading now and wondering if I need to water them more. Anyway the seeds I sowed today (Irish green pea from Brown Envelope Seeds) were put in a window box with an net wrapped around it so if these fail, I'm out of ideas.


I am spotting new carrot seedlings every day, thankfully. I was starting to get worried about my 5 year old seeds.


Beetroot is coming up fine and I successfully transplanted some from seed trays but I fear how much damage the slugs will do. We have a ton of brambles in the garden, I might try laying some down to block easy access. Actually, no time like the present. Be right back......

Okay I did it, beetroot protectors that look like satanic symbols:





My pak choi and wong bok never materialised but I have more planted in seed trays so all is not lost yet. I also have purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, courgettes and cauliflower in trays, slowly germinating.

That's all I can think of. Happy gardening.