It certainly doesn’t feel like January right now–temperatures in the sixties and blue skies. Warm and dry, more like summer than we have in June in Seattle some years! Hard to imagine all the cold and snow in the East, when all is so calm and cozy here!
Yesterday morning I planted four more types of seeds in six packs in the greenhouse. For seed starting, I’m using about 2/5 Black Gold seed starting mix, 2/5 Fox Farm organic potting mix and 1/5 coarse sand.
Myosotis arvensis–I’ve always loved forget-me-nots, and the Field Forget-me-Not promises to aggressively fill in blank spaces–just the type of plant that might survive and spread some color around the garden and create some self-sown surprises.
Lathyrus hardy species mixed–I’ve never met a lathyrus I didn’t love, and this mix is said to include:
Lathyrus aureus Lathyrus chloranthus Lathyrus laxiflorus Lathyrus latifolius Lathyrus pubescens Lathyrus rotundifolius Lathyrus tingitanus Lathyrus tuberosus Lathyrus vernus
Note: I did not soak these seeds prior to sowing, but am hoping that by sowing them in good, moist compost in a cool greenhouse, that natural stratification will get them to germinate. I may order another packet of these seeds from Plant World to start in late spring if these don’t germinate well.
Campanula Cottage Mix–another mixed packet which I’m hoping will get me some plants that I’ve never grown before, and in some quantity. The packet was loaded with seed, and I didn’t plant them all–I’ll save some for late spring. Plant World says this includes all of their upright types from their catalog and a few rarities that they don’t have quantities enough to list separately.
Sweet Peas–I plan to train sweet peas on the same trellises that my berries grow on to attract pollinators and give me something to distract me from my bad habit of picking the berries too early!
The wallflowers transplanted last weekend have transitioned well–they look pretty happy in their greenhouse within a greenhouse. I was tempted to move them outside, but I reminded myself that it is JANUARY–it could freeze or snow any time and even tough wallflower seedlings couldn’t handle that!
While inspecting the yard and garden over the weekend, I saw that the Hellebores are doing well and either blooming or near to bloom. The warm days have really moved this process along. We have a big, tall forsythia near the driveway and its buds are swelling–should start to bloom in two weeks, given all this warm weather. The winter hazel next to it is significantly behind, but then it always is–it extends the brilliant yellow early show.