A weakness for carrots.

Yesterday I had a brilliantly busy day out on the roof. I got down to some serious seed sowing.

I had to give myself a little pat on the back as I managed to resist sowing the usual million lettuce seeds and stuck to a modest 20 or so. I also finally pulled up last year’s rocket, but I did cut the flowers as they are so beautiful.

I bought the lettuce, rocket and the stunning ‘Bonita Fiesta’ marigolds that I also sowed yesterday, from a supermarket in France last year and they are brilliant. You get loads of seeds in a packet, and the lettuces are huge. 

I think I have hinted before at my weakness for growing carrots. I’ll just say it now; I love it.

I did give in this week and bought yet more varieties on line. 

I’ve always grown carrots in pots, even when I had real earth. It’s so much easier, and you don’t lose any to pests.This year I’m sticking to four types: ‘Amsterdam Forcing’, ‘Rainbow’ carrots (which I love – they are purple, yellow, white and orange). These two I’ll put in tall pots like what you get roses in. The other two are ‘Atlas’ and ‘Parmex’ which are smaller, round varieties. 

As I don’t need the ‘Parmex’ carrots to be very big – I mainly use them in salads – I’ve sown them into this plastic pot tray that they give away in places like Homebase. I did cut a couple of holes in the bottom and mixed in some vermiculite into the compost. These trays are also great for growing lettuce in.

Getting slightly over-excited going through my seeds, I decided to sow some pumpkins. I’m not sure this was a good Idea for the roof, especially as they are called ‘Hooligan’, but they do say they are mini ones, I’m not even sure where this packet came from, so I’ll take it as  sign that they found me. I think that I’m going to try trailing some along the tops of the railings. 

This week , my good friend Lucy came up bearing amazing pea gifts (above) from the National Trust garden that she works at in Devon. I have a sweet pea ‘Matucana’ which is one of the original sweet pea variety, grown by Sicilian monks (very exciting), two edible peas; ‘Carouby De Maussane’ from 19th century France and ‘Magart’ which originates from Uppsala in Sweden. These, along with my own, will all become part of my pea fence that I’m going to have along one length of the roof. Before I start, I would like to replace the soil in the pallet planters to ensure that they have the best conditions to start their life here. However the look of confusion and horror on Rich’s face as he felt the weight of all compost he lugged up the steps last year, has made me think that I may just buy a small box of blood, fish and bone fertilizer instead.

Happy gardening.

Who doesn’t love free seeds?

Seeing a seedling emerging from the soil has to be one of the most enjoyable and addictive pastimes there is. I can sit for hours looking at on-line seed catalogues, happily adding vast varieties of carrots to the basket, ending with a huge bill. However, this week I’ve noticed that the majority of seeds I’ve sown haven’t cost me a thing.

My sweet peas that I sowed last week are shooting up, especially my reclaimed Miss Wilmot variety from last year’s blooms – they are charging ahead of the others.

So, heartened by their success, I dug out some seed-heads that I picked up off the ground at a National Trust garden that Rich and I visited late last summer; there wasn’t an abundance of them but enough to give them a shot. I got some really lovely white violas, with long perfectly-shaped white petals and then some of these flowers (below) that I have no idea what they are (any suggestions welcome).

Nothing has happened yet but I’m ever hopeful.

I’ve also sown some Aubergines – ‘Black Enorma’  that I got free with Grow it magazine. I had no luck last year with these (they didn’t even flower ) so I’m giving them another shot. I think being an incurable optimist goes hand in hand with being a gardener.

These beautiful paper-like seed-heads (above) are from last summer’s Eucomis Bicolor, or ‘Pineapple Lily’.  I had two of them and they look amazing, at every stage of their growth. I don’t know what I’m doing with the seeds but I do have enough seed saved to experiment so I’ve put some in up in the potting shed to see if they take.

These are my house plants that grew last year. The Avocado  (on the Left) I found bursting into action after I’d thrown it in the wormery to compost, along with 150 tomato plants, that seeded themselves.

The lemon tree (on the right) is my favorite. I simply stuck a pip in a pot in spring and with a lot of verbal encouragement and willing, it grew. I’ve been told there is no hope to one day be making roof-top lemonade, but that gardening optimism keeps me ever hopeful for ‘maybe just one gin and tonic’.

Happy gardening.

Spring has sprung, and it’s time to get sowing.

So spring is here and it’s really time to get going up here. The spring bulbs are nearly all out now, looking beautiful and as I’m writing this, I’m watching the pigeons that are back, getting all romantic and looking for seedlings to pull up.

Last week we went out and started the big clean up. There is something so exciting about empty pots. You can start planning what you want to grow this year, and go seed shopping!

However, due to such a mild winter and I guess because we are quite sheltered, not that much died off.  My wild rocket that I should have pulled up in August is still flowering. I just can’t bring myself to get rid of it; it’s battled through so much. I’m sure I will get a grip when I have something to replace it.

Yesterday I set about organizing my potting shed, better known as the upstairs toilet. This is where I spend most of my evenings in spring. It’s also a resting place for my house plants to take their chances if they aren’t looking good enough for public display.

I’m starting this year with sweet peas, easily one of my favourites (but you will find that I say that about most plants). Sweet peas are perfect up on the roof, as they give height and amazing colour to block out the vast brick walls that surround us.

I’m sowing four different peas, three of which are seed that I bought last year from the Pound Shop, and I have to say were brilliant: they’re called ‘Royal family’. I’ve got red, white, and pink, (I used all the blue last year). The other pea that I’m sowing is an heirloom variety called ‘MIss Wilmot’. I saved loads of seeds from last year's blooms, so fingers crossed they will germinate.

Looking at my garden diary from last year I saw that I was doing a sweet pea experiment to see if soaking or sowing the seed direct made a difference. Not being a disciplined scientist, I never wrote down the result. So I’m soaking the seed for 24 hours again. I can only imagine that it must speed up germination as they are already splitting this morning.

I’m off now to study leaf structure which is much more exciting than it sounds, well if you like that kind of thing.

Happy Gardening!