Sowing seeds

The weather has been quite warm and damp lately, so I decided to start sowing out my first spring seeds – the things that need a long period for germination or that require a long growing season.

I sowed the following:

1
Pumpkin and squash (front – Austrian oil seed pumpkin, back left – butternut squash, back right – Hopi grey winter pumpkin)
2
Corn and tomatoes (front – corn, country gentleman; centre – corn, sweet early gem; back left – tomato, Island Bay; back centre – tomato, Dagma; back right – tomato, lycopene mix

Tomato, lycopene mix is a mixture of tomatoes having the highest levels of available lycopene when eaten raw.  It includes the varieties tangerine, moon glow, orange flesh, purple smudge and tangella.  I have never grown any of these; it will be interesting to see what my 12 seeds turn out to be – I will probably never know, but I should get some interesting colours.

3
Peppers, basil and Florence fennel (front left and right – fennel; back left – capsicum sweet rainbow mix; back right – basil, Genovese

Capsicum sweet rainbow mix has a mixture of colours and shapes.  It includes chocolate burpees, California golden wonder and orange bell.  As with the tomatoes, I may not know what I end up with.

4
Cosmos, marigold and swan plant (front left – marigold, sweet anise; front right – swan plant; back left – cosmos, white

These flowers have been sown to be companion plants in the garden.  The marigold leaves are edible with an aniseed flavour.  The swan plants will be for the Monarch butterflies.  The gap in the tray above is where I placed 6 jiffy pots – in each I planted a single coriander seed.