Blue Annuals-3 August 2014

Sowing seeds is much, much cheaper than buying plants but it also requires a bit of effort at different stages. If you're like me, the biggest effort is remembering to water the seeds once they're sown, rather than becoming distracted by work or other pass-times, then wandering out to the potting area weeks later to see dry dirt and not one speck of green. Writing this post is part of my attempt to remember my little seeds, the other method being post-it notes and crossed fingers.

The green lid on the bottle is specially designed so you can sprinkle water gently onto seeds so as not to displace them. 

I usually buy proper seed-raising mix which contains fertiliser and fine particles which adhere better to the seed. I buy the mix, but here is a recipe for home-made mix. I sowed Trachymene coerulea (Blue Lace Flower), Nigella damascena (Love-in-a-Mist Blue) and Ammi majus (Queen Anne's Lace). The nursery from which I bought the seed states that you can "sow direct", meaning you just sow it straight into the garden where you want it to grow, however that rarely works for me, because you MUST keep the seeds moist, otherwise they won't germinate. Not sopping wet, either. Just moist. 

I cast the seed on top of the mix, then patted it down and sprinkled a fine layer of mix over the top of some and vermaculite on others. I want to compare to see if one method is better than the other. Then I thoroughly moistened the seeds and mix and placed a mini-greenhouse over them to keep them warm. When the seeds germinate, I will prop the lids of the greenhouse open to give the baby plants some air. 

Place the trays in bright light out of direct sun.

By H. Zell (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Nigella damascena by Louise Docker from sydney, Australia (Twisted) via Wikimedia Commons

Flower, Blue lace flower - Flickr - nekonomania