Self care by growing a garden

[Smc]

I've found bought aquilegia seeds hard to germinate, but if you plant them fresh as soon as they mature, they come up very well. 🙂 Ditto with capsicum seeds. I've had little success from packet seeds, masses from seed scraped straight out of the inside of one from the supermarket.

I've currently got a heap of tiny lime green flowered seedlings that I'm nursing up to planting out size, collected off a few plants that I did somehow get started from a packet. the original lot were a mixture of doubles and singles, so I expect the second generation will be likewise.

[Appleblossom]

Thanks @Former-Member Love the transparency ... its a theme for me at the moment ...lol 

you must be psychic!

@Smc Such a good point about the freshness of the seeds.

I am starting to make a collection to bring to a barter market.  I have 2 tiny apple trees and some raspberries plus plus ...

not bad for such a tiny plot!

@eudemonism

@Determined

@Shaz51

[Former-Member]

@Appleblossom  not psychic at all 😀.

@Smc Thanks for the info.  I might buy an aquelegia plant in flower and hope it self seeds.

[outlander]

they are lovely @Former-Member

[Former-Member]

Feeling as stiff as a board after doing a bit of weeding today. The bed is still not ready for the plants we bought. I am determined to prepare the area well which has been lacking in the past. We will probably still have the rustic look but am ok with that.

[Smc]

Has been raining pretty steadily here today, which will do the garden lots of good, but has kept me mostly inside.

I did go out a bit before lunch and potted on a few of my recent purchases into bigger growing-on pots. I was pleased to discover that there were two Oriental Poppies in the pot, and that I could get a division off the Echinops and the Tulbaghia. So that's three bonus plants. 🙂

Also grabbed some greens for dinner. Fennel and rosemary for the poaching stock, and I need to make another run for some greens to put into the mashed spuds "bubble and squeak" style.

Tulips are finished. The rain and wind have knocked off the petals. But the irises aren't far behind. Several of the plants have buds that will open before the week's out.

[Former-Member]

@Smc

Rain = 😀

Dividable plants = 😀

Home grown produce = 😀

[Former-Member]

A day of achievement in the garden today.  We finished bed preparation and planted the magnolia hedging plants which we were able to get on our trip to town.  Also planted were some fill in arctotis daisies, an ornamental cherry tree and a paeony which I planted on our dear boy whippet's grave - I do hope it is a success.

We did need to move a struggling azalea to make way for one of these plants (wrong time of year but it was either move it or toss it). 

We still have the hydrangea plants to go in - a little work needs to be done where I would like them to go ... more weeding required.  

[Smc]

Marie Lemoine is a lovely one @Former-Member. Hope it grows well. 🙂

I had one peony struggle along for a few years before dying, so that scared me off them for a while. A few years ago, I took the plunge and bought a packet of two unnamed peonies. They're still alive, increasing in size a little each year. Haven't flowered yet- maybe next year. Am looking forward to seeing what I've got.

Today I've been carefully dividing the punnets of tomatoes and capsicums into individually potted plants. I've been soaking them in water and washing them around to loosen up the roots so thatI could pull them apart from each other with minimal damage. I got about a dozen or so plants per punnet, so that's 36+ tomatoes and 11 capsicums. I've also been dividing up some of the basil seedlings and planting them into big pots. The tomatoes and capsicums look like they haven't even "noticed" that they've been transplanted. The basil looks "so far so good" too.

Also did some weeding. Cleavers makes me itch...

[Former-Member]

I do hope you get a bumper crop @Smc these little seedlings contain such promise 😁.