A Tough Time for Seedlings

Many people in the UK have spent more time in their gardens in the last two months than they have in the last two years.  That’s a good thing.

And many people, including our gardeners in the gardening classes, have been trying things they haven’t tried before.  Growing plants from seed for the first time is hard and uncertain, at least until those little green shoots pop up above the surface of the compost, making all the angst worthwhile.  Growing vegetables from seed is even more of a worry, even if you aren’t utterly dependent on what you grow for food on the table.  There’s so much to go wrong, you think, as you lovingly consign your tiny seeds to a pot or seed tray.

And then there’s the weather.  April here was very warm and dry.  May has been July, very hot and dry.  Except when it wasn’t, and went back to being January.  Temperature records have been broken in both directions.  This has been a tough month for seedlings and for first time seedling growers.  They’ve probably drunk a lot of tea and eaten a lot of cake fretting about it.

Still, these gardening students are tough, and their seedlings are tougher.  here are some pictures sent by one of our gardeners of her first efforts.

Seedlings of the pretty Knautia macedonica

Lettuce seedlings that have struggled a little with the heat…

And have now picked up again after some TLC, or possibly a good talking to.  I find that both seem to work.

Rocket seedlings

You can see that there’s a great deal of recycling going on as well.

Let’s wish our gardener success in this first seed venture!