More new seedlings

This year I have resolved to keep better gardening records of what I planted when, and what works and what doesn’t.

Ok so I know that sowing basil seeds does not work in June, but it does work quite well in September with the aide of some black plastic (recycled from a bag of potting mix) to help keep the soil warm for germination. I have never grown basil from seed before – in fact this is only the second time ever that I’m growing it at home. I know, what kind of Italian am I?! I just had it in my head that herbs are more fussy to grow than fruit or vegetables but I’m slowly getting that out of my head – last night I picked a bunch of thyme, rosemary and oregano to put in some chicken cacciatore I made, the freshness really brought the dish to life. I am hoping I can grow enough basil to make pesto at least once. But I have a long way to go before that happens:

I have these in a large terracotta pot, mainly because I wasn’t using it for anything else, and I thought the bright green basil leaves would look “so mediterranean!” in the terracotta.

The other thing I have learned is that the BIRDS (the same BIRDS that drove me to install netting over my veggie patch) love pea seeds so much that they will actually dig out my sweet pea seeds from the ground no less than 10 minutes after being sown. So, I took extreme measures and sowed them in an old 3″ pot and tucked them in my veggie patch for protection. Two weeks later they had sprouted and were ready for transplanting.

I wanted to post this photo because when I upended the pot, even though the leaves have barely even started to unfurl, the roots had already reached the bottom of the pot & started circling around looking for some place to go. Seeds will never stop amazing me!

And with the (slightly) warmer weather this has brought out my pear & apple blossoms which I can’t stop taking photos of. Apple blossoms are just so photogenic! No idea what the apples are going to be like, but I’ll try my best to protect them from the birds and codling moth so I can at least get some apples.