Now… with all this gardening going on, you’re probably wondering what happened with all those seeds I started.

Well first… winter sow was an absolute bust this year. My experiment with different types of containers failed. I think they weren’t big enough to keep enough warmth in. The two that were in larger containers started to sprout, but then we had a few wind storms and they got all knocked about and the seedlings just died.

Second – the seeds on my grow stations… I give it about a 30% success rate right now. Some seeds didn’t take at all, and then when I first put them outside, I put them in a place with too much sun and most of the tender little seedlings got toasted. A few things did bounce back, and they were finally at a stage where I could “pot them on” as my favourite gardening guru Monty Don says. (put them in a larger pot to let them grow more before putting them in a garden).

Of those initial seeds I have four types of plants, Black-eyed Susans, Malva (related to Hollyhocks), Delphiniums, and Lupin.

The Lupin are by far, the most robust..

Each of those pots has at least two lupin in them, some have three. It was a pack of mixed seeds, so I have no idea what colours I’ll get. Hopefully a whole range. If they grow enough, I may find out by fall, but it’s more likely I’ll have to wait until next spring.

But I still had lots of seed. As soon as it got warm out, I planted a bunch of things up and put them on the sun porch.

This is a tray of all annuals, including cosmos, snap dragons, violets and more. The cosmos are doing by far the best. Cosmos are great for adding colour on those hot hazy summer days when everything else is wilting.

I did do a couple trays of perrenials though too…

Some of them are things that I died off in the first seed planting (shasta daisies, columbine, penstamon, etc), but there are few new ones including fox glove (I LOVE foxglove and want tonnes of it), silver dollars and some cat nip for the rulers of the house, of course.

It will probably be mid-summer to fall before any of these are ready to go in to the garden, but it will give us much to look forward to. As I said before – a garden is never static.

And last, but not least…

Sunflowers. I love sunflowers and I have lots of room for them here. I have several varieties and all colours here. Some are slow to sprout, but we are seeing some progress none-the-less. If I can get them in the ground by the end of June, we should have a good show for July and August.