Anyone who has gardened for any amount of time, will tell you that gardening is an eternal experiment.

And what works for one person, will absolutely not work for another. While I do wonderfully well with plants in the garden – I have terrible luck with starting seeds indoors.

I thought I had it all figured out this year. I got a good set-up, I didn’t start my seeds too early… but it was not to be. A few months ago, I showed you my sad broccoli and tomato seedlings.

By mid June, the broccoli was totally toast, but there were two tomato seedlings still holding on. Decided to put them outside in the relative shade of the woodland garden to see if they would get any stronger. I’m happy to say one of them did -and the other day I potted it up into a bigger pot.

While it’s nowhere near the size of the cherry tomato I bought from the garden centre, but it’s coming along nicely. And at this rate, I will probably get some tomatoes off it by the end of summer.

The rest of the seedlings were flower seeds.

There’s one sad little Cupid’s Dart that is just taking FOREVER to grow.

But it is doing better outside than it was doing inside, that’s for sure.

In this one we have Delphinium, and the right… I can’t remember. I think it might be Canterbury Bells. I just put them outside a couple weeks ago. By mid-week the remnant of Beryl came through, and dumped almost six inches of rain on us.

The poor things (along with several other things in the garden) got beaten down pretty good. I’m hoping at least a few of them bounce back.

And while I haven’t had much luck starting seeds indoors, I do just fine when I start them direct outside. Most of the edibles – with the exception of the potatoes, shallots, broccoli and cherry tomatoes – were started by seed direct in the garden. And they are thriving.

I planted waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many beans (I’m going to have to freeze some), and we can barely keep on top of the snap peas.

And I planted these (Zinnia’s and Bachelor Buttons) in the pots a couple weeks ago. I expect to see blooms in a couple of weeks.

And these sunflowers were just planted last week. I planted them in the big tall planter after I pulled up the spinach that had bolted.

So what’s the verdict? I’m not going to try starting seeds indoors any more. It’s direct or nothing for me!