Seed Sowing. YAAAAAAY

How long would you wait for seeds to germinate before giving up? I started some Fatsia seeds last year! They've been on the windowsill, the airing cupboard, the fridge - for a while!
My Rudbeckia seeds, planted last month are also taking ages. Would you sling them?

I bought kale plants for 10p each last year and still eating it. Saved a lot of bother and didn't have masses of unwanted seedlings

I must remember to get some cosmos seeds tomorrow. Lovely for cutting.

I am going out to get some pink Cosmos seeds for the windowsill. Very useful for gaps.

The greenhouse is filling up fast, calabrese seeds already through. Spring has definitely sprung!

He is 5 Merlot I don't think he will be doing that job. He wouldn't even touch seaweed on the beach yesterday bless him

I really need to dig in my green manure plants, but the soil is far too wet. It has to be done before they flower. I shall then wait a couple of weeks beore planting onion sets. I only have a small cold 4-shelf mini greenhouse, so will leave seed sowing until April (we had snow in March last year).

Tegan, my Million Bells from last year, in a 3 tier container, are still flowering!

My Bacupa from last year are still floweing. I always plant some in an old chimney,sometimes mixing them with trailing lobelia. Years ago I saw a large tub filled with Petunia Million Bells so I've copied it ever since, mixing red with orange and purple. They have to be really crowded in. Along with Heliotrope those are my favourite plants. Threw lots of seeds all over the garden last year so looking forward to seeing them this year [or possibly next]. Also, when channel hopping [again ] saw a plant called 'Diascia' which flowers throught the summer. Think it's one of those training basket plants but they look good planted en masse.

How old is DGS, nina? I only ask because my great nephew's (7) favourite job in the summer is picking the caterpillars off his granny's broccoli and cauliflower and squidging them.

Shades of 'Slugs and Snails and Puppydog Tails'

DGS announced to mummy last week that he was going to ask DH if he could grow carrots and broccoli in our garden as they are his favourite veg. We got some free bee carrot seed with a magazine. Broccoli wasn't so easy though. Found some on Amazon of all places.
DH has never grown it before, should be interesting.

Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Kale) is very trendy and easy to grow. Just sow it in pots or trays, thin as it grows then plant out around the end of May. You get two crops, the dark green leaves in the summer then the flowering shoots late winter. We're eating lots of it now.

You can buy the seeds in most garden centres.

Plant the seeds and hold your breath?

I would like to grow Kale. I have no idea how to go about it. I have been looking for Kale Seeds. I presume they are available. Any advice would be welcome please.

Never heard of those Bikergran,sound lovely though, might send for some and give them a try.

It's been too dangerous to be in the greenhouse today. I hope we don't have any more broken panes in the morning. I went shopping instead and bought some Nerine bowdenii bulbs. They're so lovely in pots. Also some Chocolate Cosmos corms to replace the plant I lost last year.

just sown "satin n silk" 10 little pelleted seeds, "Bacupa Snowflake & Trailing Petunia" mixed together in a pellet, had them last year and they were lovely bit pricey at around £5 plus 99p postage but works our at around 60p a plant and well worth it.

Yes the geraniums are outside - in Yorkshire! We live at the top of a windy hill so they must be tough. They are still in the flower beds and tubs amongst the bulbs which are now well through. They are still going strong - we must not have had a prolonged frost yet. We haven't had any snow to speak of so it is quite unusual.

My magenta ones had better not flower next to my daffs, or else! However, they are safely corralled in the greenhouse, so should be okay. Are yours outside, rockgran?

We've still got a lot of geraniums, Icyalittle, and they are still budding and blooming. Usually they are long gone by now - we're leaving them as long as possible until they realise what they are doing. They'll have to shake hands with the daffoldils soon!

rockgran I like your comment about making friends with the garden again. That is just how I feel from spending a couple of days doing some tidying and cutting back dead stuff. It must be the slightly lighter evenings. I haven't planted any seeds yet, but I talked to the geraniums that have over wintered

Good on you Galen for sowing cannas and bananas, I'm impressed.

I think you can see banana seeds when you eat the fruit, the little dark spots around the centre, am I right?

Try this Galen

Cannas and bananas

Soaking seeds just speeds germination. Should be ok if kept warmish. Not vital though. If any float to the surface I'd dump them - not viable apparently. What seeds do you want to sow?

Galen: I would have thought that as long as you start them off in lukewarm water and keep them in the warmest place you have (an airing cupboard, maybe?), that would do the trick, though I'm no expert.